Opinion: "Speed it up" – a concept waiting to be implemented

Has there ever been a roundtable discussion on the subject of education in recent years that didn't say that we are late and that we finally need to do something? I can't remember any. It's all tutti in the Republic. Er, the countries. The 16 federal states, which are always coordinating (KMK) and competing on education issues. Education policy always helps the heads of the federal states to raise their profile or sharpen their profile, as many other political areas cannot be so easily reduced to decided federal state decisions.

It was therefore hardly surprising that speed and timing once again played a role at this year's Education Digitalisation Conference. On a panel with New Zealand education researcher John Hattie and Federal Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU), it was said that a lot is already clear on the subject of education, digitalisation and media skills. The knowledge is there, but where is the implementation?

An opinion by Kristina Beer

Kristina Beer writes for heise online. She enjoys exploring the question of how technological progress affects society, the economy, and political decisions.

Prien surprised us with her answer, because assigning blame or responsibility is always dangerous: "We have difficulties with implementation in this country". This sentence hit home. Apparently in such a way that her party colleague Jan Riedel, Minister of Education in Saxony-Anhalt, added somewhat more cautiously: "It is an implementation challenge". John Hattie listened to the exchange between the ministers and the moderator with the help of a translator and, after some more back and forth, threw in a clear but also teasing "Speed it up!". The audience laughed.

We are still laughing and yet this laughter often gets stuck in our throats in the context of education. When we look at the ailing education infrastructure, the lack of digital equipment, when ChatGPT has long since turned homework and examination formats upside down, then we laugh – tormented. There is so much to do, but we never really seem to get out of the woods.

Education researcher Felicitas Macgilchrist explained the next day on a panel with Klaus Hurrelmann and other experts that change is also necessary when there is uncertainty, even when we know that we don't (can't) know everything yet. For example, in the case where commissions are set up on issues such as bans on cell phones and social media, but school and educational life continues as before for at least a whole year until they deliver results.

Macgilchrist referred to research on uncertainty. Uncertainty is not a bad thing, he said, because it is precisely when not all questions can be answered that particularly "reflective and confident decisions are made that open up space for different actions". Hattie's "Speed it up" could actually be put into practice, or even "implemented", but the need for definitive, crystal-clear and immovable certainties would have to be thrown overboard.

However, the panel around Macgilchrist also made it clear that our education system currently leaves no room for this. There is no room in the fixed education plans and no time for major changes in day-to-day operations, and then there is the lack of resources in the form of equipment and staff. Uta Hauck-Thum also criticized the fact that our education system only reactively seeks answers to problems and then does not react in a transformative way, but only develops small projects for these problems, which are merely placed alongside the traditional. The status quo remains unchanged!

The panel with John Hattie also raised the question of who should implement change or how this can be encouraged. One thing is clear: if something is to change in the classroom, change must also be possible there. But is this allowed, and are people supported? Hattie gave a good example of this on stage. In New South Wales, teachers were given their own AI tool to work with without fear – This also included the state making it clear: We will stand in front of you if you are attacked for your work. Among other things, parents could sue. Prien did say that with chatbot "Telli", German schools would now have their own AI, but Hattie did not accept this – we are late again.

"Implementations" take so long in our country because there are no resources, no room in tightly knit education plans, and no time for change. In addition, real transformation is rejected. When digitalization takes place, an analog process is digitalized without taking a step back and considering whether there might be an entirely different solution. If the panels at the Education Digitalisation conference have shown one thing, it is that John Hattie's "Speed it up" is not in the DNA of the German education system. The fact that technical developments and their acceleration really don't want to take this into account should be clear from ChatGPT at the latest. As speakers noted, it is still possible to try to keep such developments out of the classroom through "bans", but this is only likely to lead to the regular refrain in various variations over the next few years: "we overslept this", "we are late", "we are currently negotiating this between the federal states" and "we have set up a commission for this".

Mehr Infos

The theme of this year's Forum Bildung Digitalisierung conference was "Power Up – sovereign for the digital transformation" and discussed digital sovereignty with a view to our educational landscape. It was discussed how this should be anchored in the education system, but also how it can be achieved socially in the first place through changes in the education system. The current debates on banning cell phones in schools and the use of social media by young people were actually addressed in every major speech. In most cases, it was pointed out that more regulation of platforms is needed, at least with regard to social media use – the problem exceeds the resources and capabilities of educational institutions and individuals. With regard to mobile phone bans, it was pointed out on various occasions that bans only lead to those adolescents who are unable to acquire any media or digital skills at home being left with only the school environment to learn how to use devices and the much-criticised social media in a reflected and safe manner.

The conference featured big names on its panels, including education researcher John Hattie, Prof Dr Klaus Hurrelmann, Federal Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU), several state ministers, education experts and influencers such as Tarek Zaibi and Fabian Grischkat.

(kbe)