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 n the past 38 years
as an educator never have I seen such an exciting time to be in education.
We have challenges and opportunities as educators like we have never had
before. We are beginning a period of real transition for our educational
system. It is time for major systemic change. As Fisk (1991) in Smart
Schools, Smart Kids has said, we need to rethink a
new vision for education.
 here are several
major reform initiatives:
(1) Tech Prep;
(2) integration of academic and vocational education;
(3) applied academics;
(4) outcome-based education;
(5) apprenticeship;
(6) work-based learning;
(7) school-to-work transition; and
(8) industry/education compacts.
 t the outset,
however, these initiatives will not survive within the present paradigm
of education. The key to these initiatives being successful rests with the
classroom teachers, the practitioners interfacing with the students. Until
classroom teachers recognize the need to change as well as how to change,
little change will take place.
 e cannot continue
to perpetuate an educational system that has at least a 50% failure/rejection/mismatch
between students and education in America. I wonder how many of us have
thought about the rejection and mismatch that exist today for at least half
of our young people. Nationally, approximately 25% of our youth drop out
of high school. We also know that of the 50% of our high school graduates
who start to college approximately 50% do not complete a baccalaureate degree.
Therefore, it appears that at least 50% of our young people fail, dropout,
or do not complete the educational pathway they start. How many industries
or businesses could stay in operation with a 50% rejection or failure rate
of their product or service? This practice also results in at least 50%
of our young people attempting to move into the workforce with little preparation
(Hoerner, 1992).
s Marshall
and Tucker (1992) and others have said, America has the worst school-to-work
transition of any industrialized nation in the world. How much longer can
we afford a "Do-it-Yourself" approach to the school-to-work transition
process for most of our young people as Byrne, Constant, Moore (1992) have
discussed? Have we thought about a success-oriented relevant educational
system where young people, after comprehensively exploring a great breadth
of options, select career pathways to be successful productive individuals
with educators facilitating them to reach their goals?
A Philosophical Change
he time has
come for educators to make a major philosophical change as to the role education
must play in society.
For how many young people is the choice of going to college a choice by
default -- in the absence of sufficient information regarding other viable
options? Are educators, in general, helping young people know their options
to be producers in life? As Boyer (1992) has said in his discussion on "universality
of work" every young person must be made aware that everyone, in addition
to being consumers, must also be producers; and that people work to live.
Are educators today helping young people think through how they are going
to be productive individuals -- or are they just too busy disseminating
knowledge?
 erhaps the
time has come to introduce the idea that every young person should start
an ICDP (Individual Career Development Plan) initiated in the middle elementary
grades. After all, we have IEP's (Individual Education Plans) for special
needs students. An ICDP would serve as a means to help all young people
think about their futures. Even if they change their minds many times, as
they will, at least they will have a focus around which to relate their
studies. Teachers can then help them to relate math, science, etc. to such
future occupations whether they are thinking about being an astronaut, farmer,
medical doctor, pilot, carpenter, or nurse. Is there any young person today
who would not benefit (including the future M.D., physicist, or engineer)
from a well thought out ICDP that gets started in the elementary/middle
school levels and continues?
here, right
now, are most young people getting adequate information to make good career
choices and decisions? Do our schools have
career information resource centers through which teachers are helping their
students gain career information in order to make reasonable career choices?
f there were
comprehensive career resource centers and students had ICDP's, teachers
would need to re-orient their assignments and activities around the ways
adults make their livings as productive contributing members of society.
This is radical thinking and would require teachers to change from content-based
learning with little applied relevancy, to contextual work-based learning
that is couched in the concept that everyone must be a productive member
of society. This is one of the biggest changes that needs to be made in
our educational system.
Questions needing answers
 omeone once
said change does not come about until we start to ask ourselves some of
the right questions. It is time for educators to spend time rethinking several
important questions. I wonder how many classroom teachers have had the opportunity
recently to debate, as part of a professional development day,
- What is the purpose of the educational system
is today?
Have the administrators in our elementary, secondary, or community colleges,
or, for that matter, even our colleges of education organized such discussions?
