Page 109 - Looking_after_school

3. Touchstones: pedagogical articulations

speed, and (possibly) personally adjusted learning outcomes. This may
result in a system of personalised learning pathways and personalised
outcomes. The system of learning pathways first of all serves the stu-
dents, while the expectations of society are secondary; the system of
year groups first of all serves the expectations of society, while the
perspective of the student is subservient (as is shown in choosing for
school year repetition).
From a pedagogical perspective, the year class system is problematic
in so far as it calls upon capacity or maturity in order to explain the
‘not being able to follow’, and in so far as the year group solves the
problem (by using school year repetition). In reality, this often comes
down to giving up a belief in pedagogical chances and hoping that
‘natural growth’ (and thus something outside of the school) will solve
the problems at hand, whereas differentiation within the class could
have solved the problems (fully realising that we do not take costs in
terms of financial means and material conditions into account here).
The system of learning pathways is problematic in so far as differences
in learning potential between students are set from the start. Conse-
quently, the differences in learning duration are taken for granted, as
are possibly the learning outcomes that they acquire in light of their
differences in potential. Also in this case, then, the belief in peda-
gogical chances is left behind. The personalisation of learning time
and learning outcomes risks placing the responsibility entirely in the
hands of the student, and thus no longer (or less) in the hands of the
school or the teacher.

Personalising learning goals

In a more extreme version of personalisation, the school no longer
uses one set of goals for a specific group of students but starts from
personalised learning targets. This personalisation of goals can be
related to the content of goals and/or the realisation of certain levels
of proficiency. In so far as schools and society take interest in a basic
formation for everyone, there will be little societal support for the per-
sonalisation of this basic formation; but it is different when the expec-
tation concerns factual learning outcomes and the belief that these
outcomes can be realised on different levels of proficiency depending

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