tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post836186505257662566..comments2024-02-16T08:32:46.618+00:00Comments on Donald Clark Plan B: 7 ways education contributes to rioting?Donald Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-35304370853706551072011-09-16T14:23:35.948+00:002011-09-16T14:23:35.948+00:00I think it could be done a lot better? Too right ....I think it could be done a lot better? Too right ... the lack of planning and the short-term nature of what goes on in schools is frustrating, and I would like to be able to point the finger at the swings in Govt policy on doing this ... but that isn't always the case.AIEEE EXAMhttp://www.entrancei.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-87603276645147352112011-08-30T12:17:19.796+00:002011-08-30T12:17:19.796+00:00Great blog post! However the main way that the Edu...Great blog post! However the main way that the Education System contributed to rioting is the National Curriculum itself. This was designed to close down the incomplete radicalism of the sixties, make control its central feature, prove TINA, get people thinking in tramlines and to accept that there is no value to learning about anything other than what you have been told to learn about. The reward is a meal ticket for life if you do what you are told. Not so much '"A foot stamping on a human face forever' as 'Exams stamping on a human face forever'Fred Garnetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10468869867650139960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-10988380307267544342011-08-29T07:18:56.153+00:002011-08-29T07:18:56.153+00:00Re: AMEE 2011 picture by girl for homework
Please ...Re: AMEE 2011 picture by girl for homework<br />Please check your stories on snopes.com or other similar site. Snopes doubts authenticity of the story.http://www.snopes.com/embarrass/mistaken/shovel.aspAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-42771973333175476992011-08-20T11:03:07.608+00:002011-08-20T11:03:07.608+00:00Donald - I absolutely agree about the plod through...Donald - I absolutely agree about the plod through the text approach - it's lazy and counter-productive. But I would contend that much of Shakespeare's value lies in the language, so it should be considered. There are many imaginative and engaging ways of teaching Shakespeare, but a system that's geared to exams can't cope with it.Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11647405720597546140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-56685529154813349702011-08-16T17:06:35.003+00:002011-08-16T17:06:35.003+00:00Hi Rob - re No 6, I should expand. I chose these t...Hi Rob - re No 6, I should expand. I chose these three as there's specific areas of the curriculum that, I think, are counter productive with the majority of learners. <br /><br />I'm very familiar with the maths GCSE curriculum and see no point in the more esoteric chunks of non-functional maths that are rammed down the throat of every child until they are 16 (Vorderman report wants to continue this until they are 18!). This includes much of the algebra, trigonometry and more esoteric number theory.<br /><br />In English, I've seen kids turned off literature by too early exposure to 'written-only' Shakespeare. I still find it astonishing that a 14 year old should be tackling issues like love and gender by READING Shakespeare from written sources, without ever having seen it performed. It was never intended to be read. It nearly crippled my kids with boredom, and one actually loved drama. The emphasis on often esoteric poetry is also often lost on these kids.<br /><br />On Latin, I've blogged loads. Teaching a dead language is a dead loss.<br /><br />I'm not against these subjects being taught but to mandate them for all children and see them as the core curriculum is weird. The EBacc is PISA-driven and will condemn large numbers of kids to the certain perception of failure.<br /><br />What is needed is a sense of balance. I can't see why vocational qualifications can't get the recognition they deserve.Donald Clarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-42708883452761432242011-08-16T14:41:53.898+00:002011-08-16T14:41:53.898+00:00I agree with much of this - but not No.6. Who deci...I agree with much of this - but not No.6. Who decides what's irrelevant? I can remember the cry of relevance when I was training as a teacher in the 70s. We should be using schools to prepare kids for all the factory and engineering jobs they were going to do. Oh, wait - then Mrs Thatcher arrived. Relevance and irrelevance are only useful if you see school simply as a place to prepare people for a particular function in society - and since technological change is happening so fast now, it's impossible to predict what will be required. So, I have no problem with literary criticism (well, I would say that, wouldn't I?) Surprised that a philosophy graduate takes this line.<br />On holidays, I always liked the German system, where the regions take holidays on a staggered rota, so that there is no point in the calendar when the entire population of children are on holiday.Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11647405720597546140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-82509679820629137112011-08-15T21:55:19.816+00:002011-08-15T21:55:19.816+00:00Thanks Dook
