John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is such a pity that due to our overwhelming majority, those of us in government get so little time to speak, particularly when one wants to contribute to what one believes is a very meaningful debate. I wish to paint a picture to illustrate my contribution to the debate on junior cycle reform. Like other speakers I am a secondary school teacher and my picture starts in 1998 at my interview for the H.Dip. course. One of the lecturers who interviewed me asked what skills I would bring to the classroom, and because I was very excited about them I said I would love to bring the use of television and radio into my teaching. I got onto the course and spent a full year studying the concept, including sociology, philosophy and psychology of learning, teaching methodologies, active learning methodologies, the meaning of curriculum and assessment, classroom management and how to make a child or a person learn.

One leaves the course enthusiastic, wanting to deliver all of the excitement one had about the course so one can be part of an education system and, in one's little mind, transform the world starting with the little people in front of one. Soon after gaining a place in a school, the system, and I use the word "system" to conceptualise something we cannot picture, takes away all the enthusiasm as one realises most learning takes place behind a desk in a seat through the medium of teacher talk supplemented by books and copies. These days we have interactive white boards, but the interaction is between the teacher and the white board with the students looking on as passive learners.

One remembers one's H.Dip. days and constantly looks for ways to include active learning methodologies, but the system does not allow for it. One tries one's best. I remember using television, and getting students to pretend to be reporters when speaking about the impact of a volcano and describing its effects. This is a much more practical way of learning than the teacher sitting there pointing at a picture in the book telling students what a volcano does. The current system does not allow one to engage with active learning methodologies, which are the real way we learn. I only know how to work in Leinster House after having spent 18 months working here. I could have read the big book they gave us, but I still would not understand. The reason the current education system does not allow us to use active learning methodologies is because of the junior certificate examination. Three years after starting school, during the month of June students are asked to write everything they can remember. They are not asked to write about the team work they experienced when making a video, creative thinking or other aspects which bring learning to life.

For those who understand teaching, what I am speaking about is the curriculum. The syllabus for any subject contains a curriculum, but then one must bring life to the subject. Unfortunately, the assessment process we use to measure the subject does not measure the life instilled in one and the learning one takes on board. Due to the fact the syllabus is overloaded, and we know we will never get through the chunky books, teachers cut corners. We realise we cannot deliver on active learning methodologies every day because of the constraints of our work overload. We try to do the best for the young people in front of us, so we go back to the didactic approach to teaching whereby the students listen while the teacher talks, and they try to remember as much as they can and hopefully get a good result on the day, which they do. One writer described this process as the assessment tail wagging the curriculum dog. The assessment rather than the curriculum tells us how to teach, as we teach according to what will be asked in the assessment. This is not independent learning.

This is my picture of the current junior cycle. The reform of the junior cycle will address the imbalance between curriculum and assessment and ensure the curriculum plays an invaluable role in the assessment process and that what is assessed is based on what is taught so it is worthwhile for a teacher to get the students out of their seats to understand the process. Reforming the junior cycle is about saying goodbye to the days of rote learning and teachers having to second-guess what will come up in the exam, hoping the students will do their best and cutting corners in what is an overloaded syllabus in most subjects. It is also about embracing a new process which will see the balance between curriculum and assessment redrawn and bringing life into learning. The six key skills underpinning the reform are fantastic and if they are assessed properly they will lead to a society where young people grow up equipped with the skills to engage and adapt where necessary to the challenges life brings to every one of us.

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