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In the SAHK, Conductive Education Principles refer to the following three key concepts derived from Professor Andras Peto's system of education*: |
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Unity of the body and mind
which refers to a holistic model of education and habilitation; |
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Client-based commitment in education and habilitation
which points to the importance of having the client as the focal point of our intervention. |
| 3. |
Intended active learning
which implies the movement from dysfunction to orthofunction to be accomplished through measures, designed to elicit a handicapped person's inborn intention or desire to learn.
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| Since importing Professor Peto's concepts in the early 1980s, we have worked hard in developing our own system of application. The adaptation and developmental work have been carried out in an organic manner, making reference to new trends and ideas in the fields of rehabilitation and public administration, both local and overseas. The article titled "Quality Service, Total Quality Management & Conductive Education" published in 1997-98 Annual Report was an example. Below are our responses to some heat topics last year. |
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Knowledge Management & Conductive Education
In recent years, the rapid growth and development of new technology and knowledge induce incessant rapid changes in every aspect of human life. New ideas well up quickly. It is common that societies, organizations and individuals find it hard to catch up the pace of change. How to systematically create, share, organize and apply new knowledge to benefit the human society becomes a big challenge of the mankind. It is also the key to success for societies, organizations and individuals in this competitive age. "Knowledge Management" is now a strategy adopted by every multi-national enterprises, corporations and non-government organizations for competitiveness enhancement. It is also a shared will of all personnel in managerial positions. If we review the Conductive Education concepts, we will find that the "Conductor's Principle" is in fact a kind of "Knowledge Management". In the Peto Andras Institute for Conductive Education of the Motor Disabled and Conductors' College in Budapest, the conductors' training programme synthesizes a wide spectrum of knowledge covering theories of education, neurology, psychology, physiology, anatomy, pathology, bio-mechanics and the various rehabilitation concepts. In actual practice, a conductor performs his duties holistically by acting as the disabled persons' care-giver, trainer, teacher and rehabilitation worker. Professor Peto combined knowledge of the different disciplines with the Conductive Education Principles to create a new knowledge systematically, which benefits people with neurological impairments and motor disorders. His work demonstrated a success example of "Knowledge Management". Due to a different service environment, we adopt the Trans-disciplinary Teamwork Approach to replace the Conductor's role. The trans-disciplinary team goes beyond interdisciplinary collaboration by accentuating on a unified and coherent mode of operation. Team members are required to share their professional knowledge, to learn from one another, and to integrate the different knowledge into a holistic system of training. Through in-service training activities on the Peto's concepts, a common philosophy and thus a set of common language in service operation are shared among the staff members. After years of work, a Hong Kong model of Conductive Education, which fits in well with the Hong Kong service environment has been developed. Readers may make reference to the set of publications by the Association for detailed expositions on this local system of application, which we call the "Conductive Learning System".
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A Discussion on the Education Reform from the Conductive Education Prospective
Last year, the government took the initiative to conduct a comprehensive review of the overall education system in Hong Kong. In September 1999, the Education Commission published a consultation document titled "Framework for Education Reform: Learning for Life", in which five principles of reform were proposed. Three of the five principles are "student-focused", "no-loser", and "life-wide learning". We find these principles in line with what the Conductive Education advocates. To achieve the ideal of "learning for life", the objectives of education should go beyond knowledge dissemination, potential development and socialization. Instead, it should be focussed on eliciting the learners' inborn intention or desire to learn, and on developing their self-learning motivation and ability. The former set of objectives implies a textbook-based, teacher-focused and societal-oriented thinking of education, while the latter is a real "student-focused" approach. In our course of providing rehabilitation and education services for the disabled throughout these years, the Conductive Education Principles give us a firm guide to a client-focused practice. According to the Consultation Document, the Principle "no-loser" refers to "there should not be, at any stage of education, dead-end screening that blocks further learning opportunities". In other words, evaluation and assessment at any stage of education should not be used as a tool to screen out, to label or to fail a pupil. In the Conductive Learning System, evaluation and assessment, which forms an integral part of our programme for the handicapped, is conducted in both formal and informal ways. The trans-disciplinary team evaluates and assesses the handicapped clients on their needs and learning progress holistically, for continuous programme reviews and adjustments. Thus, evaluation and assessment in our context is a positive exercise, which sheds light on individual programme development for each of our clients, while "no-loser" is our staff's shared commitment in service provision. The Principle of "life-wide learning", as stated in the Document, means "learning is not limited to school subjects or examination syllabuses. Students should have a comprehensive learning experience through the formal, nonformal and informal modes." On this basis, learning should not be limited in the classroom or in the school environment. Learning should be taken place everywhere in a diverse manner. Conductive Education, with its particular emphasis on the holistic needs of a handicapped person, holds the view that "no time of a day is better for learning than another". Thus, Conductive Education considers the arrangement of a proper daily schedule of upmost importance. Daily schedule refers to the arrangement of a day's activities. In practice, our staff will make use of every learning opportunity by putting different learning contents in line with the learners' natural sequence of daily living, thus making the learning process vivid and meaningful. Thus, under Conductive Education, "life-wide learning" has already been actualized among our clients.
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Conductive Education and the Aging Problem
Hong Kong's aging profile is becoming more critical in the recent years. Within the limit of resources available, how to achieve the Government's policy objectives of "enjoying a sense of security, belonging, pride and worthiness" of the Elderly Programme is a common concern in the Society. Being a social services organization, the Association has taken an active role to address the concern for a few years. Elderly people's caring needs are in one way or another very similar with those of the disabled persons. The physical and cognitive functioning of some elderly persons may decline to an extent that they become disabled, such as those who are suffering from Parkinson's Disease, dementia and adult hemiplegia. In 1997, the Association took the initiative to start an elderly project with the aim to develop a holistic rehabilitation model for the elderly based on the Peto's concept. The project gained the support from S.K. Yee Medical Foundation, which allocated three years' recurrent grants of around $1.2million per year.
After three years of outreaching consultancy works in several day care centres and care and attention homes for the elderly, we are delighted to report that we have developed a package of training courses for personnel involving in the elderly services. All the courses run were over-subscribed. We have also developed some tools for objective measurement of the effectiveness of the holistic model. Several of our reports will be released in International Conferences. More information could be found in the related topic in this Annual Report.
To conclude, the rapid development of information technology and the trend of globalization in economy have inevitably created incessant impacts on the existing political, social and cultural systems, worldwide. We are facing a new era of rapid change. We have to examine our Conductive Learning System with new ideas and new knowledge in a dynamic manner, and to develop the System further so that it could adapt well to the even changing environment. Every piece of our works, of course, builds on our commitment to the welfare and education of the underprivileged.
* Hari, Maria, The Human Principle in Conductive Education, Peto Conductive Educaiton International Institute, Budapest, 1988. & Kozma, I. - Balogh, E., "A brief introduction to conductive education and its application at an early age", Infants and Children, Vol. 8 No. 1, 1995, pg. 68-74. |
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