GORTT ACCREDITATION
COUNCIL CONFERENCE
Seamless Education –
Facilitating Lifelong Personal
and Career Success for the
Learner
Dr. Gwendoline Williams
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Focus of Presentation
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The Changing Environmental Context for Education
and Learning Globally
Definition of Seamless Education
Making the Case for Seamless Education
Development Impacts for the Learner; for the Society
Critical Success Factors
Practical Application – Walking the Learner Through
a Seamless Education Experience; The School in
Pursuit of Delivering Seamless Education
The Way Forward -- Recommendations
Conclusion
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Education is for improving the lives of
others and for leaving your community and
world better than you found it.
Marian Wright Edelman, President & Founder of the Children’s Defense Fund
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Education is the single most important
investment we can make for our children,
our state, our economy and our future.
State of Washington, USA 2006 – Learner Focused, Seamless Education]
The Changing Environmental Context for
Education and Learning
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The world our children inhabit is different, radically so,
than the one that we inherited.
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An increasingly open global economy requires –
absolutely requires – that all of us be better educated,
more skilled, more adaptable and more capable of
working collaboratively.
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These economic considerations alone mean that we
must change the way we teach and learn…[Education
provisions must be seamless… must allow for
uninterrupted continuity] (Robert H. McCabe, 2001)
The Changing Environmental Context for
Education and Learning
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Globalization and the cross border new economy -- a software designer in
the UK is as likely to compete with a worker in Bangladesh as with one in
Silicon Valley.
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Technology -- A grocery store stocker in Trinidad and Tobago can be linked to
a complex global supply chain where information and transactions can update
in less than a second.
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Social Media – Facebook; Twitter etc.
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The new economy is based on knowledge, and knowledge is
based on education, the delivery system for which must be
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nimble, flexible, cost effective, open to all abilities and need of
learners.
‘We will personalize learning so that
every student has the opportunity to
succeed – The delivery of education will
be seamless’
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[State of Washington, USA 2006 – Learner Focused, Seamless Education]
Defining Seamless Education
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Inclusive Education -- The openness and responsiveness of the
various sectors/levels of education and training to individuals from a
range of educational backgrounds and abilities in ways that facilitate
personal and career development.
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Mindset of Lifelong Learning – The goal is to inculcate the lifelong
learning in terms of continuing education for acquiring life skills and
inventiveness to the ever changing job market and wealth creating
opportunities.
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Openness: -- each sector, while maintaining its distinctive purposes,
has multiple points of entry and exit made possible by policies,
procedures and legal frameworks which facilitate movement across and
between the various levels and types of education and training provision
and which facilitates lifelong education.
Defining Seamless Education
Note:
 Absolute seamlessness is not possible.
Rather the aim is to smooth or flatten the
seams in the dividing lines between the
different sectors/levels of the education and
training system… a shift from uniform linear
progression (‘one size fits all’) to multiple,
complementary entries, pathways and exits.
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[NIHERST Position Paper on Seamless Education – 2004,p. 6]
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Public Policy Intent
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The accent is on creating the conditions that facilitate
an inclusive approach to human resource
development that takes cognizance of special
needs, talents, different learning styles, and
socioeconomic circumstances in a context in which
high standards are set for all students.
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Due cognizance is given to ‘multiple intelligences’ of
the learner and the special needs of differently abled
from pre-primary to post secondary/tertiary levels of
education
[NIHERST, 2004 – Design of a Seamless System of Education and Training in Trinidad and Tobago]
Major Goals of Seamlessness
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Smoothing student transitions from one level of learning to the next
within and between levels of the education system, ‘from the cradle to
the grave’.
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Closing the achievement gap between differing groups of learners –
boys and girls in the middle primary etc.
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Strengthening relationships between families,
schools
communities in sharing responsibility for effective learning.
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Creating the widest possible range of learning experiences and
opportunities for whatever the abilities, needs and interests, especially
at points of exits and entry to succeeding levels of the education
system – improving readiness for post secondary, vocational and
tertiary education
(Noeth & Wimberly, 2008)
and
Major Goals of Seamlessness
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The goal is to develop:
‘…. educational pathways for continuous
learning from early childhood through
primary, secondary, tertiary levels and
beyond’.
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Vision for Effective Schooling and Education
through Seamlessness in Education Delivery
 “Promoting
appropriate attitudes and skills to
develop a healthy, learning and innovative society
with the capacities to utilize modem technologies and
knowledge, to work cooperatively to optimize the
nation's resources, and diversify the economy in a
socially responsible and sustainable manner: and to
be regionally and globally competitive in a wide
range of areas”.
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Making the Case for Seamless Education –
Sustainable National Development Impacts
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Quality education -- optimum development of the learner
ensuring the highest quality of life for economic wellbeing and
responsible citizenship.
Human capital development -- highest economic return on
the country’s investment in education and training.
Social development – good social relations especially in
situations of demographic and social diversity.
Adaptability – in the face of an ever changing global
environment.
Innovation – allowing for inventiveness and creativity of the
human spirit
Cultural Heritage – promotion of multiculturalism
GORTT National Model for Education
The Ministry of Education has been charged
with the key responsibility for developing
innovative people, and this is evidenced in
terms of “a highly skilled, well-educated
people aspiring to a local culture of
excellence that is driven by equal access to
learning opportunities.”
