Report of faculty's demise premature

President David Barnard recently launched an initiative to identify viable options for reducing the number of faculties and schools at the University of Manitoba. The intent was to streamline the administrative processes, not to eliminate disciplines. Those who saw an opportunity to identify the faculty of education as one that might be eliminated, therefore, were rather premature (Education faculties should disappear, by Michael Zwaagstra, Feb. 3).

The faculty of education is more than just a training ground for teachers and other educators focusing on kindergarten to Grade 12. Rather than being passive consumers of research from elsewhere, we strive to have a direct connection to the work in classrooms, and we are significantly connected to other faculties within the university community. We have expertise in curriculum design, delivery and assessment, and are involved in the development of professional education programs in other faculties.

Within any faculty of education, research and the questioning of practices are critical for an understanding of what constitutes best instructional practices in schools. The concept of the brain as a hard-wired and unchangeable computer was challenged long ago -- and we now have opportunities to understand brain "plasticity" created by technological advances.

This is relevant when talking about, for example, how students learn mathematics. We are still in the early stages of understanding how the brain functions, but we continue to seek new strategies to help young people learn. Recent studies have shown that brain development and its adaptation to mathematics are more complex than previously thought. Some of the implications for learning identified by researchers and educators, such as Stephen Campbell in the faculty of education at UBC, are causing us to rethink and to adapt our instructional practice to take advantage of these recent findings.

Change, however, is difficult for some to accept and embrace because new ideas can challenge pre-existing notions of what is best practice, especially for those people who have been successful learners using a particular, previously popular approach.

Educators realize that each child and each classroom is different. I discovered this fact early in my career when I was a junior-high teacher, especially when I came to understand that a teaching approach that worked in one class would not work exactly the same way in another.

The same principle applies to experimenting with instructional strategies or ideas in different schools and in different classrooms. No one research approach can be used reliably to examine learning in every classroom.

Hence, much of the current research uses small groups or individuals to test ideas when developing new concepts for instruction. A number of education researchers, such as Ken Leithwood from the University of Toronto, have used this approach to establish large-scale examinations of education reform efforts and to contribute to effective policy development.

Furthermore, without a sound working relationship with school divisions, teacher candidates would not have the solid practicum experience to help them implement the ideas and strategies to which they are exposed in the faculties. Input from school divisions often results in cooperation on teachers' professional development activities, research projects and further education.

The value of such collaboration is borne out by research such as that described by the McKinsey and Group November 2010 study, which found those school systems progressing from "good to great" focused both on the preparation of teachers and principals, and on their ongoing professional development.

From my own experience here in Manitoba and elsewhere, faculties of education are intimately involved with and responsive to the needs of school divisions and are, therefore, extensively involved with school divisions' efforts to improve.

Faculties of education are not static, hide-bound institutions. They are dynamic places in which serious questions about educational practice at all levels are asked and examined. Because many of us have first degrees from a wide range of faculties, we also have the ability to draw on our previous education to be able to talk to and work with researchers from across the university.

This, combined with the advantage of having connections to schools and school systems with whom we work, gives us the opportunity to improve instruction, and ultimately to improve learning for all.

Robert Macmillan is dean of the faculty of education at the University of Manitoba.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 10, 2012 A10