The 21st Century Learning Initiative » briefing paper

Eradicating Underperformance

jabbott — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 10:21:36 +0000

It is a month since the Election, and the new coalition government is beginning to shake itself out. Last summer the Initiative issued a Briefing Paper for Parliamentarians on the Design Faults at the Heart of English Education. Each MP had a copy and so shortly will all recently-elected Members.

The Briefing Paper opened with John Milton’s vision of what he called “a complete and generous education, that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully and magnanimously, all the offices both public and private, of peace and war.” Written in the midst of all the complexities and horrors of the English Civil War there can be no finer aspiration for what a state should provide for its children. Will the new government of 2010, dealing as it is with mind-blowingly complex issues, be able to contribute such a sense of national and personal direction?

The Paper urged Members to consider the ages-old tension between nature (what we are born with) and nurture (being the way our surroundings influence the way we grow up). It asks: Does contemporary educational policy simply react to symptoms, whist failing to address underlying design faults? If the answer is ‘yes,’ how can future policy avoid such faults and build its programmes on firmer foundations. Unravelling the relationship with nature to nurture, and then coming to terms with those misunderstandings from the past that colour contemporary judgements, is not easy. Yet to fail to do this is to undermine new policies, and perpetuate underperformance.

The Paper asked Members a number of apparently simple questions:

Why is schooling split at the age of eleven, and why is it that primary pupils generally enjoy their education, but secondary pupils don’t?
Why, if the early years of education are so important, are secondary schools better financed than primary?
Why, if education is so important, aren’t teachers held in higher regard?
Why, given the significance in earlier generations of adolescence as a “proving ground” for adulthood, does modern society treat adolescence as a problem, not as an opportunity?
Why, if one of the most significant indicators of future success is the quality of home life in the earliest years, are schools now expected to take on ever more of what until recently were the responsibilities of parents?
Why are those aspects of schooling that children enjoy most called extra-curricular, as if they don’t matter so much and are only informally offered?
Why are Steiner and Montessori Schools so popular with professional parents?
Why, in a largely secular country, are Faith Schools generally so popular?

Simple as such question may appear, the explanations are far from obvious. They epitomise the deep dissatisfaction with English education that has existed for generations.

It is against this background that our new government needs to be equipped with a strategy that differentiates between short-term panaceas to deal with urgent problems, and the much longer term structural changes needed to build up whole generations of young people who know how to learn, who can communicate, collaborate, think for themselves and make decisions. Only in this way will England so strengthen the younger generation that they will have the energy and the wisdom to revitalise civil society.

Briefing Paper (iv)

The 21st Century Learning Initiative — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:36:30 +0000

From a recently retired grammar school teacher:

“In this first decade of the century many teachers have reached the end of their careers with the feeling that education in this country has lost its way, that the ambitions they had as young teachers have been thwarted and that opportunities have been wasted.

From the top down, educational provision in this country has too long been permeated by short-term utilitarian aims. The perceived need to keep education spending on a tight leash, for instance, belittled the enthusiasm and willingness of at least one generation of teachers, thereby changing the nature of teaching and the quality of classroom experience for all. This in turn has led to sullenness, exhaustion, financial uncertainty and – ironically – more expenditure, e.g. on the army of classroom assistants, and the social fall-out resulting from wasted talent amongst the young. The obsession with control in the educational sector (contrasting nicely with the lack of such controls in the banking and financial sector ), the enforced introduction of targets, inspections, key-stage tests, micro-managed course ‘specifications’, competition between schools, league-tables, one-shoe-fits-all qualifications, over-emphasis on academic ‘success’ for all – all this has dehumanised the teaching and learning process. To adapt a legal phrase: decision-makers have perverted the course of education.

