Keynote open education global conference, Banff, Canada 23 april 2015

1. OER AND THE INNOVATION
OF LEARNING
Dirk Van Damme
OECD/EDU/IMEP
twitter @VanDammeEDU #OEGlobal

2. • Open Education and Open Educational Resources
(OER) in particular are potentially a tremendously
powerful agent of change and innovation
• Still, one has the impression that the systemic
transformative impact of ‘Open’ is greater in, say,
science and research than in education
– MOOCs – which should not be seen as equivalent to
‘Open’ – have in a way ‘hijacked’ this potential without
yet having delivered systemic change
• Why is that? What is needed?
2
Introduction

3. • OER are not a technological innovation, but they are
a force of social and educational innovation made
possible by technology
• The innovation potential of OER can only be
unlocked when aligning with the innovation needs of
education systems themselves
• So, the question is not how to mainstream OER, but
how we can utilise OER for the innovation focused
education policies
Introduction
3

4. • Talk based on an OECD Centre for Educational
Research and Innovation (CERI) project on the
policy benefits of OER, sponsored by the
Hewlett Foundation
• Report Open Educational resources: a Catalyst
for Innovation to be published later this year
4
Introduction

5. 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION:
MORE OF THE SAME OR
SOMETHING ELSE?
5

6. • Relentless expansion of education systems
Setting the scene – the big picture
6

7. • Relentless expansion of education systems
Setting the scene – the big picture
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Israel
UnitedStates
Germany
Brazil
Estonia
Austria
RussianFederation
Finland
Chile
Turkey
Italy
Denmark
Mexico
Switzerland
NewZealand
Canada
SlovakRepublic
Iceland
Australia
Greece
Sweden
EU21average
OECDaverage
Norway
Hungary
Netherlands
CzechRepublic
UnitedKingdom
Portugal
Belgium
Slovenia
Spain
France
Luxembourg
Ireland
Japan
Poland
Korea
Difference between the 25-34 and 55-64 year-old population with tertiary education (right axis)
Proportion of the 25-34 year-old population with tertiary education (left axis)
Proportion of the 55-64 year-old population with tertiary education (left axis)
%
Percentage
points
7

8. • Relentless expansion of education systems
• Growing impact of education on various social
and economic outcomes
Setting the scene – the big picture
8

9. • Relentless expansion of education systems
• Growing impact of education on various social
and economic outcomes
Setting the scene – the big picture
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
CzechRepublic
Italy
Spain
Estonia
Germany
Japan
SlovakRepublic
Ireland
Canada
Korea
England/N.Ireland(UK)
Austria
Average
Flanders(Belgium)
Australia
UnitedStates
Netherlands
Sweden
Denmark
Finland
Norway
%
Below upper secondary education
Upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education
Tertiary Education
An individual with a higher level of education is more
likely to believe they have a say in government
9

10. • Relentless expansion of education systems
• Growing impact of education on various social
and economic outcomes
• But challenges remain and magnify
– The equity and social mobility challenge
– The quality challenge
– The efficiency challenge
Setting the scene – the big picture
10

11. Setting the scene – the big picture
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Czech…
Japan
Germany
Estonia
Poland
Canada
Norway
United…
Russian…
Finland
Slovak…
Austria
Sweden
England/…
Denmark
Flanders…
Average
France
Korea
Australia
Netherlan…
Ireland
Italy
Spain
Proportion of young students (20-34 year-olds) in tertiary education whose parents have below upper
secondary education
Proportion of parents with below upper secondary education in the total parent population%
The participation of students in HE from low-educated
families is less than half of their share in the population
11

12. Setting the scene – the big picture
0
10
20
30
40
HongKong-China
Korea+
Liechtenstein
Macao-China+
Japan
Switzerland
Belgium-
Netherlands-
Germany
Poland+
Canada-
Finland-
NewZealand-
Australia-
Austria
OECDaverage2003-
France
CzechRepublic-
Luxembourg
Iceland-
SlovakRepublic
Ireland
Portugal+
Denmark-
Italy+
Norway-
Hungary
UnitedStates
Sweden-
Spain
Latvia
RussianFederation
Turkey
Greece
Thailand
Uruguay-
Tunisia
Brazil
Mexico
Indonesia
%
2012 2003
In most countries the percentage of top performers in
math in PISA has declined between 2003 and 2012
12

