SOME CHARTER SCHOOLS SPEND MORE PER PUPIL THAN SIMILAR DISTRICT SCHOOLS

 

Mixed results but KIPP schools spend substantially more per pupil than district schools in the same city and serving similar populations

Comment

Policymakers have long pursued more cost effective, scalable alternatives for delivering elementary and secondary education. The elusive goal is identifying how to reform educational systems so that children will consistently achieve more academically—at a lesser cost. According to a new report  ‘ A frequently heard reform claim of this sort is that charter schools deliver higher performance at a lower cost. While the test score side of this question has been addressed by a great number of studies (with generally mixed findings), the cost side of the question has received far less attention.’

The description of the Research by Bruce D. Baker, Ken Libby,  and Kathryn Wiley is as follows:

‘This study evaluates the cost claim by comparing the per-pupil spending of charter schools operated by major charter management organizations (CMOs) in New York City, Texas and Ohio with district schools. In each context, we assemble three-year panel data sets including information on school level spending per pupil, school size, grade ranges and student populations served for both charter schools and district schools. For charter schools we use both government (and authorizer) reports of spending, and spending as reported on IRS non-profit financial filings (IRS 990).  We compare the spending of charters to that of district schools of similar size, serving the same grade levels and similar student populations. Overall, charter spending variation is large as is the spending of traditional public schools. Comparative spending between the two sectors is mixed, with many high profile charter network schools outspending similar district schools in New York City and Texas, but other charter network schools spending less than similar district schools, particularly in Ohio.  We find that in New York City, KIPP, Achievement First and Uncommon Schools charter schools spend substantially more ($2,000 to $4,300 per pupil) than similar district schools. Given that the average spending per pupil was around $12,000 to $14,000 citywide, a nearly $4,000 difference in spending amounts to an increase of some 30%. In Ohio, charters across the board spend less than district schools in the same city. And in Texas, some charter chains such as KIPP spend substantially more per pupil than district schools in the same city and serving similar populations, around 30 to 50% more in some cities (and at the middle school level) based on state reported current expenditures, and 50 to 100% more based on IRS filings. Even in New York where we have the highest degree of confidence in the match between our IRS data and Annual Financial Report Data, we remain unconvinced that we are accounting fully for all charter school expenditures.’

Spending by the major Charter Organisations- Comparing Charter School and Local Public District Financial Resources  New York, Ohio and Texas-   Bruce D. Baker, Rutgers University Ken Libby and Kathryn Wiley University of Colorado; May 2012; National Education Policy Center

http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/rb-charterspending_0.pdf

WELLINGTON ALBERT HALL GALA-SHOWCASES AN INTERNATIONAL BRAND

The Wellington Brand celebrates

Comment

Wellington College took over the Albert Hall on 30 April and managed to fill it, (5,000 capacity)  in celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the school.

The audience at  the  themed gala  was made of pupils, parents, staff and alumni of the family of Wellington schools (Eagle House Prep, Wellington College, Wellington Academy and Wellington Tianjin). The main school, Wellington College, now has over 1,000 pupils.  The gala charted the schools development through the different eras,  brought to life through music, singing, dance, readings, film and  drama. One of the star performers was a four year old Chinese girl pianist from Wellington, Tiangin.  Other participants included Old Wellingtonian celebrities such as Will Young, Sebastian Faulks and Rory Bremner.

Wellington is more than a school now, it’s a brand.

The brand has plans to open a new school in Shanghai in two or three year’s time. This month it announced its plan to create a group of Academy schools in the English state sector. The aim of this development will ‘be fundamentally to alter and improve the still distant relationship between the independent and state sectors in Britain.’  The Master,  Dr Anthony Seldon, said “Wellington is already recognised as one of the UK’s most innovative schools, with the aim to become the leading co-educational secondary school in the country. But our mission goes beyond the grounds of the College – we believe our approach to education and the values we embody should be used to benefit many, many more young people and breach a divide that has been so debilitating to education and society in the 20th century. Our goal is to create a group of Academy and international schools with Wellington College at its heart and its inspiration, bound together by our unique ethos of very high academic achievement combined with holistic education. That’s why we built the Wellington Academy in Wiltshire (the first British private school to wholly sponsor a named academy) three years ago, and we now seek to realize a lifetime’s ambition to bridge the gap between the state and independent sectors. Governments believe you can have either academic standards or holistic education – we say you can have both, and our results prove it.”

