Posted by Editors
Education Business, In The News, Labour, OECD, PISA, Teach First, Teaching
Monday, May 14th, 2012
The BBC report that the UK Shadow (in the broadest sense of the term) Secretary for Education, Stephen Twigg, believes “England’s schools should learn from Japan”. He obviously hasn’t been reading the Economist recently. “THE yells of children pierce the night, belting out the elements—“Lithium! Magnesium!”—as an instructor displays abbreviations from the periodic table. Next, [...]
Posted by Editors
In The News, MetLife, Ofsted, PISA, Standards, Working Conditions
Thursday, March 15th, 2012
While in the UK OFSTASI’s Wilshaw spouts further drivel about declining literacy standards, across the pond in the US a very illuminating survey of teachers has attracted a lot of recent attention, not least because it shows just how dissatisfied teachers currently are. The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Teachers, Parents and the Economy [...]
Posted by Editors
Andreas Schleicher, Events, In The News, OECD, Politics, Teacher Bashing
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
For those of you who don’t know, the ISTP – 2012 International Summit of the Teaching Profession is being held today and tomorrow in NYC, USA. Our initial reaction to these events is always that they are a good opportunity to see the world, have a few dinners at taxpayer expense and pontificate on matters [...]
Posted by Editors
In The News, PISA, Research
Sunday, June 19th, 2011
The OECD’s PISA IN FOCUS 2011/5 (June) publication offers yet more evidence that there is no evidence that poverty has the impact on education achievement that some would have us believe. We normally take what the OECD has to say about education with a pinch of salt given its overriding aim to ‘liberalise’ economies around [...]
Posted by Editors
HE Review, IfL, In The News, Research, UCU
Sunday, March 27th, 2011
It is not our style to engage in a round of back-patting but recent news regarding the Institute for Learning and Browne’s Tuition Fees Review was not exactly news to us. Firstly, the IfL demands for a £68 annual fee have been met with howls of derision not least because no-one can work out what [...]
Posted by Editors
CfBT, In The News, Media Watch, Research, Teacher Bashing
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
The BBC article on the latest research by the CfBT Education Trust would make you think that UK teachers are hopeless at maths. “England’s trainee teachers do worse in mathematical tests than their peers in some major economic competitors, a study suggests. Teacher trainees in schools in Japan, China and Russia, easily outperformed those from [...]
Posted by Editors
Education Philosophy, Exams, In The News, Pasi Sahlberg, Politics, Research, Schools, Teaching
Monday, March 21st, 2011
In the following Boston Globe article, Learning from Finland How one of the world’s top educational performers turned around, Pasi Sahlberg of Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture and former Washington-based World Bank education specialist illustrates very succinctly why current UK and US education policy is on the wrong track. “IF AMERICANS harbored any doubts [...]
Posted by Editors
In The News, Research, Secondary Education, Tories
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
Yet more creative reading of official statistics by a UK government minister. More than 79,000 children missed out on a place at their first-choice secondary school for this September, apparently. However, Nick Gibb Minister for Schools seems to think that this means, ” there simply aren’t enough good schools.” No it doesn’t, Nick. The figures [...]
Posted by Editors
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, In The News, Managerialism, Research
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Illuminating article and video interview with Joanne Barkan of Dissent magazine about about the lack of democratic accountability, business ideology and questionable science that characterises philanthropic interference in US and increasingly, UK education.
Posted by Editors
In The News, League Tables, Research, Standards, Teacher Bashing
Sunday, March 13th, 2011
Yesterday’s announcement of yet more tinkering with the magical world of teaching standards was accompanied by words of support from this season’s Yes Men and Women and some Rumsfeldesque comments by the Gove-nor himself. “Headteachers and teachers have told me in no uncertain terms that the current teachers’ standards are ineffective, meaningless and muddy, fluffy [...]