Several other questions that should also be debated include:
- As a work oriented society, what is the role
of the educational system in preparing the workforce?;
- Who should provide the education needed for
individuals to be successful in the workforce?;
- Who should provide the education for careers
that require B.S., M.S., Ph.D., M.D. degrees for engineers, scientists,
school teachers, medical doctors, etc.?
We know the answer to this last question.
We should. None of us complain about supporting, through taxes, the greatest
higher educational system in the world to prepare the top 20-30% of the
workforce. The question that now needs to be answered is,
- Who should provide the education for the 70%
of the workforce who do not need a bachelor's degree or more?
That's the question work-based learning, Tech Prep, apprenticeship, career
academics, co-op and other school-to-work programs are addressing.
ll classroom
teachers, counselors, and administrators need to be discussing these as
we look toward reforming and restructuring our educational system. Are the
administrators, principals, superintendents, deans, presidents, and university
professors, providing classroom teachers with the opportunities to rethink
and re-examine the purpose of education today?
In trying to answer the above questions, I remembered the following statement
I wrote in 1986 while teaching at a university in England on a university
faculty exchange program:
"Societies that maintain educational system that nurture knowledge
acquisition at the exclusion of knowledge application will soon find that
both their ideologies and technologies will erode" (Hoerner, 1986).
s this still
the problem of the educational system in this country? The United State,
of course, adopted the British educational system that practiced the elitist
separation of knowing and doing. One of the major problems in America's
educational system is that we continue to perpetuate a system that keeps
learning for knowing separate from learning for doing. Where did the idea
of teaching content devoid of application or relevancy come from anyway?
It may be time to greatly change the system -- perhaps to rethink the system
and develop a new paradigm and bring together learning for knowing and doing
for many of our young people -- especially the forgotten majority.
What is Work-Based Learning
he term work-based
learning is becoming increasingly more common place. Secretaries Reich and
Riley used the term several times in the September 22, 1993 NCRVE teleconference.
They discussed how all students should have work-based experiences that
parallel their school-based experiences. They also commented on the importance
of integrated classroom-based learning with work-based learning. The term
work-based learning, however, suggests different meanings to different persons.
Work-based learning has at least the following
two meanings (Hoerner and Wehrley, 1995).
Work-based Learning (definition one):
Those kinds of learning experiences and activities that are based in some
type of work setting or simulated work setting, i.e. apprenticeship, internship,
co-op, OJT, career academies, simulation, occupational/vocational labs,
etc. This first definition is the more common and deals with learning experiences
that are as real to the work settings as they can be made (p. 10).
There is, however, a second definition which, while less obvious, is as
important as definition one.
Work-based Learning (definition two):
The knowledge/learning imparted to every student
from the beginning of schooling which maintains a theme or focus that people
work in order to live and that there is a positive "connectedness"
between the schooling process and living productive lives (p. 12).
This second definition is the one absent from our school systems and the
one that needs to be greatly developed. As Boyer (1992) indicated, children
grow up not knowing that people work in order to live and that young people
must understand the processes of production and consumption. He went on
and suggested that students study culture through the "prism of work:
Who works? What work is prized?", etc.
Why Work-based Learning?
lfred North
Whitehead (1929), one of the century's leading academicians argued that
teaching subject matter unconnected to real application produces only "inert",
useless knowledge. The time has come to make radical, systemic change as
to the overall role education plays in society. America can no longer tolerate
an educational system that fosters content learning absent of application.
There is sufficient evidence that supports the conclusion that students
learn best when they see application and relevance to what they are learning.
As stated by the W. T. Grant Foundation Commission on Work (1988) in their
study the Forgotten Half, "learning takes place when learners regard
what one needs to know as relevant to their lives" (p. 128).
t is time
for a new mission in education. On the PBS-TV program July 31, 1992 titled
"Keeping America Number One" it was said, "we need
an educational system that supports what is needed to lead productive lives."
