Punishment is not Education

In 1854 Charles Adderley was responsible for the Young Offenders Act (a part of his ‘reformatory’ policy), and he introduced the Manchester and Salford Education Bill, in which a local education rate was first proposed. In Punishment is not Education (1856) and in his Tract on Tickets of Leave (1857) he pushed further his plea that education might cure crime more effectively than punishment.

On 21 June 1858, in moving the education vote, he gave the first official estimate of the cost of a national system of elementary education: he put the amount at a million pounds per annum. At the same time he pointed out that that was the first day on which the University of Oxford was conducting its middle-class examinations throughout the country, and was thereby inaugurating a new correlation of the universities to national life. Next day the first royal commission on elementary education was announced.




Oxford dictionary of National Biography
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/articleHL/30341?docPos=5&anchor=match


.............In the same year he introduced without success an education bill which aimed at making education compulsory. In Derby's third administration of 1866 Adderley became under-secretary for the colonies, and was immediately confronted by the difficult case of Governor Edward John Eyre whom he controversially defended from the attacks of John Stuart Mill and others. In the same session he carried through the House of Commons the British North America Act (1867), which created the dominion of Canada. Amid his parliamentary occupations, Adderley published Europe Incapable of American Democracy (1867), in which he sought to reconcile his Conservative faith with advanced ideas of social freedom and progress.

.....In his speech in the upper house on the education code of May 1882 (reprinted as a pamphlet) he practically advocated free education and protested against the complexity of the code with its detailed system of payment by results. He sat on the reformatory and industrial schools commission (1883) and on the education commissions of 1883–4 and 1887.

Education strategy

What exactly do we mean by “learning” in multi-agent context?

A natural definition is that players “learn” if they eventually succeed in predicting their opponents’ behavior with a high degree of accuracy (Foster and Young, 2001).

There is a well-known condition in statistics that guarantees that all players will learn to predict in the strong sense. Namely, it suffices that each player’s forecast of the others’ behavior, conditional on his own behavior, never exclude events that have positive probability under their actual joint behavior. This is the absolute continuity condition (Blackwell and Dubins, 1962; Kalai and Lehrer, 1993).

Interactive learning is inherently more complex than single-agent learning,because the act of learning changes the object to be learned. If agent A is trying to learn about agent B, A’s behavior will naturally depend on what she has learned so far, and also on what she hopes to learn next. But A’s behavior can be observed by B, hence B’s behavior may change as a result of A’s attempts to learn it. The same holds for B’s attempts to learn about A.

This feedback loop is a central and inescapable feature of multi-agent learning situations. It suggests that methods which work for single-agent learning problems may fail in multi-agent settings. It even suggests that learning could fail in general, that is, there may exist situations in which no rules allow players to learn one another’s behavior in a completely satisfactory sense.



THE POSSIBLE AND THE IMPOSSIBLE IN MULTI-AGENT LEARNING, H. Peyton Young, Dept. of Economics Working paper, Oxford Univ., Jan 2007








Over educated ?????

In recent years, alongside the rapid expansion in higher education, there have been important changes in the types of qualifications being awarded by universities. While many of these new qualifications have emerged in response to changing economic needs, not all of them are career related. Thus, over-educated workers could essentially be comprised of those who have non-professional qualifications, a low quality of education, or both. Pryor and Schaffer (1999) showed that US workers who experienced downward occupational mobility generally had lower cognitive skills irrespective of educational credentials.

Beyond all aspects of human capital and job characteristics, several factors may give rise to labour market rigidities that limit the capacity of the market to fully utilise and reward highly educated workers. Such constraints could arise from family commitments, regional immobility or restrictive work practices. The Newcastle Alumni Survey containing a wealth of information on individual family circumstances and personal commitments was examined to see how far they may result in some graduates taking jobs that require less than their educational credentials.

