"Among the most promising experiments in education today are the developments in hybrid schooling, which combines great teaching, great technology and much more independent learning. However, it is important to note that technology alone and not integrated into the learning day rarely results in improved learning" - possibly the best educational technique is that of the personal tutorial where a student has to work independently on a piece of work and then defend it on a one to one basis with a teacher who is a specialist in that field. The tutorial system works extremely well at the more academic of the public (independent) schools. Obviously to extend this system into state schools will require a great many more good-quality teachers, but there is no reason why the teaching profession cannot be expanded if it can be proved to generate national wealth in the way this report suggests.
"...teachers become enablers, activators, connectors, facilitators, mentors and challengers as well as sources of expertise" - this sounds like a shirkers charter to me. The difficulty with non-traditional forms of teaching is the tendency of teachers to just coast along doing the minimum. If the activities are non-traditional how will the students and their parents know when they are being short-changed by the more lazier members of the teaching profession?
"...education reformers are seeking to design a system for 20 years ahead, teachers struggle with the present and parents remember the system of 20 years ago: the conceptual gap is therefore 40 years – a major communications challenge which governments and educators often underestimate" - this emphasis upon "experts" planning for the future sounds sinister I'm afraid. Where is the democratic accountability? The United Kingdom's state schools are in the mess they are currently in because of the "education reformers" who destroyed the old system in the 1960s and 1970s and gambled everything on comprehensives which brought everything and everyone down to the lowest common denominator.
"...teachers become enablers, activators, connectors, facilitators, mentors and challengers as well as sources of expertise" - this sounds like a shirkers charter to me. The difficulty with non-traditional forms of teaching is the tendency of teachers to just coast along doing the minimum. If the activities are non-traditional how will the students and their parents know when they are being short-changed by the more lazier members of the teaching profession?
"...education reformers are seeking to design a system for 20 years ahead, teachers struggle with the present and parents remember the system of 20 years ago: the conceptual gap is therefore 40 years – a major communications challenge which governments and educators often underestimate" - this emphasis upon "experts" planning for the future sounds sinister I'm afraid. Where is the democratic accountability? The United Kingdom's state schools are in the mess they are currently in because of the "education reformers" who destroyed the old system in the 1960s and 1970s and gambled everything on comprehensives which brought everything and everyone down to the lowest common denominator.
No comments:
Post a Comment