Conductive Education
Applying Conductive Education Principles in Services - Key to Success
In the SAHK, Conductive Education Principles refer to the following three key concepts derived from Professor Andras Peto's system of education:
Unity of the body and mind - which refers to a holistic model of education and habilitation;
Client-based commitment in education and habilitation - which points to the importance of having the client as the focal point of our intervention.
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.
According to our experiences the key to success is the sum of the following elements:
1. Top management commitment
2. Organization and leadership
3. A common philosophy and a culture of service
4. An organic local system of application
(1) Top Management Commitment
We consider "Top Management Commitment" the utmost important element. Only with top management commitment, the Conductive Education Principles can be applied thoroughly in every domain of service delivery from organizational infrastructure arrangement to day to day operation. We, therefore, have pledged explicitly in our Mission Statement that the Association adopts the principles of Conductive Education in service provision.
(2)Organization and Leadership
Organization structure defines the role specifications of the different stakeholders within the Association, while leadership provides the necessary cohesion.
At the policy level, the Council is responsible for policy-making and resource allocation. At the strategic level, the Jockey Club Conductive Learning Centre Management Committee takes a leading role in the overall promotion and development of the application of the Conductive Education Principles in Hong Kong. It also manages to provide consultation and professional support to service units applying the Conductive Education Principles within and outside the Association.
At the management level, the different service management committees have formulated service objectives in accordance with the Conductive Education Principles for their respective services. They develop various management initiatives and provide supervision in the implementation process. At the operational level, each service unit has formed its own core group, consisting of a trans-disciplinary team of professional staff, steering the implementation of the Principles in the unit. The Association has appointed several programme coordinators, who work closely with staff members of the Jockey Club Conductive Learning Centre, paying regular visits to the service units, advising and supporting the respective unit-based core groups.
(3) A Common Philosophy and Culture of Service
Unlike Hungary, we adopt the Trans-disciplinary Team Approach to replace the Conductor's role in programme planning, programme implementation and review. As the team is composed of members with different training backgrounds, a common philosophy is important in order to provide a firm foundation for trans-disciplinary collaboration and to promote team cohesiveness.
A booklet which gives a detailed account of the common philosophy adopted and shared among our staff members was published last year. It is based on the common philosophy that our culture of service has formed and the total involvement among staff achieved.
Staff development is our strategy to promote the Association's culture of service. A "Regulations for the Services" which describes the Association's Mission, objectives and expectations of every staff member has been issued. Different kinds of induction or orientation activities are tailor-made for all the newly recruits.
(4)An Organic Local System of Application
The education and habilitation of the handicapped persons involve socio-cultural issues and environmental factors. Therefore, the Association has worked hard in developing our own system of application since importing Professor Peto's concepts in the early 80's. The adaptation and developmental work have been carried out in an organic manner so that the new system could grow and develop as experience accumulates and the external or internal service environment changes.
We have issued several publications to introduce our own system of application in the three major service settings of the Association, by 1998 covering all the age groups of our clientele. The three major service settings are special child care centres, special schools, and sheltered workshops cum hostels.
To conclude, we have to stress that no one single system can be applied universally without making adaptations and modifications to suit the socio-cultural and environmental context of application. With the top management's commitment to the Conductive Education Principles, we organized our infrastructure and leadership at policy, strategic, management and operational levels. Through a common philosophy, we developed our organizational culture and built up a dedicated team of staff. Today, SAHK has successfully incorporated the Conductive Education Principles into its services and has developed a local system of application, fitting well into the Hong Kong service environment. We call our system of application the "Conductive Learning System".