The most distinguishing feature of the Newcastle Alumni Survey is that it is the only British data set that contains two direct questions measuring the extent of education under- utilisation. The first question is: “What is/was the minimum formal qualification level required for entering this job?” and the second question is: “What do you believe to be the education level required to actually do this job?” Answers to both questions are on a four-point scale as follows: postgraduate qualification, degree, sub-degree qualification, and no qualifications required. The first question provides a match between acquired and required qualifications to get the job, whereas the second question provides a direct measure of over-education in terms of job content. As all previous studies for the UK have replied on questions framed as in the first question, the incidence of over-education may have been overestimated by past researchers for this reason.

Looking at family commitment variables, having children prior to first job decreases (at the 10 percent level of significance) the probability of being over-educated. High debt commitments (i.e., debts in excess of £1000 upon leaving the University) raise the probability of being over-educated in the first employment. Data used from the Newcastle Alumni Survey was especially commissioned for research into over-education in the graduate population, to employ a subjective measure based upon a question that measures the education level needed to do the job. Our descriptive statistics revealed that about one in five university graduates were not employed in graduate- level positions after spending some time in the labour force. Unobserved ability differences between similarly educated workers and the quality of education are usual conjectures offered to explain these findings.

Source:The Determinants of Graduate Over-Education,
Peter Doltona and Mary Sillesb
a)Department of Economics, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, England.
b)St. John’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3JP, England.








In the field of education, the vitality of institutions and organisations are function of vitality of teachers, administrators and other stakeholders, hence, the vitality of the students is directly related to the vitality of schools and institutions of higher learning. Teachers need to recognise the responsibility for helping to prepare every student for followings:
- look forward to a future that will bring many changes and to accept the responsibility for helping to shape that future.
- recognise his special aptitudes and abilities, and thus facilitate the development of his individuality,
- develop a sound basis for accepting a defensible and evolving system of moral and ethical values for guidance in exercising his responsibilities as a citizen,
- recognise that happiness comes primarily from progress in achieving and helping others to achieve worthwhile goals and objectives,
- seek and utilize learning and knowledge as a basis for understanding meanings in relationship to his life and to society,
- learn to use the scientific method as a basis for studying and resolving the problems he encounters.

Educational values

"What are the qualities, attitudes, understandings and capacities which all young people should acquire through their education?" We need to give young learners far more than skills for employment alone, even if such skills are key to the country’s economy.'

The paper highlights how the government’s use of business jargon, when describing the aims and values of education, demonstrates the changed understanding of education over the last few decades. Terms such as ‘inputs’, ‘measurable outputs’, ‘targets’, ‘curriculum delivery’, or ‘performance indicators’ sound business-like, as compared with only a few decades ago. In 1972, education was defined in terms of an ‘engagement’ between teacher and learner and, in 1931, as ‘the source of common enlightenment and common enjoyment’ .

The paper says that the government quite rightly defines its reforms as an attempt ‘to raise standards’, but the concept of what ‘standards’ means is rarely examined. Should it not be defined in terms of the overall aim or purpose of educating young people? If so, the paper says it makes it difficult to understand the ‘equivalence of standards’ between learning standards geared to the more efficient working of, say, a budget airline, as compared with those geared to grasping complex concepts of nuclear physics, or appreciating the poetry of Hopkins.

The Review believes that the central aims and values of education should be about making young people think intelligently and critically about the physical, social, economic and moral worlds they inhabit. It also recommends that recognition be given to ‘competence, to coping, to creativity, and to co-operation with others’ (as set out in Capability Manifesto of the Royal Society of the Arts in 1980); with respect for the experiences, concerns and aspirations of the learners; and provide the preparation for responsible and capable citizenship.

Education should also be about ideas and values which inspire and prepare young people to face actively the ‘big issues’ that affect them and their community, such as environmental change, racism and injustices of many kinds, it says.

