Education News

[House of Usher]

I thought I'd start a new thread, because I know there are several other people besides me who are interested in discussing education and teaching, and if I didn't start this thread I'd inevitably keep adding discussions of classroom technology and the highs and lows of teaching onto various other threads where it's not really relevant. I'm going to try to stop doing that!

A story that caught my eye last week was the boss of Tesco criticizing education for the poor literacy and numeracy skills of the pool of applicants from which supermarkets have to recruit their staff.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article6873415.ece

Interesting that he doesn't blame the schools themselves, but rather all the admin, league tables and teaching theory crap teachers have to contend with:

"From my perspective there are too many agencies and bodies, often issuing reams of instructions to teachers, who then get distracted from the task at hand: teaching children."

[locustsofdeath!]

Interesting point of view: I can find very little to fault with the school system in the UK, at least as far as the earlier years go. My 6-year-old is a very bright girl (I know, we all say that, but it's true) who was very bored with school in the States. Basically, it was play time, all the time. When we came here, I had her enrolled in the local school, and she is excited to go to school every day; she is engaged, learning rapidly and enjoying learning. Public education in the States is poor from the get-go.

Now, I can't say that as she gets older I will still feel confidence in the school system here. But as for a foundation, and nuturing her love of schooling, so far so good. I will be paying attention to this thread, to read your comments. Thanks for starting it Usher.

[House of Usher]

league tables and teaching theory crap teachers have to contend with

Just to clarify: that's "teaching theory crap," not "crap teachers." 

I stumbled over the parsing of that sentence myself when I read it again after it was too late to edit!

[Paul faplad Finch]

Well, I have no kids of my own but for various reasons am heavily involved in my nephews life at the moment and I've mentioned in various threads over the last few months about the troubles we've been having at his school.

If you are happy with the service you are getting Locusts then I couldn't be happier for you but I don't think that it is at all universally so. As mentioned above, much of the problem may well be too much beurocratic (I know, I've spelled that wrong haven't I?) interference and I'm sure part of it is down to the calibre of teacher.

I'll be very interested in what people have to say on this thread.

As regards my nephew though, the problems seem to have dried up and his teacher has lost the obstructive attitude she had at the start of the term. Seems a shame though that multiple visits and 'chats' had to go into getting things working smoothly.

[locustsofdeath!]

I suppose when it comes to teachers - and even schools - it comes down to a bit of luck. My daughter's teacher is a very nice lady and a wonderful teacher. However, I suppose this could change next year. I can, however, say with authority that most of the friends she brings round are much more advanced than American children of the same age. Of course this may also have to do with parenting, but I have to reiterate that I am very pleased with the schooling she's getting now.

This may change.

[House of Usher]

As mentioned above, much of the problem may well be too much bureaucratic (fixed it for you!) interference and I'm sure part of it is down to the calibre of teacher.

I couldn't agree more. I think in many cases of 'the poor teacher,' it's the kind that has an uncritical attitude, a total lack of imagination and a bland acceptance of the bureaucratic interference and the teaching theory model because 'those are the rules.' They also have a concept of professionalism that means doing what they are told rather than exercizing intellectual autonomy and trusting their own expert judgement.

Good teachers come up against the bureaucratic obstacles just the same, but challenge them and prioritize teaching. Bad teachers say the teaching must wait until all the right forms have been filled in and the files have been put in order for the Ofsted inspection.

[House of Usher]

News from last Friday:

A massive 3-year academic study has concluded that the primary school curriculum is "even narrower than that of the Victorian elementary schools".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/16/schools-report-critical-of-labour

The report's authors also state that the government's national strategy for schools, which introduced the daily literacy and numeracy hours, has massively centralised the system and de-professionalised teachers. There is now a generation of teachers who only know how to teach under that system, which has made teaching "inflexible and monolithic." (The Guardian, 16th October 2009)

[House of Usher]

Necropost

I've let this thread lie for a bit, but I thought I'd resurrect it today for a bit of potty election news.

In a speech in Kirklees, west Yorkshire, [David Cameron] also vowed to fire exam markers whom he said were awarding pupils points for writing only "fuck off" on their papers.

