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Back to Basics – return to the good old days or outdated thinking?

28/11/2011 -

In 2010, then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, promised that Australia’s national curriculum would return history, grammar, literature and phonetics to the classroom as part of a ‘back to basics’ approach.

'To get back to the absolute basics on spelling, on sounding out letters, on counting, on adding up, on taking away,' said Mr Rudd. '[These are] the basics that I was taught when I was at primary school a long time ago, that’s what our national curriculum is all about.'

Internationally renowned leader in education, creativity and innovation, Sir Ken Robinson, says that harking back to the past is an overly simplistic view of what works best in education.

'What happens is that politicians of all parties come to office with a cry of let’s get back to basics,' Robinson said. 'The problem is that what they mean is a group of subjects that they took when they were at school.'

Robinson argues that schools cannot meet the challenges of the 21^st century with 19^th century educational theories based on ‘conformity and standardisation rather than diversity’.

'We have a big problem at the moment. Education is becoming so dominated by a particular view of intelligence, a narrow curriculum and education system, that we are flattening and stifling some of the basic skills and processes that creative achievement depends on.'

'The present [education] system was designed for 19^th century industrialism,' he said. 'The tragedy is that meeting the many social, economic, spiritual and environmental challenges we now face depends absolutely on the very capacities of insight, creativity and innovation that [the education] systems are systematically suppressing in yet another generation of young people.'

The new national curriculum to be implemented in NSW in 2014, has been criticised by some educators and commentators for taking a back to basics approach and not incorporating skills and competencies needed for the 21^st century.

Sydney University Professor, Robyn Ewing, believes the structure of the new curriculum is not suited to thinking skills and creativity needed in the 21st century.

'We're using an outdated view of what kids need at school — dividing all the knowledge up into separate academic subjects and disciplines and then overloading those with content — it won't work because children in this day and age need a different way of thinking about the world.'

Professor Barry McGaw, Chair of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) disagrees, saying that they have listened to the concerns of educators and revised the curriculum to meet the needs of 21^st century learners.

'I don't like back to basics, because it implies you're only focusing on initial performance. We need a curriculum that builds the basics, but also extends students,' said McGaw.

'Those who worry about whether students will be taught to read will be satisfied … Those who are concerned about whether students will understand grammar will find material in here,' he said. 'One of the curriculum's dimensions is that of general capabilities: literacy, numeracy, problem solving and so on. They're embedded in the curriculum. So if anyone wants to say 21st century skills are not there, they haven't looked. They're explicitly there.'

The new Director-General of the NSW Department of Education, Dr Michele Bruniges, announced on her recent appointment that she would ‘order schools to get back to basics’.

The former teacher believes the skills of literacy and numeracy are critical and more important in education than discussion around class size or technology.

'To do science, to do maths, to do history, if you can't read and write, how do you understand these concepts?' Dr Bruniges said. 'If we don't get this right, we do a disservice to kids from the early years.'

'To me they may be the building blocks, but they open the door to a whole lot of key learning areas that we need to focus on,' she said.

Executive Director of Schools, Greg Whitby agrees but says we need to go further and ensure our children are taught all the fundamental skills for the 21^st century.

'The greatest challenge we face in education today is relevance,' Greg said. 'The fundamentals of literacy and numeracy are always important, but we also need to develop students to their full potential. We don’t want them just memorising a bunch of facts,' said Greg.

'Our students require a curriculum that provides them with meaningful experiences that engenders deep and significant learning. It has to be relevant and responsive to the age we live in; and it has to serve our students now, and in the future.'

'Today’s basics are not just teaching kids how to read and write; it is about teaching them how to learn; so they can keep learning and relearning in a rapidly changing world.'

Does Rote Learning Work?

Rote learning is common practice for many students who employ repetition and memorisation of facts to prepare for exams, but when we 'cram' for tests are we engaging in a deep understanding of information or scratching the surface?

It is argues that rote learning involves the acceptance of information and the memorisation of isolated and unlinked facts leading to supericial retention of material, and does not promote understanding or long-term retention of knowledge and information.

In contrast, deep learning involves critical analysis of new ideas and the ability to link them to already known concepts and principles, leading to life-long retention and undertsanding.

While rote learning may produce results at exam time, it is worth considering whether the purpose of schooling is to attain short-term results or a lifetime of knowledge?

Rote Learning	Deep Learning
Intention to complete task requirements	Intention to understand
Memorising information needed for assessments	Vigorous interaction with content
Failure to distinguish principles from examples	Relating new ideas to previous knowledge

Source: adapted from Entwistle (1987, pg 16)
http://www.engsc.ac.uk/learning-and-teaching-theory-guide/deep-and-surface-approaches-learning