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Gove's 'progressive betrayal' seems to be a private school phenomenon

My research using the Pisa data found that state school pupils report more 'traditional' teaching than in private schools, says Laura McInerney

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• • Laura McInerney
  • The Guardian, Tuesday 17 December 2013
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Inconveniently for the government’s narrative, British school pupils reported doing many more 'traditional' activities than 'progressive' ones. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

The misconceptions of people who have never stepped into a state school are often quite alarming. "Were lots of people at your school pregnant?" I remember once being asked at university. "I expect it was very difficult to learn over the noise," said another, as if people who don't pay for schooling inevitably have foghorns for voices. The points were ridiculous and easily shrugged off. But silly statements about school life from the government are harder to ignore.

In a recent speech, Liz Truss, schools minister, seethed about the fact that England's relatively low use of textbooks compared with other countries is in part due to progressivist "child-centred learning", a practice that led, at her school, to "anti-colouring books" – without any blocks in which to colour. (Does this sound like "paper" to anyone else?)

Likewise, the education secretary, Michael Gove, gave a speech entitledThe Progressive Betrayal in which he argued that such ideas had addled a generation; that restoring rigour was a priority, in particular, more memorisation of facts and "disciplined" learning – which seems to mean being silent and facing the front.

If it were true that "progressive" thinking had taken over, it would be problematic. But how many Sats or GCSE or A-level teachers will tell you their class aren't memorising anything? And is it not possible that the reason why students might be asked to talk, or work in a group, or complete a task that isn't sitting and memorising, is because they are at school for six hours a day and there might be a benefit in varying the types of tasks? If my rhetoric does not convince you, perhaps the data will.

A couple of weeks ago, the release of Pisa results caused some political handwringing. The tests, taken by 15-year-olds across 65 countries,ranked British students 23rd for reading, 26th for maths, and 20th for science. What almost everyone failed to mention is that as well as having their skills tested, students also completed a detailed survey about their schooling. This was very revealing.

Inconveniently for the government's narrative, when answering questions about the types of activities they do in class, British students report doing many more "traditional" activities than "progressive" ones. Compared with high-performing nations such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Finland and Estonia, British students are more likely to learn materials by heart and have clear learning goals set for them by the teacher in each lesson. Half of British students reported that their teacher tells them what to do in every lesson, compared to just a quarter of students in Hong Kong and Finland. This sounds a lot like the "teacher-centred" approach that Liz Truss would have us believe was banished during the 1960s.

Could this be because British students tend to over-report and say they have done activities when they haven't? If so, we would expect them to report high levels of non-traditional activities, too. But they don't. Only 6% of British students said they work in groups in every lesson and only 8% said the teacher commonly allows students a say in the planning of the lesson (two activities often considered "progressive"). Both figures were lower than the OECD averages for these activities, and a lot lower than Singaporean students experienced, even though Singapore is often praised by Michael Gove.

The data also contradicts the idea that teachers carry the "soft bigotry of low expectations" – an incantation repeated more than once by the education secretary. Nearly half of British students strongly agreed with the statement that their teacher encouraged them to work hard. Only a quarter of Hong Kong students and less than one in five Korean students felt the same.

An even more inconvenient truth emerges about private schools. Commonly heralded as the last bastion of "traditional" schooling, my own research using the 2009 Pisa data found that while state school pupils reported more traditional teaching, private school students reported higher rates of being asked to express opinions in class, completing group work, and having their teacher relate learning to their lives. So if there is a hotbed of progressivism in Britain, it probably isn't the state schools.

One can only wonder how they manage to learn over the noise.

• Laura McInerney taught in London for six years and is now a Fulbright scholar

Nature trumps nurture in exam success: GCSE results 'mainly determined by genes,' says landmark study of twins

Conclusion that teachers are less important than biology sparks outrage, as researchers call for national curriculum to be abandoned in favour of personalised lesson plans

RICHARD GARNER 

 

EDUCATION EDITOR

 

Wednesday 11 December 2013

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Genetics has a more powerful influence on pupils' GCSE exam results than teachers, schools or family environment, according to a new study published tonight.