The Review recommends that the aims and values of education be constantly appraised, and that teachers should play a central role in such deliberation. It also urges further discussion on this issue, through forums, that involve teachers, learners, parents and members of the community.


source: www.ox.ac.uk/media
Nuffield Review on Education



The Nuffield Review is an independent review of all aspects of 14-19 education and training: aims; quality of learning; curriculum; assessment; qualifi cations;progression to employment, training and higher education; providers; go vernance; policy. The question that the Review has posed is, What are the qualities, attitudes, understandings and capacities which, in different degrees, an educated 19 year old should have in this day and age.

For the government the question has been how to improve the nation’s skills considered as one of the defining political, economic and social issues of our age - looking at wider aim of greater social inclusion, a more just society and personal fulfillment.

The review points out to the task of education which is to help young people realise some potentials and not others; it is to do so by drawing upon the cultural resources which we have inherited and through which those potential strengths and interests are directed. But the selection of this and not that potential (e.g. the potential for cooperation rather than conflict) and the choice of the cultural resources through which to develop ‘selected potentials’ (e.g. through the introduction to a particular literature) depends upon the values which are embodied in the underlying and often unexamined aims of education.

It’s always necessary, then, when the time comes to make changes to our education system, to pay attention to its broader aims. If we don’t do that, if we work on too narrow a front, then we risk damaging the values that ultimately define an educated and humane society. The pursuit of economic prosperity, for example, could be at the expense of social values, such as greater community cohesion, or of personal values such as those of personal fulfilment and growth. Derek Morrell (the civil servant who in effect was the architect of the Schools Council6) argued in 1966 that, since there was lack of consensus over the aims of education at a time of rapid social change, we must find ways of living with diversity:

‘Jointly, we need to recognise that freedom and order can no longer be reconciled
through implicit acceptance of a broadly ranging and essentially static consensus on
educational aims and methods.’

One reason for the neglect of public deliberation in what are morally controversial issues is the changed language of education – one which recently has come to be dominated by the language of management. But, if one speaks the language of
management, one is in danger of treating young people and their teachers as objects to be managed. Cuban, in The Blackboard and the Bottom Line: Why Schools can’t be Businesses, refers to a successful businessman who, dedicated to improving public schools, told an audience of teachers, ‘If I ran a business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t be in business very long’. Crossexamined by a teacher, he declared that he collected his blueberries, sending back those that did not meet the high quality he insisted on. To this the teacher replied, ‘We can never send back our blueberries. We take them rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. We take them with attention deficit disorder, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language. We take them all.

There is emphasise on dualism between academic and vocational (or applied) that is questionable. In general, of course, both education and training are about the promotion of learning. That clearly is what the system is set up to bring about. But not all learning counts as education. The central meaning of education is evaluative – it picks out certain kinds of learning as worth while. In that sense, an educational activity is to be contrasted with mere training or with indoctrination or with activities which deaden the mind and the capacity to think.

There is a common association between ‘education’ and the initiation into the different forms of knowledge which constitute what it means to think intelligently – the acquisition and appropriate application of the concepts, principles and modes of enquiry to be found in the physical and social sciences, in the study of literature and history, in mathematics, in language and in the arts.

There is a need to recognize the importance, at every level of policy making and practice, of constant deliberation over these aims and values and their manifestation in the particular context of school or college; and to see the central role of teachers in such deliberation.

Source: Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training, Issues Papers 6, Oxford Univ. Feb 2006

Analysis: Permission to cheat

Prof.: God forbids cheating because cheating is wrong, cheating is not made wrong by God forbidding it.

Theology student : according to the divine command theory of morality, some acts are made obligatory by virtue of God’s command. On this theory, if God commands cheating, then cheating would actually be a duty.

Prof.: this just shows a defect with the divine command theory. If God orders us to cheat then the theory implies that cheating is permissible. But as you earlier noted, if cheating is permissible, then it is impossible to cheat. So God would be requiring the impossible.

Roy Sorensen, Permission to Cheat; Analysis, No 295, vol 67, July 2007, Blackwell publishing.