James O’Shaughnessy, former head of policy for David Cameron between 2007 and 2011 in opposition and at Number 10, (and formerly with the centre-right Think Tank Policy Exchange) has been hired by Wellington College to use his expertise in education to explore the feasibility of expanding its success with sponsoring an academy to more schools. He has already started work on the project and his political contacts at the heart of government will help. O’Shaughnessy, a former pupil at the school, is a proponent of the Prime Minister’s “happiness index”, (influenced by Seldon)a measure of the nation’s well-being levels .He told the Sunday Telegraph recently that the private school’s brand of education could benefit thousands of children in up to a dozen new academies in the next five years. “I was initially very sceptical about the happiness and wellbeing stuff,”  he told the paper, “But at Number 10 we did a lot of work on it and I came to believe that there was a science to it and that it wasn’t just airy-fairy wishful thinking. “The field of positive psychology has demonstrable, scientifically tested benefits to people’s mental health. It helps people to lead better lives. It doesn’t mean that money or jobs or other traditional things don’t matter but we all have a sense that there is more to life than that. We want to encapsulate that in an education context.”

In March 2012 inspectors rated its teaching and learning provision ‘excellent’ in all the areas they were judging. There are now six pupils going for each place on offer  at Wellington and its rise up the academic league tables (so it’s on a par with the likes of,  for example, Marlborough, and Rugby) seems   to have been at  no cost to its traditional   prowess in sport.  It won back to back Rosslyn Park Schools 7 a side rugby tournaments this, and last year, and its golfers also won this year’s Independent Schools National Golf Finals, in Carnoustie, Scotland.

The Albert Hall celebration also  served to showcase the schools’ growing strength in depth in music, drama and the arts. It does seem that Wellington is on a roll at the moment.  Seldon  looks likely to stay in place until, at least ,the celebration of the Battle  Waterloos 200^th anniversary in 2015 (Seldon is an Historian, remember –dates/anniversaries  matter) and his high media profile keeps Wellington in the public eye, much to  the obvious irritation, it has to said , of his schools competitors.  Wellington is to host,  this  June, the Sunday Times Festival of Education

http://www.festivalofeducation.org.uk/

Note 1

Wellington College believes that its bespoke co-educational model of education, which embraces the International Baccalaureate (The Middle Years Programme sometimes called the junior IB is an option too) and combines high academic attainment with character and all-round education, based on its unique model of ‘Eight Aptitudes’ and well-being (or teaching of happiness), sets a clear benchmark and helps  differentiate its group of schools and   its distinctive education offer from competitors.

Note 2

Dr Seldon has called on the various independent sector umbrella bodies, such as the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools and the National Grammar Schools Association, to form units to help schools set up and run academies.  Such units would advise schools on the legal, administrative, HR and other back-office work that is required. He believes  forging  substantive partnerships between state and independent schools brings mutual benefits..

Note 3

The Eight Aptitudes

Aptitude	Descriptor
Linguistic	Words and language, written and spoken; retention, interpretation and explanation of ideas and information via language; understanding relationship between communication and meaning; ability in English, languages and the humanities
Logical	Logical thinking, detecting patterns, scientific reasoning and deduction; analysing problems, performing mathematical calculations, understanding the relationship between cause and effect
Cultural	Artistic ability and awareness, appreciation and use of sound and vision; appreciation of music, art and dramatic skill
Physical	Body movement control, manual dexterity, physical agility and balance; eye and body coordination; sporting and dance prowess
Spiritual	Awareness and appreciation of one’s place in the world; thinking and awareness beyond materialism and the self
Moral	Awareness of personal responsibility, of right and wrong and steering clear of the wrong; openness and honesty with those around you; having firm principles and sticking to them
Personal	Self-awareness, knowing yourself, personal objectivity; knowing of your own need for, and reaction to change
Social	Perception of other people’s feelings; ability to relate to others; getting on with others; including others

THE BRITISH COUNCIL-PROMOTING BRITISH VALUES? REALLY?

THE BRITISH COUNCIL-PROMOTING BRITISH VALUES?

