Transcript Slide 1

OECD/CERI work on Future Perspectives
Tom Schuller
Centre for Educational Research and Innovation
OECD
Jerzy Wiśniewski
CERI Governing Board
Presented on the Conference „Knowledge and Innovation in the Development
of Economy: Driving Forces and Barriers”
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Kraków, 11 January 2007
Tom Schuller is Head of the Centre for Educational
Research and Innovation (CERI), OECD, Paris.
Formerly Dean of the Faculty of Continuing Education and
Professor of Lifelong Learning at Birkbeck, University of London
from 1999 to 2003, he was also co-director of the Centre for
Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning.
He worked
previously at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Warwick,
at the Institute for Community Studies and for four years at
OECD in the 1970s. Recent publications include The Benefits of
Learning: The Impact of Education on Health, Family Life and
Social Capital (with John Preston et al, RoutledgeFalmer 2004),
and Social Capital: Critical Perspectives (edited with Stephen
Baron and John Field, OUP 2000).
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Directorate
for Education
Directorate for
Employment
Labour and
Social Affairs
COUNCIL
Centre
for
Educational
Statistics
Research
Directorate
and Innovation
(CERI)
Directorate
for Science
Technology
and
Industry
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Directorate
For Financial
Fiscal and
Enterprise Affairs
Trade
Directorate
Economics
Department
Directorate for
Public Management
and Territorial
Development
SECRETARIAT
COMMITTEES
Environment
Directorate
Directorate for
Food Agriculture
and Fisheries
Development
Co-operation
Directorate
Education and
Training Policy
Division
Indicators and
Analysis
Division
Directorate
for
Education
Centre for
Education
Research and
Innovation
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IMHE/PEB
CERI: main activities
Carrying out studies of key educational
issues, using internal staff and outside
experts.
Developing tools, indicators and frameworks
for international analyses.
Promoting research and policy debate
Lengthening the time horizon of policy
research thinking
25 staff, € 4.4 million
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Focus on the Future
• Schooling for Tomorrow
• University Futures
Learners and Learning
• New Millenium Learners
• Globalisation, Linguistic Competencies and
Cultural Diversity
• ICT and E-learning/Open Educational
Resources
• What Works: Adults with Low Basic Skills
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Innovation in System Change
• Reviews of Educational Innovation
• Decision-making and Market Developments in Complex
Lifelong Learning Systems
Investments and Outcomes
• Social Outcomes of Learning
• Time and Learning: Efficiency, Opportunity and
Effectiveness
Horizontal Activities
• The Education Horizon
• Regional Seminars
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Why the Need for Futures Thinking in
Education?
Education decision-making increasingly complex
– the need for new approaches
Decision-making predominantly short-term
despite education and learning being
fundamental to long-term futures
But prediction/forecasting is notoriously
inaccurate
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TOGETHER underline need to compile existing
tools and develop new ones for long-term
thinking in policy and practice
The OECD schooling scenarios
1. ATTEMPTING TO MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO
“Bureaucratic School Systems Continue“ Scenario
2. DIVERSE, DYNAMIC SCHOOLS AFTER ROOT-ANDBRANCH REFORM (“Re-schooling”)
"Schools as Focused Learning Organisations“
Scenario
"Schools as Core Social Centres“ Scenario
3. PURSUIT OF ALTERNATIVES TO SCHOOLS - SYSTEMS
DISBAND OR DISINTEGRATE (“De-schooling”)
“Radical Extension of the Market Model“ Scenario
"Learning Networks and the Network Society"
Scenario
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“Teacher Exodus and System Meltdown” Scenario
Provisional set of scenarios
International
International research
marketplace
Open collaboration
Administration
Market
New public
management
National interest
promotion
National
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International policy research:
functions/types
Generating rankings/tables
Benchmarking
Developing/clarifying concepts
Analysing trends, issues, innovations
Identifying and disseminating good
practice
 Evaluating policy impact
 Agenda-setting
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CERI R&D reviews:
General conclusions :
Low levels of investment
 Low capacity
 Weak research/policy/practice links
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Recommendations:
 Balancing the research portfolio
 Accumulation: building a knowledge base
 Dissemination
 Capacity-building
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Brokerage
Examples:
England:
EPPI Centre/NERF
US: What Works Clearinghouse
NZ: Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis
Canada:
Centre for Knowledge Mobilisation
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Issues/functions:
Dissemination: publications, internet,
presentations
Promoting interactivity
Legitimating rigour/quality
Developing cooperation/trust
The challenges
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Capacity-building, inside and outside
research community
Combining different forms of evidence
Developing accountabilities : bureaucratic,
market, professional
Defining outcomes and their measurement
A new enlightenment paradigm?
Conclusions
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the knowledge base for knowledge-based
economies is thin – irony
growing interest in educational research capacity
as a policy but also a research issue
key parameters within which debate can take place
on the adequacy of this capacity
This should involve a closer understanding of the
way research systems work, and the extent to
which the articulated or implicit goals of the
system are achieved
This is quite a challenge, not just in itself but it is
difficult for members of the educational research
community to engage in this with a reasonable
degree of objectivity.
But that should be no reason for not trying.