Researchers from King's College London found that genetic differences account for 58 per cent of the differences between pupils' GCSE exam scores - while environment (home or school) only accounted for 29 per cent.  They also found boys' results were more likely to reflect their genes than girls.

The bombshell conclusion is bound to thrust the debate over the role of genetics in education back to centre stage - just two months after Michael Gove's outgoing senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, told his boss he believed genetics outweighed teaching when it came to determining pupil performance.

He also arranged a meeting between the Education Secretary and leading geneticist Professor Robert Plomin, one of the authors of the new research, to discuss the issue.

In a 250-page "private thesis" - which has since been made public, Mr Cummings argued that the link between intelligence and genetics had been overlooked up until now in the education system.

The controversy was fuelled when London Mayor Boris Johnson appeared to suggest more resources should be devoted to the education of those with high IQs, arguing: "Whatever you may think of the value of IQ tests, it is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16 per cent of our species has an IQ below 85 while about two per cent have an IQ above 130."

The influence of genetics on intelligence has been almost a taboo subject in education policy circles for years following the publication of a book nearly two decades ago in the United States, The Bell Curve by Robert J.Hermstein and Charles Murray, suggesting there was a link between race and intelligence.

As Dr John Jerrim, from London University's Institute of Education who has conducted research into the impact of genes on children's reading ability, put it genetic research has often in the past "been linked with right-wing political views".

Today's research acknowledges  the danger of "a deep-seated fear  ... that accepting the importance of genetics justifies inequities - educating the best and forgetting the rest".

However, it adds: "Depending on one's values, the opposite position could also be taken, such as putting more educational resources into the lower end of the distribution to guarantee that all children reach minimal standards of literacy and numeracy."

The study, based on  11,117 identical and non-identical twins, shows that a child's genes are a more important indicator of educational performance across all the core subjects - accounting for 52 per cent of the difference in scores in English, 55 per cent in maths and 58 per cent in science.

"The significance of these findings is that individual differences in educational achievement at the end of compulsory  education are not primarily an index of the quality of teachers or schools," the report says.  "Much more of the variance  of GCSE scores can be attributed to genetics than to school or family environment."

The researchers compared the exam performance of identical twins who share 100 per cent of their genes with non-identical twins who share on average 50 per cent of their genes.  They argued that - if identical twins' exam scores were more alike than those of non-identical twins -the difference was due to genetics rather than environment.

They added:  "A remarkable finding is that the estimates of heritability and shared environmental influence do not differ substantially across diverse subjects.  The humanities subjects have the lowest estimate (40 per cent) and science subjects the highest."

The researchers said that a previous study which showed strong genetic influence on performance in the early years had been "surprising" but it was even more so to find such a strong link at GCSE level. "The surprise stems from thinking that, as these subjects are taught at school, differences in educational achievement are primarily due to differences in teaching," they added.

Nicholas Shakeshaft, lead author of the paper and a PhD student at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, said: "Children differ in how easily they learn at school.  Our research shows that differences in students' educational achievement owe more to nature than nurture."

The researchers argue that it could be expected that countries with a "one-size-fits all" national curriculum - as the UK has - might yield higher heritability estimates than countries with a more flexible system.

However, they add that "one major misconception" of their findings would be to conclude genetic influences "diminish the importance of schools".  "The differential impact between good and bad schools is not great," the report adds, "but the difference between schools and no schools is likely to be enormous".

Instead, the findings argue an individually tailored approach to a child's education is more likely to combat any lack in performance due to genes rather a universal, one-size-fits-all approach to the curriculum.

Earlier, Dr Claire Haworth, from Warwick University and deputy director of the twins programme, argued genetics should be covered in teacher training - especially if it helped trainees to explain variations in the way different children learn.

