Until recently, the middle-years of schooling 6 have not been a high priority of education systems. The attention of policy makers has tended to focus on the early years (particularly literacy and numeracy) and the senior years (particularly the reform of post-compulsory assessment and certification arrangements). However, from the responses of schools that participated in the IBPP, it is clear that the middle-years represent a major preoccupation of schools across the nation. Approximately one third of schools participating in the IBPP (more than thirty schools) nominated the middle-years as the focus area of their innovation.
Research within these schools suggested a remarkably high level of engagement in fundamental issues concerning the nature of educational provision for this stage of schooling. While the changes schools had succeeded in implementing were often preliminary, tentative and partial, there was clear evidence that the thinking that had motivated the changes ran deep and that the groundwork was being prepared for much more substantial reform. Indeed, when all the disparate pieces were fitted together, what emerged was the outline of a paradigm shift in thinking about the nature of schooling in the middle-years and beyond.
What had motivated such rethinking and innovation? The answer in most cases related to a desire to address a lack of engagement in learning among students, to improve attitudes to schooling and to ensure that all students experience success and enjoyment in learning. In most cases, it was the initiative and enthusiasm of a staff member or the school principal that instigated the school's innovation. System-wide initiatives or an invitation to participate in a project were rarely cited, which indicates the extent to which the interest these schools had generated in thinking about the middle-years was a grassroots movement.
The schools were clear about the changes they wanted to bring about in their students. Among the most frequently cited were:
- arresting the decline in students' levels of engagement in their learning and in their liking of schooling;
- promoting students' sense of identity, belonging and esteem; and
- developing students' capacity and confidence to function as autonomous learners in the new knowledge society.
These are neither small nor easy challenges. They raise uncomfortable questions about the kind of society we live in, the kinds of communities schools are able to create, and the way in which people in school communities relate to one another. They also call for a reassessment of practices and arrangements that are deep- seated and fundamental to the way in which schooling has been constructed over many decades.
In the majority of schools, the focus was on improving engagement in and attitudes to learning. In these schools there was a belief that a significant turn- around in affective outcomes was a precondition to improving student learning outcomes. On the other hand, some of the schools were also seeking to have a direct impact on student learning outcomes. Of particular note was a group of schools that were seeking, through intensive professional development of their staff, to transform teaching in accordance with a socially constructivist view of learning that took into account the specific characteristics and needs of young adolescents in the modern information age.
In many of the schools, a mix of both optimism and pessimism was encountered. While enthusiastic about the prospects for improvement, staff were conscious of the magnitude of the challenges involved in bringing about lasting changes to long-standing and often fiercely protected practices and arrangements. Many were conscious that they were stepping out on a limb and that being pioneers called for courage and fortitude. There was also an awareness of the fragility of the changes that had been achieved and of the great difficulties in sustaining these changes.
Almost all were conscious that they were taking the first steps in a difficult journey and that they had a long way to go before they could say with confidence that they had arrived at the place where they wanted to be. Participating in the IBPP was an important part of this journey because in almost every case it reaffirmed in schools a conviction of the need for change, gave them space and resources to reflect on what they were trying to accomplish and provided a clearer picture of the next few steps along the way.
In most schools in the study there was an awareness of a substantial knowledge base relating to various aspects of educational provision for students in the middle-years. In this section we briefly review this literature.
A number of studies have highlighted problems in educational provision for young adolescents. The problems include a decline in student enjoyment of school during the middle-years and the associated lessening of their engagement in learning (Anderman & Maehr, 1994; Hargreaves, Earl & Ryan, 1996; Hill, Holmes-Smith & Rowe, 1993; Hill & Rowe, 1996, 1998; Rowe, Hill & Holmes- Smith, 1994; 1995). Early school leaving or `dropping out' was identified as one of the most serious and extreme consequences of these negative attitudes. The costs of `dropping out' are not trivial. The direct monetary and social costs to individuals, governments and the wider society of early school leaving in Australia have been estimated by King (1999) to be $2.6 billion a year.