Demystify the Primes

No longer prime numbers confine to the mathematical citadel. Three finest mathematicians found a way to use primes to protect our credit card number as they travel through the electronic shopping malls, or the global marketplaces. Today, without the power of prime numbers e-business doesn’t exist. Every time you place an order on a website your co is using the security provided by the existence of prime number with a 100 digits. Over a million primes have already been put to use to protect the world of electronic commerce.

The security of this system depends on our inability to answer basic questions about prime numbers. Mathematicians know enough about the primes to build these internet codes, but not enough to break them. The more we demystify the primes, the less secure these internet codes are becoming. These numbers are the keys to the locks that protect the world’s electronic secrets. And this is the reason why Number Theory and business have become such strange bedfellows.

……At the turn of 21 century we were still completely in the dark as to the nature of the most fundamental numbers in mathematics.

Marcus du Sautoy, The music of primes, 2001






Righteous are you, O Lord,
And your laws are right.
The statutes you have laid down are righteous;
They are fully trustworthy.
My zeal wears me out.
For my enemies ignore your words.
Yours promises have been thoroughly tested’
And your servant loves them.
Though I am lowly and despised,
I do not forget your precepts.
Your righteousness is everlasting and your law is true.
Trouble and distress have come upon me,
But your commands are my delight.
Your statutes are forever right;
give me understanding that I may live


Psalm 119:139

Learner Autonomy

Learner independence - mature dependence - learner autonomy

Develop the exercise of independence of mind, and a readiness to challenge and criticise accepted opinion.

The study of a foreign culture develops an awareness of contrasts with our native
culture. Learning strategies may be designed to inculcate independence of thought, most particularly the vigorous argument that we seek to encourage in regular tutorials. Students are expected to acquire familiarity with different and sometimes conflicting approaches and interpretations, and to develop their own views through critical engagement with the work of others.

They will also have regular contact, through tutorials and lectures, with postholders at the forefront of new research whose own work is likely to challenge certain aspects of the status quo within their particular fields.


One study found that researchers argue that success at university is associated with personal confidence and competence, emotional stability, a tendency to introversion, acceptance of extra-curricular work demands, and independence from teachers. Failure is associated with learning anxiety (in both lack of confidence and incompetence), and overdependence on teachers. The key factors determining success or failure that staff-student relationships can actively control are, therefore, independence or overdependence. (Raaheim and Wankowski, 1981). Ramsden (1992: 111-6) presents three main theories of teaching in higher education. The first, a notion of teaching as transmission, assumes a traditional didactic approach, with the teacher as an undisputed source of information and the students as passive recipients. It is modelled on the idea that input equals output: as long as students attend and regurgitate lectures they will succeed. The second, a transitional stage, sees teaching as organising student activity. Authoritative knowledge recedes into the background, and learning becomes a process of active supervision. Finally, there is teaching as a means of making learning possible. This theory incorporates and develops aspects of the first two, but has a different pedagogical approach. Instead of the teacher organising the learning, the relationship between learner and teacher is a cooperative one of instruction and interaction combined. Knowledge of the subject content is actively constituted by the learner, and courses are structured around an awareness of student learning Gibbs (1995). Assessment, Gibbs argues, should incorporate a wider range of activities. This includes an emphasis of group activities; peer and self-assessment; diaries, logs, and journals; learning contracts and negotiated assignments; and achievement profiles. These assessment elements not only encourage ‘learner independence’ but also teach and develop transferable skills that benefit the learner in the outside world. This third view mirrors the notion of ‘mature dependency’ introduced by Fairbairn (1952), i.e. one which in the context of university education would mean a considered and appropriate recourse to tutor or peer support. Indeed, the term ‘mature dependency’ may be less prone to misunderstanding than the more popular ‘learner independence’, encapsulating as it does the recognition that successful scholars seldom work in isolation.