Improving the understanding of genetics in schools was key to dispelling some of the myths around the science.

Get with the program: engaging students in computing

IT teaching is about to be overhauled, but will it attract more children, both girls and boys, to a career in coding?

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• Janet Murray
• The Guardian, Tuesday 10 December 2013

Changes in the curriculum mean computer coding will soon become part of primary education Photograph: Peter Cade/Getty Images

Next September, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) will be replaced by a flexible curriculum in computing, designed with the help of universities and industry. But will teachers – particularly those working in primary schools – have the necessary skills and expertise to deliver the new subject? What role should industry play in the implementation of the new curriculum? And how can we ensure young people have the right skills for the jobs of the future?

These were some of the questions raised at a recent debate hosted by the Guardian, in association with Microsoft, ahead of the introduction of the new computing curriculum in schools.

In the opening part of the discussion, participants were asked to explain why having computing on the curriculum is important. "The old ICT curriculum was about digital use," said Ian Livingstone, cofounder of Games Workshop. "In terms of the games industry, it's like someone being able to play the video game Angry Birds, but having no idea how to make Angry Birds. So the old ICT [curriculum] was, effectively, teaching kids how to read, but not how to write."

Paul Curzon – professor of computer science at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary, University of London – agreed, adding: "It's like a toddler being able to jump and land. He can do it without knowing any physics. But actually understanding why when you jump, you land – that's learning the physics. And computing is the equivalent."

Hugh Milward, director of corporate affairs at Microsoft, added: "We want to make sure that we've got the workforce of the future for ourselves, but, most importantly, the skills needed in every part of society. Whether that's in retail, banking or engineering, it's going to require a level of computational thinking in the future that is way beyond what we currently have. And if we are going to succeed as a business in the future, we are going to need to make sure we are part of the solution to that."

There was agreement around the table that understanding how computers work – and not just how to use them – is crucial, and not just for young people who might go into jobs in computing or technology in the future.

"There is a bigger question here about what it is we are asking our schools to do.Is it just to pass exams, is it so kids understand how to learn or is it actually so kids are ready for the world of work … ? I think it's probably all of the above," said Rob Wall, head of education and employment policy at the Confederation of British Industry.

Better learners

Dr Andy Sievewright, headteacher at Acton high school, added that although they are under pressure to get exam results, ultimately, most school leaders want their pupils to become better learners. "We are really pushing the idea that our students, if they take on computing and they do it well, will be better learners. They will be more resilient, they will develop their computational thinking and deconstruction and reconstruction skills, which will help them in lots of different subject areas."

But participants expressed concerns about whether teachers feel ready to deliver the new curriculum next September. Alan Mycroft, professor of computing at the Computer Laboratory, Cambridge University and cofounder and trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation (a charity which promotes the study of computer science in schools), said he felt the language of the new draft computing curriculum for key stage 1, which includes phrases like "understand what algorithms are, how they are implemented as programs on digital devices" and "use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs" could be intimidating for primary school teachers.

Other participants pointed out that some secondary ICT teachers – many of whom do not have a background in computing – are also nervous about the changes. But there is great enthusiasm about the new curriculum as well, said Roger Davies, director of ICT at the Queen Elizabeth school in Cumbria. "I think a lot of IT teachers felt rather trapped [by the ICT curriculum], teaching fairly shallow skills. They were a bit like a hamster on a wheel ... teaching very few skills that were transferable."

There was agreement around the table that the biggest challenge for most schools over the next six months will be ensuring teachers – who already have heavy workloads – have adequate time for training. Eddie Copeland, head of digital government at the thinktank Policy Exchange, pointed out that teachers will also need time to embed new knowledge and skills. "It's the equivalent of a modern foreign languages teacher trying to teach French from a phrasebook; eventually they will get really good and develop fluency, but we have got to accept that it's great to be ambitious, even if it takes time to bed in."