Other symptoms of underlying problems include truancy; habitual lateness; dislike of teachers; anger and resentment towards school; disruptive behaviour in class; delinquent behaviour; suspension and expulsion; passivity and withdrawal; failure to complete work or do homework; low self-esteem; social isolation; peer conflict and gang behaviour; substance abuse; unsafe sexual practices; and self- injury (Batten & Russell, 1995; Bradley & Stock, 1993; Brooks et al., 1997; Withers & Russell, 1998). The word `alienation' is frequently used to encapsulate the overall experience of students who demonstrate their disengagement by switching off and simply failing to learn. In an Australian context, recurring words which convey the meaning of the experience of alienation are `estrangement', `detachment', `fragmentation', `isolation', `powerlessness', `meaninglessness', `normlessness' and `disconnectedness' (Australian Curriculum Studies Association, 1996).
There is an enormous literature on the characteristics of early adolescence (Hargreaves & Earl, 1990). There has been a concerted attempt, particularly in the last decade, to develop forms of schooling that are responsive to the characteristics and needs of young adolescents and which sustain their involvement, engagement and participation in learning. If schools are to achieve and sustain the engagement of young adolescents in learning, it is essential that they provide approaches, opportunities and experiences that enable young people to accomplish the developmental tasks they face within their own social context (Barratt, 1998; Braggett, 1997; Cumming, 1998; Eyers, et al., 1992; Hargreaves et al., 1996).
The challenge of establishing new forms of schooling attuned to adolescents' needs and characteristics is increased by the very fact that this phase of schooling overlaps the traditional boundaries of both primary and secondary schools. Students who are already experiencing the demanding transitions of adolescence itself are thus required to deal simultaneously with the discontinuities and anxieties of moving from a primary school culture and adapting to a different secondary school culture (Braggett, 1997; Eyers et al., 1992; Hargreaves et al., 1996; Stringer, 1997; 1998).
Hargreaves, Earl and Ryan (1996) noted that the primary school culture is conventionally based on the principles of care and control whereas the traditional secondary school culture is characterised by an academic orientation, student polarisation and fragmented individualism. Although structural solutions aimed at bridging these two cultures have at times been sought (and are common in the USA) through the establishment of separate middle schools or middle-years sections of K-12 schools, structural solutions are not seen as either a necessary or a sufficient response (Eyers, et al., 1992).
Recommendations to improve the education of young adolescents in the USA have included creating small communities for learning; teaching a core academic programme; ensuring success for all students; staffing middle grade schools with teachers who are expert at teaching young adolescents; and re-engaging families in the education of young adolescents (Carnegie Corporation, 1989). Many different strategies and practices have been put forward as the means of achieving middle school reform (Australian Curriculum Studies Association 1996; Barber, 1999; Beane, 1993; Braggett, 1997; Brennan & Sachs, 1998; Cormack, et al., 1998; Cumming, 1993; 1998a; Eyers et al., 1992; Forte & Schurr, 1997; Hargreaves et al., 1996; Kruse, 1995; Schools Council, 1993). The proposals vary from descriptions of single, specific strategies, such as classroom collaboration and negotiation (Campbell, 1997; Illman, 1997) and the team/small-group approach (Roberts, 1997) to comprehensive and global ones, such as the full- service school (Dryfoos, 1994; Wehlage & Stone, 1996; Withers & Russell, 1998).
Within the Australian context, the press for reform of the middle-years of schooling has grown rapidly in recent years from an interest among a small number of innovative schools, to a widespread grassroots movement supported by both formal and informal networks of committed schools, to a priority issue for all schools and school systems.
This section examines the experiences of the 33 schools in the IBPP that had identified the middle-years of schooling as their focus area. It seeks to answer the following:
- What kinds of programmes were implemented by the `middle-years' schools and what were their motivations?
- What strategies did schools employ to bring about change, how successful were they and what factors influenced successful change?
The nature of the innovations
Responses to the project survey indicated that the most common characteristics of the middle school innovations were teachers working together as a team; the provision of opportunities for students with different learning styles; an emphasis on clear goals for students; and, targeting of teaching to the needs of individual students. The least common characteristic indicated in the survey was an increase in parental involvement.
The research reports of the schools indicated a wide range of initiatives. They ranged from having a specific focus, such as the introduction of laptop computers into the first two years of secondary schooling, to broad-ranging reforms involving almost all aspects of the school. Complex reforms included school reorganisation that had led in some cases to the creation of a stand-alone purpose-built middle school with its own distinctive philosophy, pedagogy, curriculum and school organisation. Table 5.1 summarises the most common innovations.
Alternative model of provision
From Table 5.1 it is evident that the most common response to the challenges of the middle-years has been to implement a model of provision that reflects a position between the traditional model of the primary school, in which a class of students is taught for most of the time by one teacher, and the traditional model of the secondary school, in which students are taught by a number of subject specialists.