Gibbs, G. (1995) Assessing Student Centred Courses, Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff Development.
http://www.humanities.bham.ac.uk/handbook/shared/committees/ltg/Colloquia/LrnrIndependence/LIReport2.pdf








One subject for research is about the impact of IT in independence learning:


A qualitative study of experienced high school teachers’ perceptions of learning technologies is reported. Underlying the study was a research-based theoretical background that highlighted the importance of appropriate perceptions to successful integration of learning technologies into classrooms. The transcripts of 31 semi-structured, open-ended interviews with a group of teachers were combined to form a pool of decontextualized statements about learning technologies. The pool of statements was analyzed using a phenomenographic research approach. A limited number of qualitatively different perceptions of learning technologies were identified. The perceptions varied with respect to “what” and “how” components. The “what” component concerned perception of what constitutes a technology. The “how” component concerned perception of how the technology impacted on learning. Some of the perceptions were considered inappropriate with regard to the “how” component and unlikely to lead to successful integration.

For teachers holding these perceptions professional development is proposed in how learning technologies can be used to encourage enhanced learning outcomes.

Enhanced learning outcomes resulting from the use of learning technologies require grasping meaning; better learning techniques and strategies; skill in using the technology; assistance and motivation from the technology; and more effective presentation of the learning outcomes.

Teachers conceptualise and approach teaching in a limited number of qualitatively different but related ways. Broadly, teachers who perceive learning as the accumulation of information are more likely to view teaching as the transfer of information. Such teachers are more likely to use a teacher centred approach where the teacher imparts information to students and uses assessment techniques which encourage and test rote learning. In contrast, teachers who view learning as conceptual change are more likely to view teaching as facilitating conceptual change. Such teachers are more likely to use a student centred teaching approach where independence in learning is encouraged through discussion, debate and questioning among students, and assessment which reveals conceptual change (Prosser & Trigwell, 1999).

Students' approaches to learning are related to their teachers' approaches to teaching (Trigwell, Prosser & Waterhouse, 1999). Teachers who describe using a conceptual change/student focussed teaching approach are more likely to be teaching students who report using a deep approach to learning. Deep learning approaches have an intention to seek meaning in learning situations through linking aspects of the content. With a deep learning approach there is the possibility of the conceptual change and deeper understanding which is assumed in this paper to constitute an enhanced learning outcome (Cope, 2000; Marton & Booth, 1997). Indeed, in many empirical studies deep learning approaches have been found to be strongly associated with conceptual change learning outcomes (e.g., Marton & Säljö, 1976; Prosser & Millar, 1989). In contrast, teachers who describe using an information transfer/teacher centred teaching approach are more likely to be teaching students who report using surface learning approaches. Surface learning approaches focus on memorising aspects of the content in isolation with the intention of recalling the content in assessment situations. There is little intention to seek meaning in the content, and little likelihood of significant conceptual change (Ramsden, 1988).

An explanation of the association between teacher and student approaches has been proposed and supported empirically by Prosser & Trigwell (1999). The learning context provided by a teacher is the practical implementation of the teacher’s perceptions of learning and teaching, and approach to teaching. Students have been found to vary their learning approach in response to certain factors they perceive in the learning context. Students using deep learning approaches are more likely to value independence in learning, good teaching and clear learning goals, factors consistent with a student-centred teaching approach. Students using surface learning approaches are more likely to have different values, and, consequently different perceptions.

Source: http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/uploaded/cope_ward2002.pdf

Trigwell, K., Prosser, M., & Waterhouse, F. (1999). Relations between teachers’ approaches to teaching and students’ approaches to learning. Higher Education, 37, 57-70.

Logical Constant

One study to elicit classical Aristotelian logic from interviewees in a remote area led to some entertaining exchanges. Here is a typical example:

Question: All bears are white where there is always snow: in Novaya Zemlya there is always snow; what colour are the bears there?
Answer: I have seen only black bears and I do not talk of what I have not seen.
Question: But what do my words imply?

Answer: If a person has not been there he cannot say anything on the basis of words. If a man was 60 or 80 and had seen a white bear there and told me about it, he could be believed.

