Program Evolution
Teaching
programs are not static they evolve every year. Only when given the opportunity
to evolve can any program reach its potential. The quality of a teaching
program sits somewhere on a bell curve. It improves significantly each year for
a number of years as a teacher writes, teaches and evaluates and rewrites it. And
then re-teaches the same topic the following year.
The graph above is my proposal around how a typical teaching
program evolves over a number of years.
However programs reach a peak, and after peak they decline
in quality. There are many factors that can extend the length that a program
can stay close to, or at it peaks. There are many actions that can be taken to maintain
and revitalise a program that has started it natural decline.
Program Evolution has several implications for schools,
administrators and teachers, including:
·
Teachers need the opportunity to teach exactly
the same topic and program it for at least a few years.
·
Factors that increase the speed at which a
program evolves or extend it time at its peak should be implemented.
·
After a larger number of years teachers need to
be teaching different topics, or be lead into action that will revitalise their
programing and teaching of the topic.
Some program revitalisation actions might include:
There are obviously many more factors that can speed up
program evolution and revitalise programs. Each school/department/teacher
should be able to identify what will help them achieve these goals, they are
flexible and individual.
However there are some common factors which are common to
speed up program evolution and revitalise programs. Collaboration, professional
development to increase pedagogical knowledge and cloud technology (which
effectively allows constant collaboration and updating) are useful for every
teacher whichever stage of the program evolution curve their program may be at.