The new mission for education is found in goal 3, Title 1 of "Goals
2000: Educate America Act (1994) which states, ". . . by the year
2000, every school in America will ensure that all students . . . be prepared
for citizenship, further learning and productive employment: (103rd
Congress, 1994, March). The Council of Chief State School Officers stated
in their 1991 policy statement, "schools must view preparation of youth
for employment as part of their primary responsibility " (CCSSO, p.
7).
he time has
come for all educational institutions to adopt the mission: to prepare
all students for further learning, citizenship and productive employment.
Since we are a work oriented society and believe in life long learning,
is there any young person today who does not need to be prepared for all
three?
e already
have an educational system that is preparing the top 20-30% for further
learning and productive employment. After all, that is generally the purpose
for attending a 4-year college or university. However, even if you pursue
a liberal arts degree, you are expected to get further preparation to be
employable through graduate work, by being employed by some business or
industry that will provide the education and training to be productive,
or by going to a community college to learn employable skills. That is why
a significant number of the new students in our 1250 plus community colleges
have bachelor's degrees.
o what is
being suggested is that we develop an educational system that sees its responsibility
to prepare everyone for further learning and productive employment. I believe
that is the focus of work-based learning; and, if done correctly, work-based
learning can be the pathway to provide the same educational opportunity
to the 70% who do not need a bachelor's degree, as is provided to those
pursuing the baccalaureate. I still do not believe most classroom teachers
or most educators believe their job includes preparing everyone for productive
employment. Are the universities who are the "makers of educators"
preparing the future teachers , counselors, and administrators to meet this
challenge? Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, and other industrialized countries
have educational systems and national workforce preparation policies to
prepare everyone for productive employment. Are we now ready to develop
such a system in this country with multiple options to do the same, or are
we still caught up in an elitist philosophy of "sort out the best and
forget the rest".
Basic Changes
he shift to
work-based learning requires that educators make several basic philosophical
changes in how they view the role of education in today's society.
- First, educators must stop practicing education
as if there are two worlds. Willard Wirtz stated: "There aren't two
worlds -- Education and Work. There is one world -- Life. Learning by hands
on participation . . . should be at the heart of our education perspective"
(W. T. Grant Foundation Commission on Work, Family and Citizenship, 1988,
p. 3). We educators have kept alive the myth that: this is education, later
on, some place else, is the world of work. We need to build partnerships
and linkages with business and industry wherever possible. I was delighted
to see that the Council of Chief State School Officers included as their
1991 priority: "Connecting school and employment" (p. 1). Are
all classroom teachers thinking this way yet? Work-based learning is about
bringing education and work into one world
- A second basic change deals with the way educators
view their role in human resource development. Human resource development
has been viewed as a corporate term. Yet, what are we educators doing if
it's not Human Resource Development? We don't make widgets or gadgets.
Many studies have discussed the role of education in developing the workforce.
In the document, Building a Quality Workforce, McLaughlin, Bennett, and
Verity (1998) said, "Education has the primary responsibility for
initially preparing the entry level workforce" (p. 2). Note they did
not say the primary responsibility for initially preparing only the top
20-30% of the workforce. In the document, America's Choice: High Skills
or Low Wages, it states: "Guaranteeing the right to a good education
to every young American and providing positive links between educational
achievement and jobs are essential to the creation of an educated nation",
(Commission on Skills of the American Workforce, 1990, p. 72). Fiske (1991)
in Smart Schools: Smart Kids stated, "the consequences of becoming
a learning society are enormous, for it means that for the first time schools
have been given the job of producing the `capital' on which the country
depends" (p. 23). Do all classroom teachers, councilors, and administrators,
in our educational system today believe this? We will not truly reform
education to be in the business of serving all our youth until educators
accept this belief.
 ow much longer
can we continue to ignore these studies? All of these studies and many others
support the major role educators at all levels must play in preparing the
workforce. They all suggest we need to rethink how we educators view education.
To see our role as human resource developers instead of disseminators of
knowledge is a major paradigm shift for most educators. We would approach
our clients differently if we took on the role of human resource development.
This, in fact, may be the single biggest shift that is necessary to form
the new paradigm for education. Work-based learning is the business of human
resource development.
omeone said
that students learn best in schools that have a theme. Have educators thought
about putting a new sign on schools that says A Human Resource Development
Institute? What message would that convey to our students and community?
