I think that we must, alas, resign ourselves to it: we will not go ahead this year with this new, vast and serious reflection on what we collectively think should be education and on the means that we we therefore consider it necessary to deploy it to make it exist. In short: we will not be launching this Parent 2.0 commission this year, which we need so much.
A new year is a great opportunity to dream. In the absence of a new Parent Commission, what do you think would be the most urgent thing to put in place in education?
I dream for my part of a return of the certificate in secondary education, which would be carried out within the framework of an experiment intended to train, say, 300 teachers and teachers in one year.
Respond to a national emergency
The certificate from 30 years ago was not without flaws. We often complained about the poor quality of the more theoretical courses, the few links with the practice of the courses that should have had any, and the too few days of training, the quality and relevance of which sometimes left something to be desired. What should be done so that this diploma is what it should be?
Allow me to dream…
The current qualifying master’s degree is not only unattractive and endless, but it is also very expensive for the public. By ending it, funds are freed up with which we can contribute to offering the 300 candidates a scholarship allowing them to devote themselves to demanding full-time studies for one year, with a guaranteed job in the end. Admission to this program would require at least a bachelor’s degree to teach in a discipline and pass a selection interview.
What would we do during this year? Here are some ideas.
We start in August with the courses of the first session. In my opinion, there should at least be a course on the history of education in Quebec, its institutions, the current debates concerning all this; a course on the history of pedagogy and the philosophy of education, its great authors, from which substantial extracts will be read, and on the debates on all the questions addressed; a course on research in education, how and where to read it and, once again, on the debates concerning all the questions addressed. A course on adolescent psychology could be added, dealing in particular with issues affecting adolescents at the start of the 21st century.e century.
During this session, from the start of the school year, while continuing the lessons, we begin, ideally in two different schools in particular by their composition and their programs, internships of making contact and participant observation. We are there two days a week. The tasks and activities of the internship are partly determined by the previous courses of the training. This is a great opportunity to choose your school and your mentor-teacher for what will follow.
In the second session, the courses are less theoretical and focus on teaching practice.
A course focuses on the program to be taught, on its content, but also on the positions it adopts on the major debates previously discussed. You also have to take a course on pedagogical methods, what they are, how to implement them and how to evaluate them, in particular by consulting credible and relevant research. Another course focuses on classroom management and assessment.
An optional course would remain, always relevant, but to be chosen from among a few. Let’s say you’re preparing to teach high school math. You are offered a course on integrating the history of mathematics into your teaching; another on integrating games and puzzles into your teaching. And so on.
And the internships, many days of internship, resume. With his mentor, we put into practice what we have learned, we measure the distance between theory and the field, we adjust.
To whom should you entrust this training?
If a National Institute of Excellence in Education existed, the question would not even arise, and that would be one of its urgent tasks. Like that of following up on trained teachers for a few years. Are they staying in the profession? Why these departures, if any? What effect does their practice have on the students? How are they perceived in their schools?
But you have to get on with it. We are facing a national tragedy…
And I didn’t even say anything about the lack of elementary and preschool teachers.