I have seen some events unfold in the school that I currently teach.

The ethos of the headteacher’s leadership is one of student empowerment. On the whole this is a very positive approach and the students are able to take responsibility for their learning. This doesn’t always make things easy for the teacher but is much better for the students and at the end of the day we are all there to help the students to learn.

One thing that has struck me has been that of the students ability (or inability) to learn the responsibility to go with their ‘empowered’ rights.

Children are children. They are constantly learning. They need to learn their social behaviours as well as their academic knowledge.

With rights come responsibilities. The two go hand in hand.

Which led me to think about how students learn responsibility. Observing students it could be said that many of them are irresponsible. They make poor decisions when it comes to:

• behaving in enclosed spaces – running around putting other children’s safety at risk
• looking after their belongings – dumping their bags and coats in the corridors
• dealing with adults – sometimes being cheeky and arguing when it is unnecessary
• behaving in a group situation – behaving inappropriately in a classroom when a teacher is trying to help a class learn, in turn spoiling the learning of others

The question is how to help students to learn to become responsible. While we have been giving students more and more ‘rights’ I feel that we have done little to balance that by teaching the responsibilities to go with the rights.

For example, historically students had to clear the building at breaks and had plenty of open space to run around and burn off any excess energy. Now, we have given the students the right to stay indoors at break and most of them choose to do so. For most of the students this works very well, they act in a responsible manner and there are no problems. However, there are a few students that abuse the right to be inside and run around putting the safety of other students at risk.

How should we deal with this situation?

• Should we have outlined that the ability to stay inside is a right and explicitly explained what the responsibility that goes with this right it is?
• Do we take away the right of the students that behave irresponsibly?

Whenever students have rights do we need to explicitly outline what the responsibilities are that go with those rights?

Can we help students to learn responsibility by removing their rights? I believe that rights and responsibilities go hand in hand. It seems logical that the reward for responsibility is the right to continue to do something.

Reward and punishment is the traditional mainstay of behaviour management in schools. If we are to continue to empower our students then perhaps reward and punishment is not directly applicable to the area of student empowerment. Perhaps it should be the the pairing of rights and responsibilities with removal of the rights of those that don’t accept the responsibility.

I for one think that the rights and responsibilities model may prevent the popular student cry of “it’s not fair!”. As long as we are clear and explicit the right to do something is earned by exhibiting the responsibility to go with it then the students will get to practice responsibility if they want all the things in life that are good.

With the end of 2006 fast approaching it is a time to reflect on some of the issues I have been dealing with over the past year.

I have a degree in Computer Science, have been using computers for 25 years and am truly passionate about what computer technology can do to enhance the lifestyle and career of a 21st century citizen. However, I am puzzled about the subject I currently teach.

I chose to teach ICT because it appears on the outside to be the teaching of the use of computers. However, the national curriculum describes ICT as something completely different to what the public perceives the subject to be. Instead of focusing on the ‘how’ and the ‘skill’ to use computers to meet the needs of the future workplace and lifestyle, the national curriculum focuses more on indirect concepts such as ‘audience’ and ‘evaluation’. It is not that considering audience and evaluating work are not important aspects, it is just that they appear to be universal to all subjects. A piece of work produced in History, Geography or even English should have to stand up to the same universal criteria of audience and evaluation to be a truly effective piece of work.

The subject could and should be made a lot more interesting and relevant to the students if the focus was more on the use of the technology to achieve current life needs. ICT should be a ‘skill’ that is used in every other subject to help produce work.

The subject of ICT also doesn’t appear to have a natural context. Arbitrary contexts are used to give meaning to a piece of learning (e.g. Make a poster to advertise a film). Time may be better spent if the context used were one that was a real need to the student (e.g. I need to make a thank you letter after Xmas, or I need to make a poster to advertise the school fair – and then each student puts these up around town). More care may be given to the work if it was known that it would be used to achieve a real goal.

Although we have good computer equipment in schools we are still some way from every student having their own laptop computer. ICT should then become a subject that helps develop the student’s ability to complete tasks that they would do as part of their normal life. Students shouldn’t think any more of using the computer to complete their work than they do using a pen, pencil, ruler and calculator.

So as we enter 2007 I make a wish that the subject of ICT changes. I wish for changes that focus on the learning of the computer and the applications that are used to achieve real-life useful tasks. The national curriculum is due for an update. Technology has moved on but the national curriculum hasn’t kept up!

With the start of the British school year only a week away my thoughts turn to the motivation of the young people in our high schools.

It is ironic that with one of the best education systems in the world that many of our students lack motivation and don’t want to take advantage of the marvelous learning opportunity. Looking at motivation globally it seems that the worse the career prospects of a society the greater the value placed on the educational system.

Many of our students know that they will be OK when they leave school regardless of their level of education. There are jobs, there is a good social security service for those without employment and looking at the current level of debt there is easy finance for almost anything people want to buy these days.

Although, as an adult we can see the benefits that a good education provides, it can be difficult for a high school student to associate with their own future and the real-world issues of finance, employment and generally coping with adult life.

Talking about career prospects doesn’t appear to motivate our children, and why should it – children have no concept or experience of ‘employment’. This year we might want to think about finding more immediate benefits to the school lessons we provide.

How can our students benefit from their learning TODAY? How can we sell them on the idea of using what they have learned to improve their life right now?

Welcome to my blog. This will include regular musings on:

• Learning
• Teaching and Education
• My Websites
• The Isle of Man

Enjoy and please feel free to comment on my postings.

Andrew