In more than a third of the schools, the focus was on establishing a small team of two to four teachers who were responsible for teaching a relatively small number of students for a significant proportion of the week, and in some cases for more than one academic year. This involved teaching across traditional subject boundaries, which usually implied arrangements such as mathematics specialists also teaching science, and so on. In many schools, these structural arrangements had also been accompanied by extensive re-thinking of the curriculum to make it less subject-oriented and more focused around projects, problems and themes that were multidisciplinary in nature. Another significant associated change was a move towards teaching in larger blocks of time (typically 1 to 2 hours) to reduce interruptions and allow opportunities for more in-depth learning.
In some cases this approach was limited to only some subjects at one or more year levels. King Valley Secondary School, for example, established a team to provide Year 8 students with an integrated programme covering English, Maths, Science and SOSE as part of a broader school approach to motivate and engage students. This broader approach involved pastoral group teachers following students through their schooling and the division of the junior school into teams of 60 students (3 pastoral groups).
[This overall approach] not only indicated clearly to the school community the emphasis and priority placed on middle schooling, but it also allowed for curriculum innovation and implementation which was not immediately governed by senior school issues, for example, timetabling and subject disciplines (King Valley Secondary School).
Table 5.1. Nature of 'middle-school' innovations in IBPP schools (N=33).
|
Nature of the innovation |
Percentage of Schools |
|
Alternative models of school and class organisation in which small teams of say 2-4 teachers take responsibility for teaching most of the curriculum to 3-5 classes of students, teaching across more than one subject area, making use of multidisciplinary and thematic approaches to curriculum, and utilising larger blocks of time (1-2 hours). |
36 |
|
An emphasis on higher-order thinking skills and those generic skills or competencies most likely to facilitate life-long learning in the new knowledge society. |
36 |
|
The creation of special middle schools within larger schools or stand-alone middle schools with dedicated, purpose-built spaces. |
15 |
|
Implementation of programmes to facilitate the transition of students from primary school to secondary school. |
12 |
|
A redesigned curriculum for Year 9 students, often involving community-based learning, project work and special activities. |
12 |
|
Student participation in decision-making and a negotiated curriculum. |
12 |
|
Cooperative learning, peer tutoring, students working in small teams or table groups. |
9 |
Similarly, Holy Spirit Catholic College adopted a team approach to ensure "...a greater sense of security and attention to individual student needs ... (by enabling) teachers to become more familiar with student needs and individual learning styles." This was seen as especially important at Year 7 when students have made the transition to secondary school and require an "area of comfort" that enables them to develop a sense of belonging in their new school.
Some schools adopted a more expansive view of teams. At Wattle Flat Secondary School:
- teachers were attached, as far as practicable, solely to the learning team;
- the learning teams were as far as possible autonomous, with the teachers taking responsibility for the curriculum, affective development and pastoral care with the addition of specialist support as required; and
- the timetable was, as far as possible, independent of the senior school, and allowed for independence of teams and large blocks of time (3 x 105 minutes).
In much the same way, Farmers Mountain Secondary School made each of its four year-level teams responsible for the delivery of the curriculum, professional development, the budget, behaviour management, and other student matters. As a result they found "...an improvement in relationships between the teacher and the student/parent (that) will affect both the child's desire to learn and their opportunity to learn." The school also found that the adoption of this approach "influenced student perceptions of school, their desire to attend and, therefore, indirectly, educational outcomes."
Emphasis on generic skills
An equally common response among the 33 schools was a move away from an emphasis on specific content knowledge to an emphasis on generic skills underpinning learning across the curriculum and on those competencies that underpin life-long learning in the knowledge society. This included an emphasis on traditional skills, such as literacy, communications skills, numeracy, problem- solving ability and the capacity to work individually and as a member of a team. But it also included an emphasis on a range of skills associated with the use of information and communications technologies and others for which schools often used the shorthand label `thinking skills' or `higher-order thinking'.
Honeycreek Secondary School was typical of the schools that sought a more engaging and appropriate curriculum and assessment system. It sought to build a `community of learners' by providing a student programme that combines academic preparation, personal connection and lifelong learning in an integrated and holistic curriculum. Students are taught by fewer teachers to enhance student-teacher relationships and ease the pressure on teacher workloads.
