"...set high standards; monitor whether they are being achieved; provide excellent teachers who improve their teaching throughout their careers; ensure well-trained, well-selected principals or headteachers; and then reorganise the system’s structure so that it becomes a dynamic driver of change rather than a static bureaucracy – a driver of quality rather than an enforcer of compliance. John Hattie has probably done more than anyone else to summarise and make practical the evidence on each of these elements. His most recent book Visible Learning for Teachers is a masterly synthesis" - this all sounds very laudatory until one reaches the bit about dynamic driver of change. Who is in charge of this dynamic driver? What is the change that is being driven?
I don't wish to be alarmist, but where is the democratic oversight of all this?
"Increasingly, a science or quasi-science of effective delivery in government is emerging. A number of countries around the world have adapted and refined the approach developed by the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) in the Blair administration and demonstrated real progress – Malaysia, Ontario in Canada and the California state university system are just a few examples in APEC countries. In the US, the Education Delivery Institute is supporting more than a dozen state education systems in the adoption of this proven approach" - this is very depressing. Government as process, implemented by political technocrats (or technocrat politicians if you prefer). I thought Blairism was thoroughly discredited?
"High Tech High is one such island – a network of schools that was and is ahead of the pack in the global move towards a 21st-century education. Through project-based learning and community internships, students take on real-world challenges and come up with innovative solutions, rather than focusing on rote memorisation of concepts. Teachers are empowered to create forward-looking, innovative lessons to inspire students. The incredible results speak for themselves: 100 per cent of graduates are admitted to college, 35 per cent of college-goers are the first in their family and 30 per cent enter the maths or science field (compared to an average of 17 per cent)" - not convinced by this I'm afraid. What do you think? It sounds wonderful, but a network structure is hard to control democratically (parents will be easily bamboozled). Project-based learning is all too easily disconnected from the thousand-year continuum of of Western culture. Empowered teachers means what exactly - whose power are they being given? Who is deciding what are the "real" challenges in the world?
http://www.hightechhigh.org/
I don't wish to be alarmist, but where is the democratic oversight of all this?
"Increasingly, a science or quasi-science of effective delivery in government is emerging. A number of countries around the world have adapted and refined the approach developed by the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) in the Blair administration and demonstrated real progress – Malaysia, Ontario in Canada and the California state university system are just a few examples in APEC countries. In the US, the Education Delivery Institute is supporting more than a dozen state education systems in the adoption of this proven approach" - this is very depressing. Government as process, implemented by political technocrats (or technocrat politicians if you prefer). I thought Blairism was thoroughly discredited?
"High Tech High is one such island – a network of schools that was and is ahead of the pack in the global move towards a 21st-century education. Through project-based learning and community internships, students take on real-world challenges and come up with innovative solutions, rather than focusing on rote memorisation of concepts. Teachers are empowered to create forward-looking, innovative lessons to inspire students. The incredible results speak for themselves: 100 per cent of graduates are admitted to college, 35 per cent of college-goers are the first in their family and 30 per cent enter the maths or science field (compared to an average of 17 per cent)" - not convinced by this I'm afraid. What do you think? It sounds wonderful, but a network structure is hard to control democratically (parents will be easily bamboozled). Project-based learning is all too easily disconnected from the thousand-year continuum of of Western culture. Empowered teachers means what exactly - whose power are they being given? Who is deciding what are the "real" challenges in the world?
http://www.hightechhigh.org/
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