But Chi Onwurah, MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and Labour shadow minister for the Cabinet Office (previously shadow for Business, Innovation and Skills) disagreed, saying that this could lead to "bad teaching" and could turn pupils off the subject –  particularly girls, who are already underrepresented in computer science both in higher education and in employment.

Participants also held contrasting views on the role industry should play in delivering training to teachers, with some pointing out that excellent practitioners don't always make the best teachers.

But Wendy Devolder, CEO and founder of Skills Matter (a network of software professionals that share good practice, with the aim of writing better software) disagreed, saying that the idea of computer programmers and engineers not having communication skills was a stereotype: "Every day we have 50-500 people in our building, learning and sharing skills and teaching each other, so it's a very creative, intelligent and inclusive community. Yes, there will be some introverts, but I don't think there are more introverts in the computing industry than there are in any other."

A number of participants suggested that coteaching – teachers working with an industry expert alongside them – would be an excellent way to give teachers on-the-job training. This approach, which allows "teachers to stop being a broadcaster and start being a facilitator", is a far more effective way to encourage young people to develop curiosity for computing, said Alasdair Blackwell, cofounder and director at Decoded, a company that teaches how to code.

Others suggested alternative ways industry could support education, such as supplying equipment or creating teaching resources. Microsoft, for example, is currently creating teaching resources for computing that can be used in schools.

And while the introduction of computing into the school curriculum is long overdue, care does need to be taken to ensure young people do not start seeing computing solely as a school subject, it was said. Several participants spoke about how – driven by curiosity – they had taught themselves how to code, at home, learning from their mistakes along the way.

"We shouldn't forget that young people do spend 80% of their time outside school, and I think we have so much to learn about how they learn outside the classroom, particularly from games," said Annika Small, CEO of the Nominet Trust, which invests in technology ventures.

Broadband

But not all young people get the opportunity to develop their computing skills outside the classroom. Onwurah pointed out that 30% of homes still don't have broadband and spoke of an industry dominated by a "narrow, very male elite".

There was disagreement among participants about whether enough is being done to recruit women into computer science. "I'm not sure how helpful it is to berate the gaming industry for not doing enough to attract girls," said Livingstone. "We would love to have more programmers who are girls because 40% of our market, perhaps more, are female users … but we can only hire who we can hire."

Onwurah argued that this wasn't good enough, saying that companies needed to make more effort to engage with young women and encourage them to consider careers in the industry. "To attract women, you have to speak to women. So it's not good enough to say you will be gender neutral and just hire who comes out there; you have to go out and help create that supply."

Julian Davis, engineering director at game developers Lionhead Studios, pointed out that recruitment efforts need to go beyond the big companies like Google and Microsoft. "If you take Guildford, for example, there are probably 20 or 30, five-to-10 man operations. So I think if we're going to talk about inspiring people to consider careers in programming – both boys and girls – we have to include these smaller companies as well."

But there was agreement around the table that there is work to be done to challenge stereotypes around careers in computing.

Livingstone drew comparisons with engineering, which has managed to change its image, he argued."Engineering has always had this sort of bad, unsexy image, but we're at a point now where we can make it very attractive. With people like will.i.am promoting these skills in a very 'sexy' way, geek is chic! So the next kids don't want to be Wayne Rooney or Jordan – they want to make an app and be very successful."

"I think we are trying to shift the perceptions of our nation from thinking of computer science as a narrow, male subject for 'techie people' into a foundational subject that every child might study," said Simon Peyton-Jones, chair of Computing at School and principal researcher at Microsoft Research. "That's a big hearts and minds job, and we need help from everybody around the table to help us convey that."