As the Briefing Paper demonstrates, for many years major decisions affecting the everyday life of schools have been made without any reference to human psychology – to how pupils, parents and teachers will react to initiatives handed down from on high. Every teacher, after a few years in the classroom, knows the value of experience and adaptability based upon the needs and capabilities of their charges. Political decisions affecting education have, on the contrary, frequently been made in haste, based on little research, if any, and with for short-term political goals. The affects of such decisions last for decades, and politicians bear a heavy responsibility for the poor standing of British education today. There is an underlying assumption that teachers are merely production-line operatives and pupils merely their raw materials.

There exists, at the heart of all political thinking, a fundamental distrust of teachers. It may be that an independent, intelligent, generally unselfish body of individuals is deemed to be a threat to the establishment, especially when put in charge of the next generations of thinkers. It may also be that half-baked childish notions about teaching are continued into adulthood and affect decision-makers. Added to this, and supported by the press, there has also been an increasing tendency over the last few decades to ‘keep teachers in their place’ because of their long holidays – a kind of national envy. For whatever reason, the teaching profession has been cut adrift from society, and needs now to be reconnected.

If the nature of teaching has been debased, so has the nature of learning – ‘cabin’d, cribb’d, confin’d’ in a curricular straightjacket which has strangled any initiative on the part of either pupil or teacher. Modular courses, lock-step teaching, exam-factory mentality, retakes, re-retakes, examination papers which insult the intelligence or merely confuse, haphazard marking…. Small wonder the youth of today is disaffected – they have been deprived of the experience and freedom of those who educate them. All is now counted, ticked, unadventurous … small-minded.

As a recently retired teacher, I can only regret that the research and conclusions of the 21^st Century Learning Initiative as set out in the Briefing Paper were not available 40 or 50 years ago – as the mid-20^th Century Learning Initiative.”

Read the Briefing Paper

Briefing Paper (iii)

The 21st Century Learning Initiative — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:34:31 +0000

rom a prospective Parliamentary candidate:

“As usual, you employ very powerful and cogent arguments, and I think the Paper will make many candidates think who may not have previously spent much time reflecting on the validity (or otherwise) of their pre-conceived ideas about education policy.”

From an Australian research organisation:

“I think your Paper is beautifully eloquent and captures in a brief space important core issues which need examining if we are to move forward. It lifts my heart to hear your words about utilitarian focus in schooling policy, the opportunity of adolescence. Rest assured the design faults in English education are found here as well.

From the Headmaster of an English public school:

“Your Paper really grabs my attention and, like those quoted, I find myself agreeing with so much of it and am frustrated that successive politicians seem not to be tackling these huge issues. I’m always amazed that politicians rarely stop to assess historical and anachronistic aspects of our education system such as transferring at eleven, structure of the school year etc. My own recent doctorate researched the effectiveness of junior schools, particularly those linked to senior schools, and looked at all the issues of transfer. I won’t ramble on but I did want you to be aware of what a terrific read I found your Briefing Paper to be.”

While another has written:

“I do share with you your view about education. It is dispiriting that boys and girls and schools are judged by results, which can become a source of depression and anxiety in the young, and something that we continually battle with.

However, our education demands a significant change at national level in order to return our teaching and learning (both in and away from the classroom) back to what it really should be.”

A Local Authority Officer wrote:

The Briefing Paper was just stunning! I so agree with the contents – it so closely mirrors my own thoughts about the way we manage (or otherwise) the education of our most important resource. However it only added to my determination to, in some way, make a difference to the future of our young people. As a facilitator of learning I find myself already faced with those adults who appear to have difficulty in being curious and inquisitive and who need a great deal of encouragement to permit themselves to ”know beyond”. However I guess the obvious must not be so obvious or more would practise it!

Read the Briefing Paper

Briefing Paper (2)

The 21st Century Learning Initiative — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:31:59 +0000

Response

From the General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders has come this response:

I have read much of the paper, but I cannot say it fills me with enthusiasm, although there is plenty in it with which I agree. There is indeed far too much political interference in education, but we cannot escape the political dimension. But there is much that is right in the present system – which is why we need evolution, not revolution with all its attendant upheaval, usually on the basis of political theory or with no, or very flimsy, evidence.