A number of schools, such as King Valley Secondary School focused on the sort of approach advocated by Beane (1991; 1993) that involves a middle school curriculum that integrates the concerns of early adolescents with global issues that often mirror their own questions. This influenced both the curriculum and teaching practice throughout the entire school.
Through such learning students develop skills in communication, problem solving, research, critical thinking, creativity and social action. By their participation in curriculum negotiation, group work and peer coaching, they come to understand complex social concepts, such as democracy, cultural diversity, equality of opportunity and social justice. [The key to student engagement in this school was] to listen to the students and to invite them to shape the direction of their learning . (King Valley Secondary School)
In a similar vein, Ferndale College, a semi-rural independent school, developed a programme which offered students "a rich range of opportunities to develop and demonstrate enterprise, responsibility, initiative and cooperation...It provides both on-site and off-site learning challenges designed specifically to engage adolescents at Year 9." The programme was designed "to directly encourage students to reflect on their own individuality, their roles in groups and their capacity for leadership."
Wave Secondary College had implemented a thinking skills programme.
[The programme was designed to] facilitate the development of students as autonomous learners by supporting teachers to integrate the explicit teaching of the skills of thinking into their classroom programmes and by assisting students to acquire the pre-requisite attributes, skills and strategies of an autonomous learner.
The programme involved twenty 50-minute periods at Years 7 and 9 supported by a ten-hour professional development programme for teachers. The programme was strongly supported in the school and the approach adopted involved withdrawal of each class from their normal programme for 20 periods in a semester. "This generated problems as not all staff were happy to lose classes." The advantages outweighed the disadvantages, however, and the school now intends to embed the programme into all aspects of the curriculum.
Sacred Mission School, a Catholic girls' school, provided its staff with extensive professional development and mentoring. The professional development covered the theory of multiple intelligences and its implications; thinking skills and the strategies to develop them; technologies and how to use them effectively in the classroom; and the profiling of students to know more about individual differences and how to respond to them. As a result, teachers become more aware of the need to provide activities that were interesting and challenging, get students actively involved and engaged, ensure that learning had an element of fun, and take account of the things students already knew, and build on this. This in turn led to more student-centred approaches that incorporated a wider repertoire of teaching techniques.
Pinnacle Secondary School, a regional technical school, developed an integrated curriculum for Year 8 with a specific focus on literacy and learning through technology. The processes used with the classes included the development of web pages, hyperstudio, spreadsheets, graphing, slide shows; working with text types, critical literacy, reading orientation strategies; and problem solving, group work, goal setting, self and peer evaluation.
Two schools had introduced laptop programmes into the middle-years. As part of developing a middle school structure, Wuthering College introduced a personal laptop computer programme to "improve both students' construction of knowledge and the learning environment itself". To assist them to help students achieve this goal, teachers were provided with professional development on learning theories and their implications for pedagogy and on how to integrate technology into the classroom learning environment.
Creation of middle schools
Five of the schools created `middle schools' with their own distinctive philosophy, curriculum and mode of operation. These ranged from school reorganisation that led to the creation of stand-alone purpose-built middle schools to the creation of sub-schools within larger schools. In each of these cases, significant changes had been brought about in the beliefs and understandings of the staff and the wider school community as a precursor to the structural and organisational changes. One outer-suburban school, Dunbar Secondary School, which has a long history of teaching teams, allocated homerooms to its groups "so that the students were in the same room for the majority of lessons...[and had] some ownership of a space". The movement of students during the day was also reduced. This decision was mirrored in Carberry Park Secondary School.
It is not just the teaming of teachers, but the establishment of a specific, consistent space for teachers and students to work together that results in the changes to teaching and learning that in the end improve student outcomes (Carberry Park Secondary School).
Transition programmes
A group of four schools had introduced programmes to facilitate the transition from primary to secondary school. King Valley Secondary School, for instance, collaborated with its local primary schools to examine and document "the key principles and practices of learning and teaching common to the core curriculum, literacy and information technology, across the middle-years of school, namely Years 6-9."
At Stuarthill Secondary School, closer contact with feeder primary schools involved a series of technology days for students in the last year of primary school. This involved hands-on experience of some of the facilities of the secondary school. Once students had chosen the school, a survey was used to collect information on each student, who also was visited by a secondary teacher, often accompanied by a Year 7 student. The teacher also met with Year 6 teachers and a comprehensive picture was built up of each student's welfare and academic progress to aid in the formation of classes in Year 7, followed by the development of individualised learning plans. When students arrived they were `buddied' with Year 11 students to ease their introduction to the new school.