The BC has a funny way of representing British culture and values? Kow Towing to the Chinese for starters

Comment

Parliament has given the British Council the right to take public money to “promote cultural relationships and the understanding of different cultures”. The Observers  Nick Cohen  worries that it is now in breach of its Charter.

At The London Book Fair at Earls Court last month organisers said that this year’s “focus”  would be on China.  Nothing wrong with that .However, the problem was that   in order to keep Beijing sweet, claims Cohen, the organisers  refused to invite writers – as “visiting authors” – who might upset the   Chinese regime.  Cohen says  ‘The event’s managers struck me as cheerful capitalists. They want to help publishers strike deals and make money. No harm in that, particularly when they can argue that the promotion of propaganda and suppression of free thought have not been arranged by the commercial arm of the fair but by the cultural bureaucrats at the British Council. Ma Jian, a Chinese novelist, who was not invited to Earls Court, listed the ways in which the British Council was working against cultural freedom. “These big events give China’s Communist party the international face it craves and helps normalise its repression of free speech back at home,” he told Cohen .Cohen continues ‘ He went on to make the unarguable point that the British Council was harming the British public as well as the cause of the Chinese reformers. “By excluding all genuinely independent and critical voices,” he said, “the book fair has allowed the Chinese authorities to export their censorship to a western democracy. Instead, the literary world is being asked to applaud 31 state-approved authors the book fair administrators and the censors at China’s General Administration of Press and Publication have invited to speak on the glories of their nation’s literature.’

Cohen is not alone in finding this all decidedly odd, although seasoned  British Council watchers  are  more used  to such shenanigans and counter-intuitive behaviour from the BC. One of Britain’s leading authorities on China told Cohen that an editor instructed him to not make unflattering remarks about the Communist party in a piece to accompany the fair. Cohen continues ‘ Others described a seminar at the British Council in September on how the British should think about freedom of speech in China. It was chaired by Claire Fox, of the Institute of Ideas, the successor organisation, it transpires, to the British Revolutionary Communist party. Cohen continues ‘This sinister clique moved as one from the totalitarian left to the corporate right without stopping at any worthwhile point in between. Observers in the audience predicted that China’s combination of communist dictatorship with capitalist exploitation would appeal to Fox. They were not disappointed. We should stop talking about human rights and freedom of expression, she said. We should hold our own government to account rather than engage in “China-bashing”. Writers, she concluded, have always benefited from the creative stimulus of censorship. By her logic, there was no need to protest when oppression was good for them. It was “worse than risible”, Jonathan Heawood, director of the free expression charity English Pen, told me. “I was surprised that no one from the British Council was prepared to rebut these absurd assertions.”’

David Blackie, of International Connect, though  is unsurprised by these revelations. He writes on his blog  ‘The bottom line is, of course, that the British Council’s commercial ambitions in China are far more important than the defence of freedom of speech, or an ethical foreign policy, or the representation of any residual British values.’

The British Council, though nominally a charity, contrives to  compete in the markets  through at least eight limited companies and is encouraged to do so by Ministers. Being a ‘Charity’ it is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, so  much of what it does with taxpayers money, lacks transparency.  It is hard to know exactly what it does   do although mission creep, writ large , is a charge laid at its door .  It is an aid agency, teaching agency, cultural agency and  a private sector commercial   operator  all rolled into one. Its allowed to get away with this because the political establishment allows it to.  Parliamentarians many of whom have benefited from BC hospitality in the past  form up to support the BC when asked to without at any point challenging its hybrid status, or asking some basic questions about its efficacy.

We know, for example , little of   how effective it is, and whether or not it provides value for money  although it routinely makes unsubstantiated  claims   that it gets a marvellous return from its activities . If its so good, then  how come it  needs to be so  heavily subsidised, or ,indeed ,subsidised at all?  There is strong suspicion  in the markets that  what it does could be better done by other providers, whether for profit or not for profit, and, importantly in these austere times , at no cost to the taxpayer.

The British Council has also come under criticism recently for its closeness to the ousted  Gadaffi regime. It is a fact that Gadaffis officials were being educated by the British Council, using British taxpayer’s money. These ‘educated’ officials then upheld the values and protected the status of what was, demonstrably, a   totalitarian and repressive regime, somewhat out of kilter, one would have thought, with any popular conception  of  British values.  But the self-serving elite who run the BC, protected by the FCO, seem to think that they are the guardians and representatives  abroad of our values. Not mine.