- A third change that we educators must make is
to stop perpetuating an educational system that advocates everyone should
pursue a baccalaureate education. It is now accepted that more than 70%
of the jobs in America will not require a 4-year college education by the
year 2000 as is supported by America's Choice and many other studies. Yet
educators continue to perpetuate a system that places most of its emphasis
toward the 4-year college bound. As Hilary Pennington (1992), president,
Jobs For the Future, stated, "We continue to behave as if college
is the only route to success." This emphasis on university degrees
could, to a certain extent, be the educator's fault, since most traveled
the university route and are not very well aquanted with non-university
career pathways.
A fourth philosophical change is to eliminate the dual-purpose system of
preparing for work or for college. How many of today's educators continue
to ask their students, "Are you going to work or to college?"
We must terminate such dual tracking as: vocational or academic; Tech Prep
or College Prep; and Career Bound or College Bound. The time has come to
develop an educational system that impartially prepares all students for
productive lives regardless of their career directions.
From Content-based to Work-based Learning
t is time
to initiate applied work-based learning strategies through out our educational
system. When I think of the shift from content-based education to applied
work-based education, I am reminded how I taught high school algebra at
Pioneer High School in San Jose, CA in 1963. That's right, that's what I
did -- I taught high school algebra. I didn't teach kids. I taught algebra.
An interesting exercise is to walk up and down the halls of educational
agencies including universities and community colleges and ask people what
they teach. They will say math, science, electronics, engineering, agriculture,
home economics, etc. No one will say kids, students or people. That's all
a mind set. As the director of Eslen Institute, Big Sur, CA, said many years
ago when asked about educators, "Oh, perhaps they are just good people
growers." Are we? Perhaps our major role as educators needs to change
from being disseminators of knowledge and content merchants to human resource
developers and people growers.
o further
answer the question " Why applied work-based learning?" perhaps
the old Chinese proverb tells us best -- I hear and I forget; I see
and I remember; I do and I understand. The learning theorists also
suggest that we learn: 10% through hearing; 15% through seeing; 40% seeing
and hearing and 80% by experiencing and doing. A number of studies further
support shifting to the applied work-based curriculum for learning. America's
Choice states: "The lack of any clear, direct connection between education
and employment opportunities for most young people is one of the most devastating
aspects of the existing system" (Commission on Skills of the American
Workforce, 1990, p. 72). The SCANS Report: What Work Requires of Schools
(1991) supports work-based learning strategies in their statement: "All
young Americans should leave school with the know how they need to make
their way in the world" p. vi).
 ynn Martin,
past Secretary of Labor, called it contextual learning and said schools
must teach with work in mind. The most effective way of learning is in context,
placing learning objectives within a real environment rather than insisting
that students learn first in the abstract what they will be expected to
apply (Secretaries Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, June, 1991).
These studies and many others emphasize how we must incorporate applied
work-based modes of learning that connect school and work.
Career Majors and Careers Pathways
 ecent research
reflects that two out of three young people see little intrinsic value in
the schooling process. Since we are a work oriented society, it makes sense
to move an educational system in which all young people see the connection
and relevance to their future. The concepts of career majors and career
pathways as outlined in the School-to Work Opportunities Act of 1994 and
further defined by Hoerner and Wehrley (1995) is the new direction. If we
want everyone to be a self supporting, productive individual then there
must be a schooling process that prepares everyone for such.
ll learning
must be goal oriented. Learning and schooling
is a process not a goal. Going to college is not a goal -- it is a process.
When young people tell us they are going to college, we need to say, why?
-- what are you going to college for? What is the goal that will be achieved
by going to college? If young people could see a goal that the schooling
process leads them to they might see more relevance in the schooling process.
With appropriate guidance the goals could be -- to become a lawyer, medical
doctor, engineer, carpenter, computer technician, school teacher, scientist,
machinist, electrician, etc.
ork-based
learning for all students is the next area of emphasis in education. Is
there any student, including the future scientist, medical doctor, engineer,
nurse, computer technician, or carpenter, who would not benefit from some
kind of work-based experience that parallels the school based activities?