On school hols, it's a simple matt...Thanks Dook<br />On school hols, it's a simple matter of supply and demand. A spread would reduce prices as demand is distributed.<br /><br />As for schools being full during the hols, have to disagree. I have a primary school in my street and two large secondary schools close by. They are empty. Sure there may be a few support staff around,but I'm not sure that one or two IT or support staff are relevant here as they're not utilising the classrooms, halls and sports facilities. The rest of the world works in realtime. They use their buildings year round. Occupancy rates in schools, colleges and universities have been tracked, and the data is worrying. Most of these buildings are poorly utilised. Totally agree on planning but that means little if the basic structure doesn't change.Donald Clarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00796341486328270474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-76607330890929295142011-08-15T20:08:03.118+00:002011-08-15T20:08:03.118+00:00Those long summer holidays ... oh how I remember t...Those long summer holidays ... oh how I remember them. Even though I am not employed by a school (working at an LA but please don't hold that against me ... consider me part of the damage limitation exercise) I still fondly remember when the children would be smiling as they left the schools gates, to be followed afterwards by the staff, most of them breathing a sigh of relief.<br /><br />Having worked in a school with short summer holidays (5 term year, 8 weeks in each term with a 2 week break between each term, and 4 weeks in the summer) I can clearly see the impact the long holiday has, but there are a couple of barriers to changing the school year.<br /><br />The argument about holiday costs is a moot point. As soon as you change the school year the holiday firms will change their tack as well. Anyone would think they want to earn a healthy profit!<br /><br />As for the buildings being empty ... oh that they were. During those holidays you will find a variety of support staff. IT staff (yes, even in the most consumerised school where all children and staff bring their own devices there will still be IT folk, providing the infrastructure that the kit runs on, that manage the data ... and yes, data protection is a minor thing, I know ... but it is a legal thing ... and that is before we get to the site staff who will be painting, repairing, making good, changing classroom configurations yet again because yet another new person has joined senior management and has had a bright idea about the configuration of rooms ... and then we have the admin staff ... the people who have spent all year trying to get information out of families about where they live, who their doctors are, etc ... and they use this time to correct records, archive old records, prepare for the school year)<br /><br />Do I think it could be done a lot better? Too right ... the lack of planning and the short-term nature of what goes on in schools is frustrating, and I would like to be able to point the finger at the swings in Govt policy on doing this ... but that isn't always the case. <br /><br />When new members of staff come in they will frequently like to bring in their own ideas, their own plans, their own agenda. That can and will mean change ... sometimes, yes, it is for changes sake or down to a 'power' thing ... but it is still change.<br /><br />Get planning better at school level, get schools sticking to long term development plans, get them to have a reasonable and appropriate method of deviating from the plans (and darned good reasons too ...)<br /><br />I often have a bit of banter with people who say project managers are the stiflers of innovation. I tend to think people who don't plan, resulting in headless chicken syndrome are far worse.Dookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14836523309838842866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21077063.post-64558144262980608962011-08-15T15:19:41.926+00:002011-08-15T15:19:41.926+00:00A system designed to fail 50%? Our education syst...A system designed to fail 50%? Our education systems was built around an industrial economy, not the post-industrial world we live in. The education system by its own definition fails 50% of its clients who don't achieve 5 A-C including Maths and English - the threshold required for entry into an aspirational life style. The system is designed and maintained by those for whom it has delivered and worked and as a result across the world we see reports and recommendations rejected discussing educational reform, Wolf, Leitch, Tomlinson in the UK, the NAVE <br />report in the USA http://goo.gl/DFC9Y Can you imagine any industry that would reject 50% of its raw material after 12 years effort. So that this is not just a rant, here are <br />seven initiatives that I have looked at in the last year that are worthy of investigation that in my opinion are capable of increasing the *yeild* of our education systems.<br /><br />1. More and better formative assessment tied in with with immediate feedback and instrumentation. See Dylan Wiliam's work + Khan Academy <br /><br />2. Use of blind student peer review against a competence based curriculum. See Dan Buckleys work Cambridge education<br /><br />3. Integration of technology within every subject rather than as a separate subject. ALT recommendation into National curriculum review<br /><br />4. Integrated assignment based learning. Oracle Thinkquest initiative results<br /><br />5 Defined functional literacy and numeracy that 90% of students pass and will use. - NOCN work on functional skills in schools<br /><br />6. Personalised learning that is student centric and flips the model - Khan Academy<br /><br />7 Education systems that bring the outside world into institutions - blue ribbon schools in the USA <br /><br /><br />It is ironic that many of these methods are used to deliver in failing schools and to excluded students. In a few weeks time we will hear that exams are getting easier, I don't expect to hear that 50% of the students did not make the grade. In education we are charged with creating more gold while at the same time retaining its value? Perhaps it's time to drop the gold standard in education.Dick Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05921893804004765428noreply@blogger.com