Source: Comment is free, Jan, 06




Logical political lessons

Amusing twist on an old favourite...

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away...

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income

THE LONDON REPUBLIC OF KENINGRAD
You have two cows.
You give them jobs with the GLA on £70k each, working in strategic partnership clusters to mainstream a framework for delivery of an equality and diversity strategy to end discrimination against another cow that is rumoured to live in Epping Forest.
There are no fields on which to graze the cows, so you compulsorily purchase Kensington Palace and turn it into a byre.
Some space remains, so you fill it with foreigners.
They eat the cows and torch the building in protest at having no 50-inch TV.
Leninstone rehouses them and gives them the cows' old job at double the salary.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells his rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report shows the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.
You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive


Source: Comment in Boris johnson weblog,13 Jan
www.boris-johnson.com

Engaging in Education

The Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training questions an unprecedented amount of policy initiatives, but little real change. It also described as a ‘major problem’ the failure of many young people to engage in education. It said:’ that failure is partly due to inappropriate targets, learning experiences and forms of assessment.’

Suggested reforms include reducing the burden of assessment, ensuring more practical modes of learning for all young people and raising the status of vocational qualifications through linking them to licence to practice.


In pursuing its assessment of the evidence, the Nuffield Review has achieved the following:
• examined the many data sets to give an historical and comprehensive account of participation, retention and progression, and shown where there are gaps in the data upon which policy is based (Annual Reports 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06)
• paid particular attention, following the analysis of the participation, retention and progression within the system, to those who fall outside it – the characteristics of this mixed group of young
people and the reasons why they leave (Annual Report 2005-06)
• explored the organisational arrangements for 14-19 education and training, developing the new concept of ‘strongly collaborative 14-19 local learning systems’ (Annual Reports 2004-05 and 2005-06)
• provided a detailed account of policy initiatives and the mechanisms employed for
implementing policy, including the debates around the Working Group on 14-19 Reform
proposals, the DfES 14-19 White Paper and the current development of the specialised
Diplomas (Annual Reports 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06)
• addressed the different manner in which Wales is tackling the Learning Pathways 14-19, and lessons which England might learn (Annual Report 2005-06)
• reviewed the evidence on transition from school and college to higher education (Annual Report 2005-06)
• raised issues about the role of employers and the youth labour market in the education and training system and their effect on the framing of 14-19 policy and the system performance (Annual Reports 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06)
• raised questions about the educational aims and values which permeate the changes, and which have implications for the nature, organisation and provision of learning (Annual Reports 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06)
• pioneered an innovative approach to reviewing evidence through the ongoing involvement of policy makers, practitioners and researchers, each providing their own particular perspective on policy, practice and performance (Annual Reports 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06).



Special needs
• The education of those with learning difficulties and disabilities requires special attention since too many are ill served by an inflexible and narrow definition of standards and by inappropriate provision.
• The failure of many to engage in education, a disproportionate number of whom have learning difficulties and disabilities, is a major problem and needs closer analysis. That failure is partly due to inappropriate targets, learning experiences and forms of assessment.


The questions shaping the Review, therefore, will be:
• What educational principles and practices should characterise the system which prepares all young people for the future?
• What is needed to improve the current education and training system in order to
reflect these principles and practices and to support the development of all young people?
• What policy developments are being, or should be, initiated to ensure high quality education and training for all 14-19 year-olds and a coherent and inclusive 14-19 system?


Source: Department of Education, University of Oxford,
www.education.ox.ac.uk
www.nuffield14-19review.org.uk

Education

The Role and Purposes of Educational Research

Educational research potentially has a range of different roles and purposes. It may for example:
• aspire to use the findings from controlled experimentation to ‘guide’ policy and practice;
• enter into the ‘policy cycle’ at a number of points - as part of policy planning; in policy development and as part of evaluation;
• be used as part of professional development through practitioner or action research;
• have a key role in the maintenance and development of higher education.