To which I replied:

I agree with you far more than you realise. While education is inevitably a political activity, I fear the way in which it has become so overtly party political. The whole reason for writing Overschooled but Undereducated, and now for the Parliamentary Briefing Paper is to help the people of England – especially the parents – to see through the posturing of politicians to what are the real issues in bringing up children.

But, infuriating as can be the ambitions of politicians, they are not the basic root of the problem. The total environment in which we live, and children grow, is changing, and that undermines the traditional structure of schooling as we know it. Time and tide wait for no man.

The story is told of Mercedes Benz whose management, having produced 1,400 cars in 1927, called for a consultants’ report on how many cars the company could be producing in fifty years time. When the report came back it said this should be 40,000. The management were shocked at the naivety of the consultants for this was self-obviously ridiculous – there was no way the schools could train 40,000 chauffeurs a year. We laugh, but we can be equally blind to change.

As long as we educationalists simply fight our separate corners (in the case I think you are making, namely that of secondary education) we are failing the children of England by not publicly admitting that the issue is about how children are helped to learn and grow up, not simply the structure of formal schooling.

Briefing Paper (1)

The 21st Century Learning Initiative — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:29:08 +0000

Response

The MP for Glenrothes and Central Fife, Lindsay Roy, has recently commended the Briefing Paper. Before his election to Westminster in 2008 he was the Rector of Kirkcaldy High School. Commenting on the Briefing Paper he wrote:

As a former head teacher of 20 years standing, a former president of the Head Teachers’ Association of Scotland and currently a member of the Executives of International Confederation of Principals, I found your paper to be stimulating, highly pertinent and timely.

I endorse in particular the key points highlighted in the summary. These are underpinning elements for careful consideration and scrutiny by political parties before an election – because there should be clarity of purpose in every manifesto.

We desperately need an education system “fit for purpose” in the twenty first century – and the key points from this paper, if adopted, can bring about the dramatic difference that is needed to develop a “world class” approach.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the abiding focus must be on inspiring learners through a high quality of learning and teaching.

I shall be happy to participate in any discussion forums that you plan to arrange with Parliamentarians to consider the paper more fully.

Scotland has, for very many years, had full control of its own education system, which has endeared itself to the people. Although Scottish education is experiencing its own internal tensions, teachers are largely held in higher esteem in Scotland, and generally are trained to a high standard. Such an endorsement by a Scot for ideas being promoted here in England are to be valued.

Political Swine Flu

The 21st Century Learning Initiative — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:59:56 +0000

In an article in The Spectator on July 11th the philosopher David Selbourne (author of “The Principle of Duty”) wrote that the present Parliamentary crisis is only one symptom of a larger corruption of public and civic institutions. He argued that the greed of Parliamentarians is merely one manifestation of the subordination of civic virtues where the private pursuit of self-interest, where having is more important than doing. Selbourne went on “the banker’s unwarranted bonuses and inflated pensions, and the Parliamentarians’ indulgencies and thefts from the public purse, are indistinguishable.” Hard, harsh words.

Selbourne opened his article by referring to Captain Thomas Pride who, on the 6th December 1648 was so infuriated by the corruption of Parliament that he stood at the door of the House of Commons, empounded 140 MPs, took away the mace, locked the door of the Chamber, and kept the key himself. The ultimate direct action. As in Cromwell’s day, so today, the country cannot afford to lose its public regard for the true authority of Parliament.

Impressed by Selbourne’s article I wrote on the 11th September.

Sir; Four years before Captain Thomas Pride seized the initiative (“Political Swine Flu” 11th July) and prevented 140 MPs from taking their seats in the House of Commons, another self-starting Puritan, John Milton, wrote a short essay “Of Education” for that European man-of-letters Master Samuel Hartlib. “I call a complete and generous education,” wrote Milton, “that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully and magnanimously, all the offices, public and private, of peace and war.”