At the table

Sue Littlemore (Chair) Education journalist

Hugh Milward Director of corporate affairs, Microsoft

Alasdair Blackwell Cofounder and director, Decoded

John Wastnage Head of employment and skills, British Chamber of Commerce

Prof Alan Mycroft Professor at Cambridge University; cofounder of Raspberry Pi Foundation

Eddie Copeland Head of digital government, Policy Exchange

Rob Wall Head of education and employment policy, Confederation of British Industry

Chi Onwurah MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, Labour

Paul Curzon Professor of computer science, School of Electronic Engineering, Queen Mary, University of London

Simon Peyton-Jones Chair, Computing at School; principal researcher, Microsoft Research

Dr Andy Sievewright Headteacher, Acton high school

Roger Davies Director of ICT, Queen Elizabeth school, Cumbria

Annika Small Chief executive officer, Nominet Trust

Bill Mitchell Director, BCS Academy of Computing

Julian Davis Engineering director, Lionhead Studios

Wendy Devolder CEO and founder, Skills Matter

Ian Livingstone Cofounder, Games Workshop

Credits

Roundtable report commissioned and controlled by the Guardian.Discussion hosted to a brief agreed with Microsoft as part of Microsoft's Global YouthSpark programme. Funded by Microsoft. Contact Steve Rackham on 020 3353 2700 (steve.rackham@theguardian.com). For information on roundtables visit: theguardian.com/sponsored-content

How to focus in the age of distraction

So many of us are connected and/or using our connected devices regularly. Some might say we / you are addicted to them and suffer withdrawal symptoms when we forget them or leave home home without them.

So then, how do we stay focused in this “age of distraction”? Jane Genovese writes on the Learning Fundamentals website on ‘how to focus in the age of distraction‘ and produced this excellent mind-map of Leo Babauta’s eBook “Focus: A simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction”.

Genovese highlights her analysis of the book and the changes she’s making to sharpen her focus, including: 

• Create habits and/or rituals to focus your mind.
• Manage email (expectations) and switch it off if necessary.
• Make time to reflect & review.
• Admit you’re online too much, and take steps to remedy.
• Digital detox: take time away and switch off.
• Work ethics (simplify working practices based on distractions, movement, time, etc.)

How do my students learn?

Published by Rachel Jones on November 13, 2013 | 4 Responses

How do my students learn? Well, I like being able to give my students time in lessons to express their creativity. It’s a joy to watch them make learning connections in theoretical understanding, especially when those connections are self and peer led through discovery. Much of what I ask them to do is based on sharpening evaluation skills, and I have written before about techniques I have used to develop higher order thinking skills in my learners. This post is about how I encourage learners to take on board knowledge as with no knowledge, they would have nothing to evaluate in their exam.
Here are ten creative ways to encourage knowledge retention in your learners:
1 – Ditch worksheets and PowerPoint. I know there are some amazing examples of these being used and for many they are an essential part of the teach armoury, but just see if you can manage without for one day. There are a mass of different, and much more effective, presentation tools out there, such as Haiku Deck, Pow Toon and even Prezi for those of you who don’t suffer from motion sickness. If you cling to worksheets like Rose clings to that door in Titanic, you perhaps need a rethink about how your learners record information in your lessons and how they can utilise it later. You could try setting up a Padlet wall, which they can access through QR codes, or even having a classroom reshuffle to create a working wall which can be accessed next lesson. See here for more info.
2 – In the spirit of point one I would encourage you to indulge in a spot of harmless vandalism. Chalk comes off the floor, and board pens wipe off computer screens, tables and windows. Actually students pretty much like writing on anything they are not supposed to. Try chalk on the playground and outside walls, if you have permission look into more permanent Graffiti, or maybe write on T-shirts or swatches of fabric that you can then stitch (or glue) together to make parachute to use later. Take advantage of the impish nature of many young people and this will really result in engaged students.
3 – If you have a lot of key individual to learn, authors, theorists or scientists – why not make finger puppets of them and work out what they would say to each other in conversation. My sixth formers loved doing this, and made efforts so that their puppets looked like the real people. They are much more likely to remember them knowing what they look like and having spent time writing dialogue in role as them.