Prof. John Furlong, Oxford University, Dept of Education, www.edstud.ox.ac.uk









.........In the first, an educational production function links measurable teacher characteristics to pupil achievement, controlling for student characteristics. The methodologies adopted in this approach vary, from IV approaches (Hoxby, 1996; Kingdon and Teal, 2007; Sprietsma and Waltenberg, 2005) to panel data studies (Clotfelter, Ladd and Vigdor, 2006; Hanushek, 2005), to randomized experiment studies
(Lavy, 2002; Glewwe and Kremer, 2006). The consensus from this wide array of studies is that many of the standard teacher characteristics such as certification, training and experience do not matter to pupil achievement (Hanushek and Rivkin, 2006). As these resumè characteristics often underpin teacher compensation policies, these findings are controversial and widely debated. A second approach calculates ‘teacher quality’ as a teacher fixed effect in an equation of student achievement gain where different groups of students (in a given year or over time) are taught by the same teacher. The resulting ‘total teacher effect’ enables the researcher to define a good teacher as one who consistently produces high achievement growth for pupils. This approach, in estimating total teacher effects, does not require identification of specific teacher characteristics that generate student learning. A number of studies have used this approach (Aaronson, Barrow and Sander, 2003; Rockoff,2004; Rivkin, Hanushek and Kain, 2005; and Hanushek, Kain, O’ Brien and Rivkin, 2005) and they conclude that teacher quality matters substantially to pupil achievement. However, when they regress this teacher fixed effect on teachers’ observed characteristics, their findings are consistent with those from the more direct achievement production function approach: observable characteristics such as certification and training explain little of the variation in teacher quality.

What can Teachers do to Raise Pupil Achievement?
M. Aslam and G. Kingdon, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, June 2007





Policies

.....This modern decentralisation agenda is key to achieving social and environmental progress in the twenty-first century. We will never win the fight to make British poverty history as long as we rely on top-down, centralised state mechanisms. We will only achieve our green objectives - whether improving the quality of life in our neighbourhoods or reducing carbon emissions - by empowering individuals and communities.

One particularly exciting aspect of this decentralisation agenda is that it is shared by other parties. Last year, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats worked together to pass the Sustainable Communities Bill, a measure which will see a major transfer of power from Westminster and Whitehall to local communities. This follows our success in working together to put pressure on the Government to introduce a Climate Change Bill. I believe the Green Party also shares our commitment to decentralise political power in Britain, and our commitment to social justice and environmental progress.

David Cameron, Dec. 2007
www.conservatives.com


Michael Gove, the Shadow Children's Secretary, pointed the finger at Labour for forcing teachers out of the profession:

"I fear that a combination of classroom bureaucracy, Government micromanagement and poor discipline in too many schools has encouraged a drift away from teaching."



Modern Britian

How come modern Britain seems incapable of dealing with these teenage gangsters? And how come they are spreading apprehension - the fear of crime, if not crime itself - into areas that are demonstrably safe?

Boris Johnson




Apologies for the length of this note, but the subject does interest me.

Kids Company does sound like a good thing (and Camila Batmanghelidjh needs all the support she can get). Kids with problems become so isolated that they need people who will listen to them. More counsellors/psychologists in schools working alongside teachers wouldn't be a bad idea, either.

(And incidentally, Merry Christmas to you, too, and all the people involved in this list.)

But like before on a similar occasion, I have to say - Boris, if you really, really want to change things, you HAVE to tackle the plight of those teachers in 'challenging' schools. School is where youngsters spend most of their time.

In France, teachers are only expected to do 18 hours of classroom teaching per week. The rest of the full-time quota is given over to marking and preparation - incredibly time-consuming activities - and all those extras that teachers have to do, like parents' evenings, project work, detentions, etc. But it's a civilized job, leaving them with time to pay individual attention to those who need it.

Over here, many teachers are expected to do up to 25 hours of teaching per week and, on top of this workload, have to cover absence/sickness. Sometimes, they may not get a break all day because they're asked to cover break/lunch-time duties, yet may then have to spend evenings/weekends doing marking and preparation.