Buena Vista College, a large K-12 school, had implemented a transition programme following research that found that many middle school students felt excluded from decision making in the school. In response the school introduced a Student Forum programme for all Years 6-9 students aimed at extending student involvement "beyond that of the traditional Student Representative Council." The programme gave middle school students the chance to choose their own level of involvement in either mandated class meetings or committees established to meet the needs identified by students through class meetings. A core team then considers and acts on proposals from the other two levels.
Alternative programme for Year 9 students
Another group of four schools had developed an alternative educational experience for students in Year 9, often seen as the most difficult in terms of student behaviour and engagement in learning.
A coeducational private school, Blackett College, set out to increase "the interest, relevance, engagement, involvement and satisfaction of the middle school journey (Year 8-10)" by developing a specific curriculum initiative in which students investigated the lifestyle and culture of the city centre, while gaining an awareness of its physical environment and human impact. The project had a full- time coordinator and allowed for 13 contact days based at a city site established in a room leased from a partner university. The project aimed, amongst other things, to assist students to achieve greater independence, gain enhanced knowledge of themselves, increase their understanding of group dynamics, productively use new and dynamic multimedia software, be accountable for their own behaviour, engage in a range of self-directed tasks, and develop self- confidence in an unfamiliar environment.
An independent outer-suburban school, Moreton College, challenged its teachers to provide Year 9 students with a curriculum that sought to integrate learning experiences and place students at the centre of learning. To achieve this, Year 9 students were located in a purpose-built centre staffed by a small team of teachers who taught Year 9 students exclusively. The day was structured into 2 x 40 minute blocks in the morning for core units, and 2 x 145 minute blocks on either side of lunch for integrated studies. The last 15 minutes of the day were reserved for documenting personal reflections and programme review. In effect, the school was seeking to establish a teaching and learning environment that responded to students' psychological needs (e.g., their sense of belonging and of feeling valued) and their learning needs (e.g., providing them with appropriate challenges and supporting them to become independent learners).
Negotiated curriculum
Four schools had implemented changes to provide students with a greater say in what and how they learnt and encouraged them to become involved in negotiating aspects of the curriculum. This was seen as a means of promoting student engagement in the learning process. The rationale for such an approach was elaborated in a report from Valentina Senior Secondary School that noted that student involvement in decision-making:
...changes the way in which learning in the classroom takes place. Instead of students being fed the content of the learning programme, in a teacher-directed manner, the students are involved in negotiating and developing, with the teacher and fellow students, classroom agreements. These outline the way in which students will agree to contribute to positive learning outcomes in a supportive environment. (Valentina Senior Secondary School)
Cooperative learning
Three schools focused on harnessing the power of the peer group in positive ways, either through an emphasis on cooperative learning, on peer tutoring/mentoring, or on the use of small table groups within the classroom. Worcester School, a government K-12 school, for instance, adopted the Team Small Group (TSG) model where "students spend a significant time with other students, getting to know them better, and are thus more able to feel confident and take risks with new learning leading to rises in student learning".
A similar approach was implemented in rural Rocksborough Secondary School which had table groups of four students that were consistent across the curriculum, and helped students to develop their cooperative skills, whilst supporting each other in their learning and strengthening their sense of engagement, belonging and self-esteem.
Implementing middle schooling innovations
The reports of the 33 schools provided a rich source of information about strategies adopted by schools and factors affecting the implementation of the innovation. Two themes in particular stand out as significant. The first relates to the crucial significance of changes in beliefs and understandings of staff in schools as a precondition for changes in policies and practices. The second relates to leadership.
Beliefs and understandings
As noted by one of the schools in referring to the initiation and implementation of the middle school reforms:
This period of investigation, collaboration, reflection and learning, culminated in the first attempt to write a statement of shared beliefs and values about learning...These statements of purpose and the school community's shared commitment to them, became the essence for all further developments and facilitated the implementation of the teaching teams. (Marrangaville Secondary School)
In a sense, all schools involved in the IBPP developed their approach on a particular set of beliefs and understandings about good education for the middle- years and the best ways to improve. In most cases, however, these underpinning beliefs and understandings were implicit to the project, rather than up front and overt. But some participating schools adopted a more explicit approach.
Pannaminga School built its whole approach on a set of guiding principles that embraced excellence, cooperation and team work, the learning organisation, shared responsibility, purposeful work and goal setting, shared accountability and collaborative decision making. The underlying concept was that "together we are a more productive society".