13. Setting the scene – the big picture
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
Brazil
Chile
SlovakRepublic
Korea
Poland
CzechRepublic
Canada
Australia
Israel
Germany
Switzerland
Portugal
Mexico
UnitedKingdom
Finland
Sweden
EU21average
OECDaverage
Netherlands
Austria
Japan
Norway
UnitedStates
Ireland
Belgium
Slovenia
France
RussianFederation
Spain
Estonia
Iceland
Denmark
Italy
Hungary
Index of change
(2008=100)
Change in expenditure
Change in the number of students (in full-time equivalents)
Change in expenditure per student
Primary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education
In most countries the per student expenditure
has continued to increase
13

14. • Can we continue
– To assume that an industrial model of education
will serve the needs of 21st century societies?
– Expanding our systems quantitatively?
– Exporting our model to emerging and developing
countries?
– Pretending that nothing is changing in the outside
world, impacting on the
• Why
• What
• How we are educating?
Setting the scene – more of the same?
14

15. • Challenges for education policy makers increase
– Supporting the expansion of the system
– Ensuring quality
– Securing equitable access and opportunities
– Meeting ever growing expectations
• But in very difficult times
– Deepening social problems
– Doing more with less
– Intensifying political and ideological differences
Challenges may seduce policy-makers to
stick to the current model
15

16. EDUCATION GETTING
OUT OF TUNE?
16

17. • The race with technology and the changing
nature of the skills demand
Where is education getting out of tune?
17

18. “~50% of US jobs
potentially
automatable”
Oxford Martin Study 2014
18

19. 19
Changing skills demand
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2006 2009
Routine manual Nonroutine manual Routine cognitive
Nonroutine analytic Nonroutine interpersonal
Mean task input in percentiles of 1960 task distribution

20. • The race with technology and the changing
nature of the skills demand
• Social efficacy: will social protection systems
pay the price?
Where is education getting out of tune?
20

21. Percentage of low educated younger adults (25-34 year-
olds), by gender (2013)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
Portugal
Spain
Brazil
Denmark
Latvia
Estonia
Italy
Iceland
Greece
Colombia
Australia
Norway
Luxembourg
Israel
Netherlands
Belgium
Ireland
Finland
OECDaverage
Canada
UnitedStates
France
Slovenia
Poland
Russian…
Sweden
NewZealand
Chile
UnitedKingdom
Hungary
Germany
CzechRepublic
Korea
SlovakRepublic
Mexico
Switzerland
Austria
Turkey
Men Women%
21

22. Increasing social expenditure
22

23. • The race with technology and the changing
nature of the skills demand
• Social efficacy: will social protection systems
pay the price?
• Relevance of curricula – knowledge, cognitive
skills, social and emotional skills, values
Where is education getting out of tune?
23

24. Curriculum:
What should
students learn?
Technology
Values
Democracy
Social
change
Jobs
Science
Interdependency
Relevance of curricula
Social
integration
Fundamentalisms
Intolerance
Inequality
Families
Climate change
Future of work
Media
Financial crisis
Welfare state
Globalisation
Complexity
Citizenship
Jobless growth
Innovation
Pluralism
Knowledge
explosion
Youth
unemployment
Violence
24

25. Living in the world
Personal and social responsibility
Life and careers
Citizenship
Fairness
Integrity
Respect
Self-awareness
Courage
Empathy
Resilience
Adaptability
Curiosity
Initiative
Leadership
25

26. • But, most importantly, are our education systems
really tuned to
– Support learning?
– Foster social learning?
– Create learning societies?
• Or are we merely maintaining credentialism, systems of selecting,
screening and signalling people?
Where is education getting out of tune?
26

27. • Principles of learning:
– Learners at the centre
– The social nature of learning
– Emotions are integral to learning
– Recognising individual differences
– Stretching all students
– Assessment for learning
– Building horizontal connections
• We know which road to follow!
The roadmap of innovating learning
27