If Parliamentarians had remembered that the essence of “a complete and generous education” was justice, skilfulness and magnanimity, then English society, and the authority of Parliament, would never have been thrown into its present moral confusion. Having fallen into such confusion England can only recover when it creates an education system that fits future generations to perform with integrity and humility as much in their private lives, as in their public activities.

So far neither my letter, nor any other responses to the article “Political Swine Flu” have been published. Maybe they will, but the issue goes far beyond a Spectator article, and of course will not disappear. Parliamentarians have much to reflect upon as they embark on their 10-week Summer Recess, but they are not the only ones who have to reflect on their loss of authority as they relax in their favourite summer resort – the Church, the Judiciary, BBC, the Civil Service, school teachers and university staff, and even the Monarchy itself.

In terms of the Ten Actions that have been listed in the Briefing Paper the Initiative has prepared for Parliamentarians on the design faults at the heart of English education the final one states: “Parliament has to remind itself that for a democracy to be fully functional, the State cannot simply be defined in terms of a government that makes and administers the laws within which individuals are then left free to do their own thing… education is not just about individuals, is about how those individuals pull together for the common good… for the laws to be respected the people have to trust the lawmakers with doing for others what they would expect to have done for themselves – authority based on their personal example.”

Getting the Message Across

The 21st Century Learning Initiative — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:11:23 +0000

The observant blogger probably thought that I had run out of steam when, after producing a dozen blogs in as many days in February, I suddenly stopped. “What’s gone wrong?” asked one; “Will you start again?” said another. But, truth to tell, most people hardly noticed!

A blog to be of any use has to have continuity, spontaneity, topicality, the thrill of the immediate, and present.

My reason for stopping can now be told. Fired up by the excitement of having found a really good publisher for Heather’s and my book, Overschooled but Undereducated, I was all set to make blogging priority when two things hit me. The first was just one of those things, but difficult to deal with nevertheless… I lost the man who I had hoped would develop our fund raising and marketing strategy. Serious as that was it was my realisation that, if the book were not to be published until November, we could be too late to have any influence on politicians as they set out their Manifestos for that General Election which has to be held before June 2010. “The best time to get politicians to listen to you is just before, not just after the election,” said one Member. “You need to give us some very clear actions now as to what to do should we be elected. Leaving it until the book comes out will be too late.”

While on a 10-day lecture tour in Canada in early March – a tour that took me through the northern Athabasca oil fields of Northern Alberta and to the Gulf Islands just off Vancouver (I missed two good blogs on the ethics of oil extraction, and the delight of flying in seaplanes) – I worried away at how to create a document that would somehow summarise the entire argument of the book as well as setting out a set of actions that needed to be followed, all in one-tenth of the number of words I had used in the book.

Three months on and the Initiative is now publishing A Briefing Paper for Parliamentarians on the Design Faults at the Heart of English Education. It has not been an easy task, and there was no time left to write blogs. Overschooled but Undereducated was the summation of years of study, research and practice and the Briefing Paper is a still further distillation. Readers will have to judge for themselves whether or not this is good enough to help shape the political agenda of the next government. Personally I think it does, but that really isn’t the issue. It is not what an author wants to say that matters; it is whether the author can take readers willingly to places they had never known before that actually matters.

Achieving that is, after all, the art of the good teacher. Action Six states “Teachers need both technical subject knowledge and considerable expertise in both pedagogy and child development, combined with the avuncular skill of brilliant storytellers.”

Parliamentarians are like children in many ways. Like the rest of us they listen to good stories but quickly get bored by too many dry statistics. Like children we all look for excuses not to listen.

Now turn to the Briefing Paper here on the website and see if you find this a good way of getting Parliamentarians to understand the educational needs of young people. If you do please share the whole of this Paper with as many other people as you can find who are now ready to hear the message.