Our former Ambassador  to Kabul ,Sherard Cowper-Coles was  clearly  surprised during his tenure that the British Council was  distributing books of dubious quality to an Iranian backed Mosque, throughout his time there, including  that classic‘Chemistry for Dummies’. Why are we taxpayers subsidising Iranian backed Mosques one might wonder, let alone with silly books?

Having been funded by the FCO, the BC now, in addition, draws funds from our aid programme (DFID) so purports to be an aid agency too now, much to the annoyance of bona fide aid charities.  The BC also, apart from representing ‘British culture and values’ abroad, claims to represent UK education interests.  If this is the case then how come it has managed to alienate most UK education service providers by its anti-competitive  behaviour in these markets(and the poor quality of its service).  They complain to the government, with some justification, that the subsidised BC competes against them for the same contracts abroad, while concurrently claiming to represent them. Unfair, and a conflict of interests? You bet. And does the government do anything about it? No. Yet HMG rates education as one of its top export priorities . Joined up thinking, and government? I think not.

BRITISH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE REPORT-IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE TRAINING FOR EXPORTERS

BRITISH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE REPORT

Focus on  the importance of knowledge of other languages

Comment

A survey of over 8,000 businesses released on 12 April by the British Chambers of Commerce, shows that exporting activity continues to increase. However, the findings also suggest that providing firms with more training in foreign languages, and increasing their exposure to international companies would encourage more business owners to export. Economic growth relies upon British businesses being able to export more, so the British Chambers of Commerce is calling for more support for firms to help them trade internationally.

Knowledge of other languages is an important skill for exporters. 61% of non-exporters that are likely to consider trading internationally consider a lack of language skills as a barrier to doing so.

However, of those business owners that claim some language knowledge, very few can speak well enough to conduct deals in international markets. French is the most commonly spoken language, with 73% of business owners claiming some knowledge. However, only four percent are able to converse fluently enough in French to conduct business deals. This number drops significantly for those languages spoken in the fastest growing markets. In 2012, the IMF projects that the Chinese economy will grow by 9.5%, but just four percent of business owners claim any knowledge of the language, with less than one percent confident they could converse fluently.

Re-establishing foreign languages as core subjects within the UK national curriculum and in workplace training would mean that the next generation of business owners are ‘born global’ with language skills. The BCC is calling for the National Curriculum to be revised so that studying a foreign language is compulsory until AS level. Businesses could also be helped in training staff in new languages, if the government offered additional financial incentives such as tax credits for small and medium-sized businesses that make a significant investment in language training.

Key Recommendations in report:

Re-establish foreign languages as core subjects within the UK national curriculum and in workplace training.

There needs to be a fundamental reappraisal of the importance of language learning to Britain’s future competitive position and business success. The National Curriculum must be revised so that studying a foreign language is compulsory until AS level. It is important  to ensure that the next generation of business owners are ‘born global’ with language  skills. Businesses must also invest in language skills for their existing staff. Additional financial incentives, such as tax credits for small and medium-sized businesses that make a significant investment in language training, could support both take-up and ensuring a tailored business language offer.

 

And

Understanding of the commercial aspects of exporting must be embedded in higher and further education courses. Business degrees and further education qualifications focussed on commercial subjects must include compulsory modules on international  trade and exports so that incoming commercial staff are export-ready as they enter the workforce over the next 2 – 5 years.

Note 1 The Daily Mail reported on 12 April that ‘A report by the CfBT Education Trust reveals that in 2001 321,207 pupils sat a GCSE in French. In 2011 just 141,700 did so. Those taking German plunged from 130,627 to 58,300. Kate Board, head of languages at CfBT, said: ‘There is no doubt this has and will continue to have a significant impact on our ability to participate fully in the global marketplace unless changes are made.’

Language Learning in Secondary Schools in England-CFBT Education Trust- Teresa Tinsley, Youping Han-2012

 

http://www.cfbt.com/evidenceforeducation/our_research/evidence_for_government/national_policy_reforms/language_trends_survey.aspx

Note 2 The Daily Telegraph reported on 10 April that few diplomats are fluent in the language of the country where they work. Just one in 40 British diplomats is fluent in the language of the country where they work with the majority lacking even basic grasp sufficient for day-to-day exchanges.

