At first glance, this week’s question seems like rather an easy, if not loaded question. Whose job is it to teach the NETs? Everybody’s!! Half of me was tempted to leave my post at that because it seemed so obvious that it I wasn’t sure what else to write. Then I got to thinking. What does a successful learner look like? Does successful learning actually have anything to do with the NETs? That led me to thinking about what good teaching looks like and whether the two are in fact connected. Then I thought about the connection between good teaching and standards such as the NETs and pondered whether the NETs could or would lead to good teaching. This all led to a philosophical quandary of where I stand in the curriculum/standards debate. The result of all this thinking has made the question a far more complicated one to answer than I initially thought. Here goes…
Allow me to begin by explaining my last thought first as a I find it to be the most interesting and ubiquitous. I have taught in many schools in my very short career, an indication of my restless soul more than anything, and as a result I have worked in environments where curriculum and standards are approached very differently. On the one hand, there was the government school approach where everything had a standard, indicator and defined progression point. These were built into the mandatory report card template and teachers were regularly audited on their compliance to the curriculum document. Then came the international school where I currently teach, and I found the complete opposite. Both philosophies have their pros and cons but my current conclusion is that I prefer the ‘anything goes’ approach. At least when it comes to dictating how teachers teach, which from what I can gather is what the NETs are all about. I like this approach because it places trust in the teacher’s professional judgement. It allows for teachers to meet the needs of their students in a way that they, as professionals, see fit. It allows for a more ‘whole person’ approach and it involves a lot less of that ‘busy work’ and box ticking that took up a whole bunch of my time in my previous life. Wise freedom, I’m all about it. That said, this is a conclusion that I have only reached as result of all my thinking this week. Had you asked me last week, my response would have been a very different one. So why the change, where to next and whose responsibility is it to teach the NETs?
My opinion on the usefulness of standards changed when I noticed that my students are not actually learning any less due to the previously frustrating lack of a mandated and enforced documentation. This caused me to conclude that it is not a piece of paper with a list of standards or outcomes on it that makes a successful teacher or a successful learner. So if not that, what? The NETs? Frankly, I have to answer no. The NETs on their own do not improve teaching or learning. However, if they are adopted in conjunction with professional learning, robust discussion and an atmosphere of trust (both of teachers and students) then they certainly can’t hurt. While the NETs won’t magically improve learning or teaching, they do provide a conversation starter and cohesive expectations that apply to all subject areas.
To conclude, I maintain that it is everybody’s responsibility to teach the NETs but merely adopting a set of standards is not enough to ensure that this occurs. Instead, the administration of a school should work in partnership with teachers and coaches to ensure that the learning experiences being offered to students are challenging, meaningful, cohesive, purposeful, address the whole person and will last a lifetime. If the NETs can help to achieve that, bring them on.
