Working Documents

1. Combating failure	2. Converting new knowledge into practice
3. Common factors in ability to change	4. Flexible approaches

Introduction

The immediate problems for the European education systems manifest themselves in a number of symptoms which can be gathered together in the following brief conclusions:

• The proportion of young people in a cohort who do not complete an academic education is too large, due to them leaving the educational system at some point along the way.

• There are too many people who apparently have insufficient qualifications to be able to manage their jobs, even though they have in fact completed their education.

These points must be viewed in context with the following phenomena.

• Prognoses from several countries show that there will be a shortage of qualified labour in a few years.

• Lack of qualifications will burden the social systems of communities.

• Lack of qualifications will be a factor which severely limits opportunities for the individual and reduces life quality.

The four documents

Taken together the documents express necessary changes in ways of thinking and practise needed to achieve the desired result: namely, to avoid educational fiascos for the growing youth of today.

The central and more general points can be found in document 1 "Combating failure". The other three documents primarily point towards "tools" which, using different perspectives, can contribute towards increasing the quality of the education system, so that the individual pupil/student can complete their education and achieve optimal competence in relation to their personal potentials.

The four documents do, meanwhile, have a strong interconnection. Certain of the contents in a document could with ample justification easily have been included in one of the others. One could, for example, take "flexible approaches" to be synonymous with "new knowledge" about necessary strategies both in in-service training of teachers and as an element in the teachers' own teaching practise, or one could interpret "common factors" as "new knowledge" which has to be converted into practise so that, in principle, all teachers achieve an improved ability to change.

In spite of these considerations we have found it appropriate to divide the articles into four documents, providing the possibility of placing a separate focus on four important areas.

Document 1: Combating failure

"School and society"

This document provides a general-level treatment of the central problems, and the pressing tasks which these give rise to. The general development of society is given as the underlying reason for the necessity for change, for future-oriented perspectives and for viable solutions.

Document 2: Converting new knowledge into practise

"The school as an institution"

This document deals with the phenomenon of the school having to transform both visions and knowledge deriving from several levels into practise: from education policy guidelines, field-specific research-based pedagogical knowledge and practise-related knowledge. Several necessary directions for development and important developmental areas are indicated: it is through these that the much-needed reorganisation can be achieved.

Document 3: Common factors in ability to change

"Teachers and head teachers"

The document deals primarily with the basic requirements needed in order to effect changes in the school curriculum: namely the ability and will on the part of teachers and head teachers to re-orient their ways of thinking and acting. Factors are indicated which will influence this process of reorganisation - these will entail differing degrees of difficulty for the individual teacher.

Document 4: Flexible approaches

"Teacher and pupils"

This document deals with ways in which one might create flexible solutions and initiatives which can provide support for the necessary process of reorganisation. Various possibilities are indicated, which relate to continuing participation in education and continuing re-orientation on the part of teachers and also relate to their teaching practise.