 

Downloads

Exporting is Good for Britain: Skills

http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/assets/downloads/policy_reports_2012/12-04-05%20FACTSHEET%20-Trade%20SKILLS%20(KM).PDF

TALENT IS OVERRATED- ISN’T IT ?

 

Great performance is not reserved for a pre-ordained few

Deliberate Practice the Key

Comment

Geoff Colvin, Senior Editor at Large for Fortune Magazine, painstakingly dissected in his book Talent is Overrated enormous amounts of scientific research in the field of performance improvement and utilizes case studies of famous athletes, musicians, entrepreneurs, Nobel Prize winners, scientists and prodigies to lay the foundation for his main thesis:  “the evidence shows also that by understanding how a few,  become great, anyone can become better.  Above all, what the evidence shouts most loudly is striking, liberating news: that great performance is not reserved for a preordained few.  It is available to you and everyone”. So, what really separates world-class performers from everybody else?  Researchers identify the secret as ‘deliberate’ practice. This is  something that is not performed in our workplaces by most people, nor by the neurosurgeon at our local hospital nor by the scratch golfer at our country clubs.  Certainly, there are many of these stars who are clearly very good at what they do but they never manage to achieve greatness, as true masters in their field.  In case after case, Colvin recounts the studies of our greatest performers and how they reached the pinnacle of success through this ‘deliberate’ practice.   So practice makes perfect? No, or rather this is not the  complete message that Colvin wants to communicate. In explaining what deliberate practice is he is careful to explain what it is not.   Practice alone, does not make perfect. Simply repeating actions in an unstructured way ie Repetition, repetition and more repetition is not the answer. Instead, it consists of five basis elements:

• It’s specifically designed to improve performance.

• It must be repeated a lot where both the amount of repetition and the type of activity are carefully calculated.

• It requires continuous feedback by a teacher, coach or mentor.

• It must be highly demanding mentally.

• It isn’t (much) fun.

The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to this deliberate practice. So, it encompasses activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

Colvin conjures up a golfing  image to describe what he means “Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day – that’s deliberate practice.” Colvin writes ‘Scientific experts are producing remarkably consistent findings across a wide array of fields. Understand that talent doesn’t mean intelligence, motivation or personality traits. It’s an innate ability to do some specific activity especially well.

British-based researchers Michael J. Howe, Jane W. Davidson and John A. Sluboda conclude in an extensive study, “The evidence we have surveyed … does not support the [notion that] excelling is a consequence of possessing innate gifts.” In short ‘There’s no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice’. Vladimir Horowitz supposedly said, “If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don’t practice for three days, the world knows it.”

Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else-Geoff Colvin (ISBN 9781591842248),

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/30/8391794/index.htm

 

LOSING OUT IN THE ARTS-US STUDY-ENGAGEMENT WITH THE ARTS HELPS ATTAINMENT OF DISADVANTAGED PUPILS

LOSING OUT IN THE ARTS-US STUDY

Engagement with the Arts helps  the attainment and civic engagement  of  the most disadvantaged pupils

Are the Arts being crowded out?

Comment

Rocco Landesman, the Chairman National Endowment for the Arts (US), says that over the past four decades, budget pressures and  an increasing focus on just reading and maths have  crowded the arts out of too many school days. What’s  lost?  Landesman claims -The chance for a child to express himself. The chance for the idiosyncratic child who has not yet  succeeded elsewhere to shine. A sense of play, of fun,of discovery.  But, adds Landesman , James Catterall and the  fellow authors of a new report on Arts and Achievement,  have shown  that something else is lost, too- potential.

Students who have arts-rich experiences in school  in fact  do better  across-the-board academically, and they also  become more active and engaged citizens, voting,  volunteering, and generally participating at higher  rates than their peers.

The reports key finding is that ‘Socially and economically disadvantaged  children and teenagers who have high levels of  arts engagement or arts learning show more  positive outcomes in a variety of areas than their  low-arts-engaged peers.’ They earn better grades and demonstrate higher rates of college enrolment and attainment.