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National Model for Education
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To ensure that the education system
produces citizens with a sense of
the vital importance of democracy;
respect for the rights of others
and elders; and with the ability to
contribute meaningfully to the
social and economic development
of the country.
Seamlessness and MOE Secondary
Modernization Programme
The Secondary Modernization Programme provides the
justification for seamlessness as a tool of educational
transformation to further current initiatives to:
 Increase equity and quality of educational services
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Improve quality and relevance for primary education
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Strengthen sector management, and
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Enable the use of social marketing for disseminating
information and winning society wide support for this
education innovation
Dimensions of Seamlessness -A®DDIE CURRICULUM CYCLE
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Dimensions of Seamlessness
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Assessed needs of the learner across all levels of the
education system – formal, non formal, informal –
from pre school to tertiary
Curricula, co-curricula, extra curricula – domains of
learning
Instructional design, delivery and assessment
Teacher development – the HRM/HRD Imperatives
Quality assurance, quality control and accounting for
learning outcomes and educational impacts
Management and Administration
Governance and public accountability
Critical Success Factors in Delivering
Seamless Education
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Strategic Focus/Assessed Needs – vision and critical path
for education that “Creates Success for All”
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Visualization: Can our policy makers, educational planners,
school leader/managers, classroom learning facilitators hold an
image of the learner as educated, life skill competent,
emotionally intelligent and nimbly competitive in the economic
market place.
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Multiple Forms of Achievement and Pace of Attainment –
Issue of criteria assessment and equivalence, for example, for
special learners
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GEMBA – The learner as central in the respective domains of
learning, for example, the primary school classroom.
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Agreement on the links between ‘effective schools’ and
‘effective schooling’.
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Education Information Systems and Databases -Mechanisms to document, recognize and validate prior learning
in order to facilitate student mobility and to enable education
providers to recognize achievement in its many forms –
standardization of system of credits; when these can be used;
and when.
Critical Success Factors
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Stakeholder involvement and shared accountability for student
learning
Quality Assurance -- fit for purpose curriculum design to meet
the needs of respective students – desizing secondary schools.
Quality Assurance ‘Best fit’ instruction given Gardner’s
‘multiple intelligences’
School facilities and use
Monitoring and evaluation – ‘reflexive’ formative and
summative quality control (use of education success metrics
reflective of seamlessness)
HRM imperatives – teacher recruitment; terms and conditions
of service; reward and recognition
Political Accountability – resource commitment etc.
Practical Application
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Case Example – Narrative – Seamlessness in a Secondary School
(slides 19 -21
 Desizing
 Differentiating curriculum offerings and instruction
 Timetable scheduling and teacher allocation
 Stakeholder partnering – parent: teacher relations
 Resource planning – use of facilities; materials development
 Links with external partners – MOE; trade union relations
 Teacher development
 Leadership/management
 Monitoring and Evaluation – MBWA
 Links with vocational centres; universities
The Way Forward –
Recommendations
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Need for an Seamless Education Transition Plan
Core Priorities of the Plan
 Curriculum – inclusive and therefore reflective of the
‘multiple intelligences’ and life skills/worklife needs of all
learners. -- the transfer from ECCE to Primary should be
made seamless, not only with the Curriculum but in
Teaching methods.
 Instruction: learner centred and making use of teambased, cooperative learning.
 Assessment: ‘best fit’, purpose driven, allowing for smooth
entry and exit within and between levels of the education
system
The Way Forward –
Recommendations
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Mindset Change – paradigm shift in thinking for example, on
effective schools and effective schooling. Parity of status to all
learners wherever as they move in and out and around in the
system
Stakeholder Partnering – Pre-primary to Tertiary
Institutions – focus on ‘in sync’ curriculum programming,
instruction, assessment and evaluation based on the national
development goals and objectives of the MOE as related to the
Government’s 7 Pillar for Sustainable National Development.
Inter-sectoral linkage with other Government Ministries, public
agencies, civil society, and international bodies.
Partnership with key community stakeholders, for example,
parents is vital.
The Way Forward –
Recommendations
Teacher
Development
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Legal
Regulatory
Framework
Teachers should also be afforded the
privilege of moving in a seamless manner at the
various levels of the system if they so desire.
For example, a teacher should be free to teach at the
level of secondary or at the ECCE level if they so wish,
once they have the required skills and competencies.
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The Way Forward –
Recommendations
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Human Resource Management – Need to develop a
Competency Profile for all personnel involved in policy
development, programme planning and delivery of
seamless education.
Rewriting of the job position descriptions to reflect
results based skills set, especially the attitudinal.
Ongoing training and coaching; job enlargement
through the opportunities to work and move around all
levels of the education system.
Suitable working conditions, reward/recognition and
compensation and career pathing
The Way Forward –
Recommendations
Social Marketing – Social Marketing to include all the
stakeholders and obtain ‘buy in’ and commitment to
managing the transition to educational seamlessness.
Sector Management – Quality Assurance/Quality
control -- Collaborative interface between and among
managers/administrators using the planning and
communication tools of project management, value
chain/responsibility charting (RASIC), as well monitoring
and evaluation.
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The Way Forward –
Recommendations
Resource Planning and Effective Management -focus on ‘value for money analysis’ using both financial
and social development metrics.
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Conclusion
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