To underpin its process of "reculturing and restructuring", Marrangaville Secondary School, an inner-city school, developed and published a shared philosophy about student learning. It identified a set of five crucial learning habits which reflected "the life long learning skills that students would require" - being well-prepared and organised, showing initiative and responsibility for own learning, working independently, working cooperatively in group situations, and reflecting on and evaluating own learning. It was the belief of the school community that the development of these skills would result in improved student learning outcomes. The beliefs were put into practice in the form of a more democratic decision making structure for staff, restructuring of the school day, the introduction of a teams model as the form of organisation for students in the junior school, and the introduction of profile reporting.
Of course beliefs and understandings are often contested, and are not always shared. Honeycreek Secondary School premised its project on the view that "...developing a common language for thinking and talking about student learning is essential, and this can only be achieved by dialogue and professional development." It is also why Halfway Hill Secondary School sought to specify exactly what it meant when it referred to student engagement as a core focus of its project activities. The school concluded that engagement is characterised by "students being absorbed in what they are doing, involvement, enjoyment, and participation" and, for several of the teachers, it also was crucial to good student management. On the basis of this the school designed its administrative structure, curriculum organisation and decision making processes to contribute to students feeling "less alienated and more engaged with the school and what they learn".
A vital component of changing beliefs and understandings, noted in almost all reports, was professional development for teachers, and in particular professional development for groups of teachers or even the whole staff of a school. Many schools commented on the importance of school-based professional development programmes. They endorsed those that involved an external facilitator, were ongoing over time, allowed time for reflection and opportunities to try out new approaches, and that focused on questioning current practices and beliefs.
In a large number of schools, the creation of teams was seen as a critical element in bringing about common or shared beliefs and understandings.
Teams provide the structure and drive to implement change and effectiveness in teachers. Teams provide a basis for role definition and co-operation, peer support and a platform for professional and personal development. (Balla Creek Secondary School)
The more self contained the team is, the greater the flexibility that the staff have to alter class arrangements and programme organisation. As new ideas emerge from the team, they are able to respond in ways that they determine are most appropriate. (Moreton College)
Of course, it ought not be assumed that the mere establishment of teams will automatically lead to success. The development of teams requires work. Nonetheless, it was generally the case in IBPP schools that the team approach maintained and developed the school community's focus on student learning. The use of teams supported what Marrangaville Secondary School described as:
- flexible approaches to teaching (e.g., team teaching, theme days, integrated curriculum, lesson swapping, class meetings);
- ongoing dialogue and reflection on student learning and pedagogy;
- increased understanding of students and their learning needs;
- a collaborative and proactive approach to student welfare;
- improvement in data collection and reflection across faculties; and
- more effective relationships between teachers, students and parents through team newsletters, phone calls, informal afternoon teas, parent information evenings and parent and student comments on assessment cover sheets.
The school still had to deal with differences between staff who were in teams and those who were not, and the inevitable tension between an old and new approach. This led it to maintain and extend its focus on teams with a view to expanding them over time and gradually changing the culture and, hence, behaviours in the school.
It was the Principal's belief that teachers learn from one another and a good leader's responsibility is to establish situations where genuine collaboration can take place. (Marrangaville Secondary School)
Leadership
The research reports from the 33 schools strongly reinforced the survey results that indicated that leadership is critical to the success of reform in the middle- years. A measure of the importance of leadership can be seen in the following extract from the report of Wave Secondary College:
The most important element in the successful implementation of the Thinking Skills Programme was the unequivocal endorsement of the programme received from management and the College Council... This endorsement established clearly for all staff that the [innovation] was a high priority of the College and that it would receive the necessary support (both the financial and human resources) to ensure its success.
Similarly, at King Valley Secondary School the principal's commitment to middle schooling meant that the teaching staff "were required to renew and/or acquire skills and strategies relevant to junior secondary students". This demanded "a flexible approach on the part of the staff who were supported with professional development."
The experience of the middle-years project at this school demonstrates:
...the essential role in school change and innovation played by a shared vision of educational goals and learning outcomes...[and] the principal's commitment to the vision and process of change is critical in supporting the staff involved in the innovation, as well as in sustaining the awareness raising and training and development required at many levels within the school. (King Valley Secondary School)
By the same token, many schools acknowledged that leadership needs to be shared so that ownership and involvement are maximised. As Marrangaville Secondary School pointed out:
...the role of the principal as primary vision-maker and powerful advocate for change was highlighted ...[but] the role of the principal in sharing power and devolving leadership roles to others cannot be under- estimated.