The net result is that teachers are exhausted, with very little time to recover or regenerate from week to week, let alone build up the necessary resources to deal with difficult kids.

In addition to ALL this, they are bullied and browbeaten and pushed around by a punitive government that seems to have absolutely no idea of what the process of education entails - constant change, for instance, is destabilizing and destructive - and whose educationalists have probably never set foot in a classroom or, if they have, couldn't cope and got out of there fast (and probably into OFSTED).

It is a punishing regime - most people want to make a good job of earning a living, but they also want to get on with their lives! Why does work in some sectors have to be turned into such an ordeal? (And I would include the NHS in the list, but that's yet another matter...)

I would like to say - get rid of government interference - but that's probably unrealistic. However, EMPOWERING the teachers could build a real foundation for improvement in schools.

If kids see teachers being pushed around - an adult form of bullying on the part of our government - then it follows that they will imitate that behaviour. So teachers have to work twice as hard in 'difficult' schools.

Incidentally, in a moment of madness, I enrolled on a teaching course - and even stuck it out despite its resemblance to a crash-course in character-building. So at least I do know what it's like to be faced with a teenager who tells you to "f... off", a class that sabotages everything you try and do and the difficulty in dealing with a bunch of confused and slightly crazed boys taller than myself. Theories go out the window! (What a shame the 'students' don't follow...)

I also experienced teaching in a good school, where there were few discipline problems. Why? Because, amongst other reasons, the teachers were fully supported (and there were many of them), there were definite discipline rules and problem areas were tackled intelligently by the head and staff alike (without blame falling continually on teachers). There was also money, of course, for good facilities. It was a happy school.

source: www.boris-johnson.com

angela king said:
December 26, 2007 2:15 PM | permalink

I know that everyone ridiculed David Cameron for his "hug a hoddie" attitude (although actually he never said that) but I have always thought he had the right idea. Psychologists agree with him and say he is right. Teenagers that turn to crime have never had boundaries set, nor the loving discipline they need and have never had a chance in life. It is too easy an answer to chuck them into jail. A lot of the kids turning to crime are very intelligent, but have never had any encouragement. Young kids need goals, support and the inspiration to learn. Could more organised community service be brought in for young offenders, before things get too far and they are turning to violence? Also someone to inspire kids to learn and to see how worthwhile education is, would be fantastic. This is why I so support Mr. Johnson. He has the gift of reaching out to people through his humour, he is highly educated, but not intimidating with his knowledge. Development of culture is part of the Lord Mayor's task. I so hope he will produce incentives for youngsters to learn and to make learning fun, because so much darkness and sadness and negativity is portrayed on our tv. screens ( did you SEE the Christmas soaps!) - it would be so great to counteract that. It is inspiring to lose yourself in a book and let your imagination run free, it is inspiring to paint a picture, or knit a scarf making up your own pattern. London is rich in culture, from Doris Salcedo to Banksie to our theatres. You can get books for a few quid on the internet. It is all there, we need someone who is approachable, affable, not patronising, to turn things in a more positive direction.

source: www.boris-johnson.com



Literacy

The yobs pretend not to care about language but they do. they actually choose to speak it badly. It is a late 20th century phenomenon. Many of them were brought up to use perfectly good English but decided some where along the road to develop what they would probably call street cred. Out went their carefully knotted ties and in came their Estuary English and 'y' knows and 'like'...... It's a while since they called themselves society gels.

The era of miss Smyth with her sensible tweed skirt are gone. She taught. You listened.

But it is easy to choose to dumb down when you are suitably equipped with all the skills and tools you need to navigate your way around the language. What tends to be forgotten is that those who are dumbed down to, have no choice but to take the education menu that is offered to them. They will never hope to achieve the literacy skills that their dumbing down masters already possess.

A student once said to me, 'I want to know what you know.'


John Humphrys and John wakefield; Lost for Words; 2005, Hodder