We educators need to give this further thought as we design success-oriented,
relevant educational pathways for our students.
As we build the new paradigm for education its important that we include
the components listed in Figure 1 as major elements of the school-to-work
transition scheme. Figure 2 illustrates the career development continuum
within the school-to-work transition system that starts in the elementary
level and continues through lifelong learning.
Professional Development -- the Key
he shift from
content-based education to applied, work-based learning will require dynamic
professional development. All educators must re-examine the role education
plays in society today. Opportunities must be provided for classroom teachers,
counselors, and administrators at all levels to read such documents as America's
Choice, SCANS, Workplace Basics, and other comparable documents and participate
in discussion groups regarding the implications of such studies.
If businesses decide to change their product or service, one of the first
things they would do is conduct extensive staff development for those producing
the product or service. It is time that we have extensive professional development
throughout education if we want to greatly change our product and service.
As the saying goes, "If you keep doing what you are doing, you will
keep getting what you are getting."
major problem
in shifting to applied, work-based learning is the phenomenon that the majority
of educators have spent little time in the work environments outside of
education. Yet, they are charged with preparing students for success in
such environments. What percent of our elementary, secondary, community
college and university educators have held a full-time job in business/industry
for any substantial length of time? This could be one of the biggest problems
with today's educational system. I have heard a good number of academic
teachers express concern about their lack of experience as they are trying
to prepare to teach applied academic courses.
f work-based
learning is the new paradigm and the key to school-to-work transition, then
every possible effort must be provided for classroom teachers to change
and recognize the need for relevant, contextual learning. In addition, classroom
teachers must be provided opportunities to be exposed to the work environments
in which 90 plus percent of their constituency will need to be successful.
Several work-based professional development strategies
might be:
- (1) business/industry field trips,
- (2) business/industry mentors for classroom teachers,
- (3) vocational/academic educator buddy systems,
- (4) business/industry work experience on rotational
business,
- (5) internships in industry, and
- (6) university independent studies to encourage
self study of business/industry environments.
The key is to initiate whatever it takes through
creative and innovative professional development to help classroom teachers
shift from content-based education to applied, contextually-based education.
Summary
he time has
come to make major, systemic change in the role our educational system plays
in today's society. We must shift from a knowledge, content-based educational
system to a system where the major purpose is to develop success-oriented
relevant pathways of learning through which everyone is being prepared to
be independent, self supporting, productive, and contributing members of
society. This will require all educators to shift from being disseminators
of knowledge to facilitators of learning for life's applications. Our educational
institutions must become human resource development institutions where the
mission is to prepare all students for further learning and productive employment,
whether they are going to be a lawyer, medical doctor, bulldozer driver,
nurse, or computer operator.
I am not advocating an educational system that emphasizes job preparation
at the exclusion of academic preparation and the arts and humanities. We
know that to be a productive citizen in today's society, we all need a balanced
mix of academic and technical preparation. We also know that producing educated
individuals who cannot get jobs has not helped the individual or society.
Someone said it's hard to appreciate poetry on an empty stomach.
If we want to maintain the standard of living that this country is accustomed
to and complete in the global economy then we must provide the "knowledge
worker" for the twenty-first century that Drucker (1994) speaks of.
This will only happen if we initiate "career majors" and "career
pathways" for all students as outlined in the School-to-Work Opportunities
Act of 1994 (103rd Congress, 1994,May). It's no longer what you know, it's
what you can do with what you know that counts.
t is now time
for educators at all levels to rethink the process called education and
listen to the studies about the role of education in today's society. Then,
we must set out to change what we are doing to what we need to do. If we
want a success-oriented, relevant school-to-work transition for all students,
then we must have an educational system that provides work-based learning
for all and terminate the "career bound" versus "college
bound" philosophy.
The new paradigm must include two major shifts.
- First
All educators must recognize that preparing all students to be successful,
productive individuals should become a central theme of the schooling process.
- Second
All students must see the "CONNECTION" and relationship between
the schooling process and their future as successful productive individuals.
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