The principal commented: "I believe that most people will rise to the occasion when you disperse leadership ...when you give them responsibility and give them acknowledgment." The school's report notes that this principal's willingness to share power encouraged "a culture of ownership and involvement where innovations...could be more effectively implemented". Dispersed leadership ensured that the skills, experience, enthusiasm and expertise of staff were directed towards a common purpose and made the implementation of the innovation the responsibility of all teachers.
On balance, the survey indicated that teachers believed that the achievement levels of targeted students had improved. Most schools believed that there had been improvements across a range of key outcomes. The highest ratings in the survey of areas of improvement were for student engagement in learning; teacher beliefs, understandings, knowledge and expertise; changes in the way teachers taught in the classroom and student attitudes towards school.
Schools reported that:
- their innovation would become institutionalised as part of the school's ongoing policies and practices;
- their innovation had helped staff to grow professionally;
- the early signs regarding the success of this school's data were promising; and
- the innovation was a good model for other schools to follow.
An independent consultant rated 19 per cent of the middle schooling projects as having provided evidence in their reports of success that could be attributed to their innovations; 44 per cent as having success associated with their innovations, and 34 per cent as having achieved intermediary or enabling outcomes but little demonstrated impact yet on student learning.
Given that for many of the middle-years schools involved in the IBPP, the changes they were implementing were still new and/or in an initial pilot phase, the relatively high proportion of schools with evidence of success is impressive. At the same time, it is important to note that almost all the evidence related to non-cognitive outcomes, particularly student and teacher attitudes. While there are good reasons to believe that such outcomes are important precursors to the improvement of learning outcomes, most of the middle-years schools had yet to generate convincing evidence of improved learning in terms of curriculum outcomes.
The changes reported by the middle-years schools were in their context quite innovative. At the same time, there were few changes that were genuinely new in that examples can readily be cited of other schools that put in place similar changes over the last decade or so. The exceptions tended to be related to the use of new information technologies to support teaching and learning, and some new strategies that draw on recent work in the fields of cognitive science, meta- cognition, learning styles, multiple intelligences, and so on.
There are long-established precedents for a greater use of small teams of teachers working for longer periods of time with students; project-based, multi- disciplinary learning; a focus on generic skills; primary-to-secondary transition programmes; cooperative learning, and; student involvement in decision-making. However, schools that have implemented such practices in the past have experienced difficulty in sustaining the changes. The momentum of traditional patterns of working in schools has been irresistible and old ways have quickly reasserted themselves.
This raises the question as to whether a similar fate is likely to befall the changes implemented in the IBPP middle-years schools. There are at least three reasons for thinking that, this time, the changes that schools across Australia are implementing could constitute the first steps in a more lasting reform of schooling for the middle-years.
Firstly, there is a much broader awareness of and consensus within the teaching profession that current practices and arrangements can be major contributors to the evident signs of lack of engagement of students during the middle-years. This greater awareness of the problematic nature of current arrangements in the middle-years means that staff in schools are more likely to agree that significant changes are justified in order to improve outcomes for their students.
Secondly, in most of the IBPP schools there was the perception of empowerment and of flexibility to implement significant change to arrangements in the middle- years. In the past, particularly among systemic schools, reform of the middle- years has often faltered due to rigidities imposed by school systems. However, devolution of decision-making has proceeded in many systems to the point at which schools can be described as `self-managing' (Caldwell & Spinks, 1998). The inflexibilities that most concerned project schools were not so much the systemic, structural and resource constraints, but inflexibilities in people's beliefs and understandings with respect to new approaches to teaching and learning and their willingness to try out new ideas.
Thirdly, staff in schools now have access to a more complete picture of a better and alternative model of educational provision in the middle-years. The new vision is solidly grounded in modern conceptions of how young people learn, and one that is intimately connected to the demands of the new knowledge society. It is as though the various pieces in the jigsaw of reform, all of which have existed for some time, are gradually coming together in people's heads to form a coherent vision of how things could and indeed should operate in the future. In other words, it is possible that something of the nature of a paradigm shift in thinking is finally beginning to occur.
Hill and Russell (1999) identified a set of strategic intentions for reform of the middle-years in an attempt to capture the essence of this `big picture' thinking about this phase of schooling. The strategic intentions for middle school reform are described synoptically below.