"As prime minister, I'd have two words for people like that and, yes, one of them does begin with an 'F': You're fired."

Okay, now here we have a prospective candidate for Prime Minister who has just shown he can knee-jerk with the best of them to an issue about which he understands absolutely bugger all.

The issue of examiners giving credit for 'fuck off!' on an exam script was first raised by one teacher at a conference to highlight the lack of discretion that very narrow, restrictive and prescriptive exam marking criteria allow them. Teachers are frustrated that they can't give proper credit for originality, creativity and purpose in their students' writing. This is because the syllabus demands they mark according to assessment criteria that read like a check list.

Example:

In an English exam with the WJEC, you would mark out of 20. There are 14 marks for content and organization. Writing Fuck off! would get you one mark for 'there is a limited range of vocabulary with little variation of word choice for meaning or effect.' There are 6 marks for sentence structure, punctuation and spelling. Needless to say there are also marks to be gained here for Fuck off! - at least one and maybe two marks for 'the spelling of simple words is usually accurate' and 'punctuation is attempted where appropriate and with some accuracy.'

Needless to say, the maximum GCSE grade awardable to the Fuck off! essay is 'G' (but more likely a 'U'). A 'G' is four grades below what is considered a good pass, but it obviously worries David Cameron quite a lot that school pupils should be so unfairly rewarded for their disengagement, truculence and incivility.

But how many times does this happen in practice? How many real-life culprits is David Cameron proposing to sack for this heinous offence of dumbing down and political correctness? Or is it just frustrated teachers venting steam at the ludicrousness of the mechanistic approach to teaching and assessment now demanded of and entrenched in our school system by the National Curriculum and Ofsted?

As I said above, it's frustrating for teachers when they have to mark down good work because it doesn't compare well against marking criteria that are weighted arbitrarily. How do you decide how many marks to give for actually writing something interesting, describing things vividly and being able to write naturalistic speech? How much relative weight do you give to punctuation?

Example number two:

In the narrow-banded marking scheme of the WJEC English specification, 14 marks out of 20 is a 'B,' but miss out on 3 marks and you get a 'D.' I had in my class a lad who wrote an excellent, descriptive, interesting and ambitious science fiction story. He got 9 marks for content (equivalent to a 'C+') but only 1 mark out of 6 for sentence structure, punctuation and spelling, because even though his sentence structure was very good (worth 5 marks), his spelling was okay (worth 3 marks) and his control of tenses was perfect (worth 6), The maximum I could award him was 2 marks because his punctuation wasn't up to scratch. Needless to say he was puzzled when I told him he'd got a 'D' but it could be a 'B' if he fixed the punctuation. He couldn't understand why punctuation was worth 2 grades, or why the grading bands are only 2 marks wide.

Fuck off! indeed.

[Colin YNWA]

Well working in FE if the Tories get in I might as well fuck off!

[TordelBack]

I'm attending my first ever Parent-Teacher thing tonight, a getting-to-know-you session in advance of my eldest starting school in September.  They're combining it with necessary finalising of the enrollment paperwork, which I think shows a pretty positive attitude to making something useful out of these bureaucratic things.  All that said, I'm bricking it!  

Oh and:

He couldn't understand why punctuation was worth 2 grades, or why the grading bands are only 2 marks wide.

Holy crap, that's moronic.  Mind you, I once lost out on a much-needed college bursary by 0.3% (I got an average of 69.25%  across three subjetcs - 69.55% would have been enough to pay my fees for the next year.  Grrrrr).. 

[Tiplodocus]

We were suprised that one of Tiny Tips' teachers suggested that it might be better if he wasn't so creative and imaginative in his writing. "His stories start out with him on his way to school and before you know it, there are trolls and monsters everywhere. He should rein it in a bit more.".

Er, no. 

[House of Usher]

I'm attending my first ever Parent-Teacher thing tonight, they're combining it with necessary finalising of the enrolment paperwork

Better than the adult ed. place where I used to work. There we were expected to do the paperwork instead of the first lesson! This is why all the enrolment forms for my classes would come back again in week two for the incomplete fields to be filled in.