28. From what we know from learning research, teaching and
learning environments and pedagogies should be:
• Learner-centred: highly focused on learning but not as an
alternative to the key role for teachers
• Structured and well-designed: needs careful design and
high professionalism alongside inquiry & autonomous learning
• Profoundly personalised: acutely sensitive to individual and
group differences and offering tailored feedback
• Inclusive: such sensitivity to individual and group differences
means they are fundamentally inclusive
• Social: learning is effective in group settings, when learners
collaborate, and when there is a connection to community.
28
Redefining teaching and learning

29. • Learning is the key to creating learning societies
that can address challenges and to liberating
humanity’s problem-solving potential
• Innovative environments and conditions will be
necessary for individuals and societies to
succeed in higher, better, deeper learning
• How can we create innovation ecosystems in
education to make that happen?
• What role can OER play?
Innovating learning
29

30. HOW CAN OER HELP?
30

31. OER
New forms of
learning
Teachers’
collaboration
Public &
private costs
Quality of
resources
Distribution
of resources
Barriers to
learning
31

32. Relative strength of policy benefits of OER
32

33. OER
New forms of
learning
Teachers’
collaboration
Public &
private costs
Quality of
resources
Distribution
of resources
Barriers to
learning
33

34. • In reality, most OER are content-focused, to be
used in existing educational settings
• At best, augmenting the teaching-learning
process and the resources used
• But 21st century learning requires a focus on
more innovative skills development and
pedagogies
• The relevance of OER lies not only in the quality
of content, but also the quality of the learning it
facilitates
1. Fostering 21st century learning
34

35. • Changing the role of learners from passive
consumers to active producers
• Fostering peer-to-peer learning
• Stimulating problem-based learning
• Enriching learning resources through
collaborative practice
• Enhancing the social and emotional context of
learning
• …
How can OER support innovative
pedagogies?
35

36. OER
New forms of
learning
Teachers’
collaboration
Public &
private costs
Quality of
resources
Distribution
of resources
Barriers to
learning
36

37. • ICT technology and the ways to use them in a
productive way in teaching and learning cited by
teachers as one of the most important needs of
professional development
• Professional collaboration is still the most
contentious and difficult dimension of
professionalism among teachers
2. Fostering teachers’ professional
development
37

38. Professional collaboration still the most
contentious aspect of professional growth
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
Shared vision Focus on student
learning
Reflection De-privatisation of
practice
Collaborative
activities -
exchange
Collaborative
activities - teach
jointly
Meanfactorscore
Professional learning community
Belgium (Fl.)
Belgium (Fl.) profile A: 80% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)
Belgium (Fl.) profile B: 13% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)
Belgium (Fl.) profile C: 8% of teachers in Belgium (Fl.)
38
TALIS 2008

39. • Training and professional development for
teachers on using OER
• Using OER in teacher training and teacher
professional development
• Collaborative production of OER
• Stimulating teachers in reusing, revising,
remixing and redistributing of OER
• …
How can OER support teachers’ professional
development?
39

40. HOW CAN EDUCATION
POLICIES SUPPORT OER?
40

41. 41
Governments’ support of OER through policy
instruments - coverage
Out of 33 countries, 25 (76%) reported having a
government policy to support OER production and use
Source: CERI/OECD government survey

42. Policy
support
Provision of OER and
repositories
Communities of
practice among
teachers
Framework conditions
of educational settings
Evidence-based
research for policy &
practice
How can educational policies support OER?
42

43. • Policy helps to establish repositories and supports the
provision of open licence materials.
• Policy helps the establishment of communities of
practices within the teaching body, to encourage
production and use of OER.
• Policy can change the framework conditions of formal
educational settings, by modifying rules, promoting new
tools and reassigning the division of labour.
• More research is necessary to better understand the
potential and the usage of OER for policy and practice
43
Governments’ policy support found in 4 key
areas

44. FINAL COMMENTS
44

45. • Being ‘open’ is not going to be a sufficient condition
for OER to have transformative impact
• Ultimately, the systemic impact of OER will depend
on the contribution it makes to improving teaching
and learning and to facilitating 21st century skills
development
• Content and pedagogy are not distinct but interact
• OER should be able to exploit and demonstrate its
intrinsic superiority over proprietary materials in their
substantive quality, but also in their capacity for
pedagogical innovation
Some conclusions and final comments
45

46. Thank you !
dirk.vandamme@oecd.org
www.oecd.org/edu/ceri
twitter @VanDammeEDU
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