Securing the curriculum essentials
Attention needs to be given to articulating aims of education specific to the middle-years of schooling that better reflect an explicit set of core values; developmental characteristics of young adolescents; and changing educational needs of students in the light of broader changes in society and the economy. The content of the curriculum needs to be reduced and there needs to be a re- focusing on foundational knowledge, with greater opportunity for sustained, in- depth learning.
Managing the transitions
While reform should affect both primary and secondary schools, the greatest changes are required in secondary schools, as they seek to place increased emphasis on a learner-centred, as opposed to curriculum-centred, approach to education. There needs to be increased attention to coordinating the transition of students from the early years to the middle-years, from the middle-years to the later years, and from the primary to secondary years.
Creating a new model of provision
A convergence in structures and approaches to teaching and learning are needed at the transition from primary schooling to the first years of secondary schooling. The core curriculum for most students in the middle-years should be taught by small teams of teachers that share responsibility for the care and education of around 70-80 students, whom they will teach for at least two consecutive years. Changes need to be made to ensure larger, uninterrupted blocks of time for learning and close relations between students and teams of teachers.
Transforming teaching and learning
Priority needs to be given to substantial and sustained investment in transforming teaching and learning. This investment should aim to produce autonomous learners who perceive schooling to be worthwhile, challenging and enjoyable. The use of new information technologies to provide continuous access to new and powerful ways of learning and sources of knowledge need to be given sustained emphasis.
Creating outward-looking learning communities
A renewed emphasis on creating close links between the home and the school and on reaching out to all families to secure their support for and involvement in their children's learning is required. Schools need to establish close links with outside organisations and individuals that can support the work of the school and provide role models for students. The increasing use of off-campus learning and the use of learning resources in the wider community need to be taken into account in developing out-of-school networks to support learning.
Tooling up for reform
Pre- and in-service education and training, and support structures for schools should increasingly be organised to reflect the distinctive nature of schooling in the early, middle and later years and focus on the need for continuity and smooth transitions between stages of schooling.
All teachers in the middle-years need an in-depth knowledge of at least two specialist areas; be trained in strategies for integrating specialist knowledge through topic-, issues- problem- or vocationally-based approaches to learning; and be qualified to promote high standards of literacy, numeracy and other core knowledge, including the use of new information technologies.
Resources should be directed towards developing, evaluating and implementing comprehensive and integrated design approaches to improving educational provision in the middle-years of schooling.
In order to facilitate a more comprehensive approach to the middle-years, it is likely that schools will need in the future to move beyond a project-based, piece- meal approach to reform, to a whole-school design approach to change. In the USA, schools and school systems have had several years' experience in the development and implementation of designs appropriate to the middle-years. This is beginning to happen in the Australian context where research and development aimed at generating whole-school designs are now underway.
Among IBPP schools there was a distinct awareness of the scope of the reform agenda and a recognition of the need to attend in a systematic fashion to all elements in the school that contribute to the desired outcomes.
Nevertheless, for the strategic intentions to be realised fully across a majority of schools, it will be necessary for school systems to become active promoters of change rather than simply being passive acceptors of slow change. It is not clear that there is a sufficient critical mass of will, support and evidence to move from what has, thus far, been largely a grassroots movement for change and improvement to a system-wide agenda for reform.
The experience of the IBPP and the work of Hill and Russell (1999) suggest that across Australia there are signs of the dawning of a new phase of development in which a large number of schools and school systems will seek to implement design-based reform of the middle-years. In this new phase, as it is apparent that there is no `one best way' to pursue reform and because some schools are more ready for reform than others, schools need to be given options about which model they will adopt and the time-scale over which they will implement reforms.
In documenting innovation and best practice, the hope is always that it will inspire others and lead to a more widespread adoption of change. The IBPP `middle-years' schools demonstrated that significant improvements in the preconditions of student learning outcomes are achievable and that the problems evident in schools that operate in traditional ways are amenable to solutions. Furthermore, these solutions build on a solid research base and a deep understanding of the nature of adolescence and of how young people learn. The experiences of the IBPP schools should promote further reflection aimed at articulating a coherent and comprehensive vision of a better model of educational provision for young adolescents in the middle-years. The picture emerging from the IBPP schools reflects an optimistic view of schooling and of the capacity of educators in leadership positions to bring about reform and to bring about a paradigm shift in thinking and practice.