4 – Collaborative work in groups is great for instilling knowledge. In particular my students find working with images and text very helpful to produce group resources when working together. I have set tasks based on image response work, where they then filled in the theoretical detail around the images. They had a creative response to the images and then had control over how they chose to present them, which in turn became a mnemonic trigger for the detailed theory that accompanied the pictures on their posters. This works especially well if you use Aurasma app, and create AR with the poster as the trigger image, that takes you to the embedded media showing the students discussing their own work and creative process. Be brave and give this a go, I promise it’s dead easy and I have seen some amazing examples of infant school children producing augmented reality.
5 – This is very old school but going the extra mile to get guest speakers into your school is so worth the extra effort. You could sign up for the ‘Speakers for Schools’ campaign, or just email them yourself. I am delighted to be having a really high profile Sociologist into college in the next few weeks, and we are making arrangements to Google Hangout with another. Distance is no longer the problem it used to be, and you could Skype or GHO with a minimum of technological fuss. Its something the kids will never forget and can really engage them in their academic work. – In our school we call it ‘ask an expert’ so the children can think of what they really want to know to help further their learning or understanding of a subject or area and prepare for the visit, examples are dentists for teeth, mums and babies for ‘all about me’ topics, doctors for science, and so on.
6 – Don’t forget to say well done. I firmly believe that learning should be its own reward. However, a well timed and sincere ‘Thank You’ can do wonders for students. About twice a year I send home a ‘Star” postcard where I reward effort on the part of the student. Another nice way of doing this is to send digital badges, I like Credly website. as the students can design the badges themselves and consequently see the merit in receiving them. I am planning to send badges for Resilience, Collaborative work, Peer Teaching, Creative Thinking and original ideas. A lot of educators are doing this already, and I feel that rewarding positive learner characteristics will reinforce the importance of taking responsibility for their own learning.
7 – Don’t underestimate the importance of student putting things in their own words, writing out information and proof reading it. Literacy skills are key to so many jobs, and if they just take a photo of the board or their work they are not going to have the chance to process the information for themselves. I would advocate allowing them time to write up anything they need to, as well as proof it, and then give them time to develop ideas and opinions of their own using this information. Similarly when sharing objectives, encourage learners to add an extra objective, which is specifically personal to them. When you check at the end of a lesson if objectives have been met, they can then also take pride in their own personal progress that lesson.
8 – If you have a learner who is struggling to retain key information I have found buddying them up with either an older student or competent class mate can do wonders. My student mentors meet with their peer tutees once a week for an hour of discussion and revision. Start this as early in the year as possible so that it becomes a working habit. Remember for my mentors this is also helping their revision, and for older students can be used on their UCAS reference for example, which is particularly useful for getting into competitive courses such as teaching.
9 – I know I’m an advocate of lesson intro music, play, games and so on, all of which can be pretty noisy. I am also a staunch advocate of the power of silence and students being able to work and read independently. It is a powerful thing to see learners really engaged in independent work, immersed in their own learning. Make sure you have the tools they will need to hand – basics such as highlighters, pens to take notes and a stern teacher look for anyone who tried to put in headphones. This is a bit like training for a marathon. You need to build up the time they spend in silence over a period of time. And most importantly silence is not a punishment, it is a glorious opportunity to become immersed in learning. My AS class can now read in total silence for about 20 minutes. Its lovely. My A2 class by the end of last year could manage an hour. Encourage note taking in the margin of the page, and make sure you have an awesome activity to consolidate what they have learnt.
10 – This year I inherited something I have never had to deal with before. A class of 6 boys who hardly talk at all. It is very tricky to build positive teacher and student relationships with individuals who are reluctant to talk. I have found a way in, the particularly tricky 8.30am class now always starts with me making them a cup of tea. It’s been miraculous, all of a sudden they have started taking, sharing ideas and learning together rather than in silence. We are comfortable as a group and I thank tea for its magic powers. I think what I am saying here is if learning is happening the way you would like it to, then think about why that might be and try and fix it.
So there you are, some of they ways I encourage my class to learn. If you have any more to share I would really like to hear about it.