Change One Thing: Education should embrace more than formal learning

Stormy weather this year has kept scouts off the hills but, in Scouting Ireland, we look forward to young people enjoying themselves and learning outdoors as spring finally takes hold. And it would be great for young people if – and this is the one thing I would change – spring was also a release from the grip of the Junior Certificate.

Last month the lives of thousands of young people were dominated by the demands of the “mocks”. This absorbs massive amounts of invaluable learning and leisure time and causes unnecessary stress. The mock Junior Cert has been described as a mock examination to prepare for what is a mock examination.

The run-up involves learning prepared answers by heart and promotes a situation, identified by the ESRI, where 50 per cent of Junior Cert students take grinds, at a cost to their parents and to their out-of-school learning time.

Young people drop out of non-school activity in their Junior Cert year and it’s a real tragedy that many never re-engage with any positive leisure activity again. We pay a price for this socially and young people also lose healthy activity and the benefits of belonging to a positive peer group.

Our current system assumes what is learned in the classroom is more important than what is learned elsewhere. However, a range of 21st-century learning skills such as collaborative working, critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, communication skills and the ability to learn from, and with, others are poorly served by the Junior Cert. These skills are successfully developed in non-formal learning environments and in positive out-of-school activity.

It is increasingly accepted that how children spend the 80 per cent of their time out of school has a huge impact on their development as learners. Children need and deserve opportunities to engage in learning beyond the classroom. Our current system does not facilitate or encourage this out-of-school learning.

In failing to do so, a fantastic opportunity for learning is overlooked. Scouting’s educational method, for example, is built on working in small groups and encouraging leadership and responsibility as people grow and mature.They learn to work in teams, think creatively and problem-solve, to recognise the richness of the world they live in through outdoor activities and develop leadership skills and a sense of personal responsibility. This learning will stand to them long after a rote-learned essay is forgotten.

At school, children are typically streamed for exam preparation. This results in children who are struggling being put together, while children with perceived higher ability also grouped. Most educationalists see this arrangement as impoverishing learning for both groups. It is not only limiting in its positive effects on learners, it is profoundly unjust and condemns those who are struggling to stay at that level. Streaming children does not happen in non-formal learning environments such as scouting, where the power of integration and peer learning is better served.

It is a tragedy that educational practice has been forced, in large measure through the demands of a high-stakes exam, to operate outside its own finest theories as handed down by Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Montessori and others. A rediscovery and application of this richness in pedagogical theory would benefit formal education at second level for students, teachers and parents.

There is an opportunity in the proposed changes in the Junior Cycle to greatly enrich the second-level experience for young people through lessening the burden of the high-stake examination. There could be a positive balance between what the young person learns formally at school and their interests outside school, whether drama, sport or Scouts or Guides.

The changes are modest, timely and progressive, supported by academic research, and more importantly will benefit the development of young people.

John Lawlor is chief executive officer of Scouting Ireland