We were suprised that one of Tiny Tips' teachers suggested that it might be better if he wasn't so creative and imaginative in his writing. "His stories start out with him on his way to school and before you know it, there are trolls and monsters everywhere. He should rein it in a bit more."

Let's see what the mark scheme says.

Top marks (A): writing developed with originality and imagination; plot and characterization effectively constructed and sustained; narrative is purposefully organized and sequenced and well paced (etc.)

Good marks (B): overall the writing is controlled and coherent; plot and characterization are convincingly sustained; narrative has shape, pace and detail; there are no trolls or monsters (etc.)

Average marks (C): some control of plot and characterization; an appropriate beginning and an apt conclusion; narrative is developed to sustain the reader's interest (etc.)

Fail! (D, E, F, G, U): basic sense of plot and characterization; simple chronological writing predominates; content undeveloped; limited range of vocabulary (etc.)

No wonder teachers feel like they're treated like robots or idiots. But to be fair a lot of them are one or both. And they earn more than I do.

[TordelBack]

Must report a very positive experience at Parent-Teacher thing, management and staff made a great first impression.  But bloody hell, the cost of it all!  Had to shell out a hundred quid right there and then for books etc, then there was a list of 'standard annual donations', which started at three hundred, and then on and on and on... and that was before they got onto our parental duty t fund-raise.  Free education me arse!  Apparently my taxes pay for teachers' salaries (at 1 per 30 kids), 50% of the basic maintenance costs, and that's your lot.  Good job neither of us are earning a bean, I'd feel rightly ripped off! 

Last time I say anything negative about a private education, turns out it's just a matter of degree.

[House of Usher]

Yesterday my partner had a brief discussion with the parent of a student she's tutoring for GCSE science. The mother was giving her reaction to the government's plan to allow universities to charge up to £9,000 per year tuition fees.

Neither of the girl's parents are keen for their two daughters to go to university because they believe it's a bad investment. They know several graduates who worked hard and got good degree results but have been unemployed or working in routine occupations since graduation.

They can't see the benefit to their daughters of going to university, either in educational or employability terms. They don't believe our overcrowded university system can deliver the intellectual rigour it did twenty years ago now that the admissions and ongoing assessment criteria have been set at rock bottom to widen participation and hold down the drop-out rate to meet government inclusivity targets and maximize the income stream from tution fees.

Quite simply, the parents regard the university experience as a bad buy for their own fairly bright children, and they would much rather see them working than put work on hold for three years while they rack up debts before emerging into the labour market where there is nothing waiting for them.

The girls, on the other hand, don't want to miss out on university because it's what all their friends are doing and they are looking forward to participating in the student social life. What they don't realize is that the student social life isn't all it's cracked up to be. It has moved in a much more mainstream direction now that more and more students choose to remain in their home town, live at home with their parents, and eschew grotty student drinking establishments in favour of the glitzy town centre bars that run cheap drinks promotions, i.e. the same places everyone goes to who isn't at university. They don't realize that people their own age who work for a living probably live at home with their parents or rent a room in a shared house, have low overheads and can afford to go out on the pull and get pissed three or more nights of the week without acquiring debts of over £9,000 a year before they've even swilled down a Bacardi Breezer.

£9,000 a year sounds to me like quite an expensive party, and if your most noble motive for doing a degree is to improve your employment prospects, I can't help thinking there are better and more entertaining ways to spend £9,000 a year than on tuition fees to a teaching establishment that is, after all, only in it for the money.

[Keef Monkey]

I'm back at college as a mature student, and wondering if I made the right decision. I left a great job in the industry I want to be in because for the couple of years I was there I was kept on temp contracts, never knowing for sure if I'd have a job in a couple of months time. Decided enough was enough and am at college doing an HND with the aim of going to uni and trying to get a degree, thinking it'll lead to some security but all this talk about the costs and looking at unemployment nowadays I'm wishing I'd just stuck with the job. Can't help thinking that permanent contract might have been right round the corner and I've just thrown it away. I enjoy college and am genuinely finding the act of learning again pretty exciting, but as I've already been through the whole student loan situation when I was younger, I'm adding to that debt by doing this. If uni was to cost me that kind of money I'd be screwed.

Just feeling a bit sorry for myself really, that's my education news!