Tag: Timetables

Bookmarked Timetable Absurdity by Cameron PatersonCameron Paterson (gettingsmart.com)

In a century that is being defined by flexibility in time, we no longer need to be held hostage by sacred school timetables.

If we value deep learning and human connection, then this should be explicitly built into the school schedule.

Cameron Paterson reflects upon the way in which schools are still held hostage by the timetable.

While flexibility in time and space will define the workplace in this century, students get little experience deciding how to learn, where to learn, and when to learn, because schools account for every minute. Schooling is predicated on the perception that busyness is good. Treadmill schedules leave little time for deep learning, quietude, or human connections.

  • What does our allocation of time say about what we value in the teaching and learning process?
  • How can we provide time to enable young people to take more personal responsibility for their own learning, in line with the adolescent predisposition to begin taking charge of their lives?
  • If flexibility in time and space will define living and working this century, how can school best prepare young people for this?

He shares examples of schools that have more fluid arrangements that allow students to engage in deeper learning.

I am reminded of a piece from a few years ago from Michael Bond Clegg:

The good news about timetables? We’ve created them, so we can destroy them.

As I have said before, what intrigues me is how the technology helps and/or hinders any sort of change to timetables. I feel that the flip side of flexibility is accountability. For some the answer is things like RFID chips or AI driven facial recognition. I wonder what is done in some of the settings that are mentioned in this piece? I imagine that open spaces like those discussed by people like Steve Collis remove some of that stress. Like removing the weeping willows from cluttered waterways, I imagine that it is important that we place some other alternative in place for fear of erosion.

Replied to

Living the boring side of this debate these days working on the admin side of things, what intrigues me is how various applications help or hinder any sorts of change to timetables etc and sometimes it is not just the application, but the resourcing associated with maintaining such applications. In addition to this, it would seem that the standards are moving to student-based fluidity, it will be interesting to see how this is then implemented. I would be intrigued to see what you found.
Replied to Sfumato in education (daily-ink.davidtruss.com)

I think there are many ‘hard lines’ in education that should be blurred, softer, and less definitive.

Where would you add a little sfumato in education?

One area that I think would warrant from a little softness is timetables. Although I read about examples where schools manage to break the rigid constructs, sadly this is often the exception.
Liked Creativity in the classroom (C2 Melbourne)

Organising a timetable that functions efficiently and also embraces Asimov’s conditions, providing the appropriate time and pace for our students to be deeply creative is a complex issue. It will be one of the biggest hurdles for our schools to overcome and is a vital component of contemporary learning design. Changing the way we organise time might just be the key to unlocking the ideal conditions for creativity in schools.

Bookmarked

Richard, I love this point:

“There is no such thing as a typical day. Every student’s day is different and no two students have the same timetable.”

I worked at a school that went with a choice based program a few years ago. The problem with it was that it was as old as I was.

Although the students had choice, it was choice over what teacher’s were willing to offer. I guess that would be the next step.

I like the work Greg Miller is doing in this area.