Schome
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[edit] What is schome?
Schome is the name for a new form of education system, which is designed to meet the needs of individuals and society in the 21st Century.
The term schome was coined by Peter Twining in early 2005 (or was it late 2004?) and is a synthesis of the words school and home - which explains the byline:
Schome will be a system which values and supports people learning throughout their lives - genuinely cradle to grave.
Schome will NOT be another ‘virtual learning space’, it will involve physical spaces for learners, in recognition of the need to provide: social activities; access to specialist resources; and custodial care for (some) young people. However, new technologies will be an essential enabler of more personalized learning and more efficient utilization of learning resources. Information and communication technologies also have implications for the knowledge, understandings and skills that society needs as well as the pedagogical approaches that are possible.
At present (October 2005) schome is a concept - however, the schome research group at The Open University (UK) are working on bringing schome about.
[edit] Why do we need schome?
There is a growing consensus of evidence from a range of different sources that suggests that our current compulsory education system needs to change in order to meet the needs of society (e.g. Beare 2001; Hargreaves 2004). This is reflected in growing rates of disaffection in schools (Webb & Vulliamy 2004) as evidenced by: growing teenage truancy rates in schools (eg see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4265536.stm) and the growing migration of parents away from school and towards homeschooling (Curtis 2004).
Recognition of problems with the current school system underpins initiatives such as Building Schools for the Future, which aims to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England over a 10 to 15 year period (BSF 2006). However, it is clear that many of the fundamental assumptions upon which schools are based are the very factors that render schools ineffective in the Information Age (Cuban 2001). In addition, because of the constraints under which they have to operate, it is “very difficult for school communities to collectively analyse and redesign their practice” (Engeström et al 2002 p.211).
[edit] What is different about schome?
The schome community believe that trying to adapt our existing system is a flawed approach, which cannot deliver the optimum education system for the 21st Century. Our approach is radically different, and involves four steps:
- Establish aims: we need to develop shared understandings of what we want our education system to provide for individuals and society within the 21st Century.
- Build a shared vision: we need to develop a shared vision of the ideal system to deliver the aims identified in Step 1, unconstrained by the existing education system, and taking into account our understandings of changes in society, how people learn, and evolving approaches, tools and techniques for supporting learners.
- Devise a strategy: we need to work out how to move from our current education system to the vision of schome created in Step 2.
- Implement schome.
Schome acknowledges the problems inherent in our current education system and aims to overcome them by building upon evidence from a range of sources: learning theory (particularly socio-cultural theory); socio-cultural activity theory (CHAT); evidence from educational research (including practitioner and action research) in areas such as motivation, leadership, and the management of change.
[edit] Who is involved in developing schome?
Underpinning our approach is recognition of the importance of shared understandings. That is why we are actively developing the schome community through face to face meetings, publications, presentations, projects and a range of other media. The schome community is the powerhouse that will bring schome into existence.
Schome is being created by children, parents, policy makers, academics, students, home educators, employers, teachers and other practitioners from around the world - yes its being created by people just like you. Why don't you join us?
Schome will be inclusive and so is the schome community – developing schome is a collaborative process – you are never alone with schome!
There are a couple of hundred registered users of the schome community wiki and a growing number of members of the schome community forum.
If you are interested in schome then why not join the schome community by registering for the schome community forum and/or the schome community wiki (NB these two parts of the site have separate registration and logins - we recommend that you use the same username and password for both).
[edit] References
Beare, Hedley (2001) Creating the Future School, London: RoutledgeFalmer.
BSF (2006) The Building Schools for the Future website, London: DfES. http://www.bsf.gov.uk/ (viewed 18-Jan-07)
Cuban, Larry (2001) Oversold and Underused: Computers in the classroom, Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Curtis, Polly (2004) More parents choose to educate children at home, The Guardian, 30th July 2004.
DfES (2003) Towards a Unified e-Learning Strategy: Consultation Document, July 2003, London: DfES. (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/elearningstrategy/downloads/e-learning%20strategy%20pdf%20final.pdf viewed 5/11/04)
Engeström, Yrjö ; Engeström, Ritva & Suntio, Arja (2002) Can a school community learn to master its own future? An activity-theoretical study of expansive learning among middle school teachers, in Wells, Gordon & Claxton, Guy (eds) Learning for life in the 21st century, pp211-224, Oxford: Blackwell.
Hargreaves, David H. (2004) Learning for Life: The foundations for lifelong learning, Bristol: The Policy Press.
Webb, Rosemary & Vulliamy, Graham (2004) A Multi-Agency Approach to Reducing Disaffection and Exclusions from School, London: DfES. (http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR568.pdf viewed 5/11/04)
Working Group on 14-19 Reform (2004) 14-19 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform: Final Report of the Working Group on 14-19 Reform, Report No: DfE-0976-2004, October 2004, London: DfES. (http://www.14-19reform.gov.uk/download.cfm?id=52 viewed 5/11/04)