At-risk teenagers or young adults with a history of intensive arts experiences show achievement  levels closer to, and in some cases exceeding, the  levels shown by the general population studied

Young adults who had intensive arts experiences in high school are also  more likely to show civic-minded behaviour than young adults who did not. They take an interest in current affairs, as evidenced by comparatively high levels of volunteering, voting, and engagement with local or school politics.  In many cases, this difference appears in both low-  and high-SES groups

Most of the positive relationships between arts involvement and academic outcomes apply only to at-risk populations (low-SES). But positive relationships between arts and civic engagement   are noted in high-SES groups as well.

The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from  Four Longitudinal Studies; James S. Catterall,   University of California Los Angeles   with   Susan A. Dumais,   Louisiana State University   and   Gillian Hampden-Thompson,   University of York, U.K.

April 2012

http://www.nea.gov/research/Arts-At-Risk-Youth.pdf

YOU ARE NOT PREDESTINED TO FAIL AT SCHOOL DUE TO YOUR GENES (OR BACKGROUND)

DAVID SHENK AND GENIUS

Practise makes Perfect

Comment

David Shenk in his book “The Genius in All of Us,” referenced in Michael Goves most recent speech, argues that we have before us not a “talent scarcity” but a “latent talent abundance.” Our problem “isn’t our inadequate genetic assets,” but “our inability, so far, to tap into what we already have.” Talent is not a thing,” says David Shenk, “it’s a PROCESS.” This is actually quite an arresting thought. Talent doesn’t just come from genes, says Shenk. It comes from the way your genes interact with the environment. This means that, with enough effort, some people can learn how to be excellent at things. The truth is he says “that few of us know our true limits, that the vast majority of us have not even come close to tapping what scientists call our ‘un­actualized potential’.” Shenk writes. “Genes are constantly activated and deactivated by environmental stimuli, nutrition, hormones, nerve impulses and other genes.” That means there can be no guaranteed genetic windfalls, or fixed genetic limits, bestowed at the moment of conception. Instead there is a continually unfolding interaction between our heredity and our world, a process that may be in some measure under our control. . Forget about genes as unchanging “blueprints” and talent as a “gift,” all tied up in a bow. “We cannot allow ourselves to think that way anymore,” Whatever you wish to do well, Shenk writes, you must do over and over again, even if it results frequent failures. This is known as “deliberate practice,” and over time it can actually produce changes in the brain, making new heights of achievement possible But he is careful to say that we are not born without limits — it’s just that none of us can know what those limits are “before we’ve applied enormous re­sources and invested vast amounts of time.”  He relates his own struggle to achieve. “My attitude toward my own writing is simple: I assume that everything I write is rubbish until I have demonstrated otherwise. I will routinely write and rewrite a sentence, paragraph and/or chapter 20, 30, 40 times — as many times as it takes to feel satisfied.”

Gove used Shenks book to argue that there is plenty of evidence that our children are not,  due to their genes or due to their environment (poor background broken home etc), pre-destined to fail at school .   Our children can succeed if  given the right support and encouraged to stretch themselves. Outstanding state schools can and do demonstrate this, by showing no significant achievement gaps based on their pupils background.  Maybe  we make too many assumptions about a childs potential or ‘intelligence’  based on too little information.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CLASSROOM

NEW  TECHNOLOGIES IN  THE CLASSROOM

Do they   work?  Or is empirical evidence in short supply?

Comment

It is often assumed that new technologies will massively improve what happens in the classroom, and  the learning environment and experience of pupils . Give pupils a lap top or ipad and their learning experience will be much better for it. But what exactly ,asks Larry Cuban of Stanford University,  is the pressing or important problem to which an iPad is the solution? Asking that  pretty basic question first uncovers, he says, the confused set of purposes that surround buying and using high-tech devices in classrooms. Here are some reasons given by educators  to Cuban about how technology improves learning   :

*These devices will motivate students to work harder, gain more knowledge and skills, and be engaged in schooling. Engaged students will achieve higher grades. When the  Auburn (ME)  school board authorized the purchase of  iPads for kindergartners, their leaders assured them that reading scores would rise.

*Students will be prepared for an information-driven labour market. Or as one superintendent put it: “Students have to have digital competence, and to be competent, you have to have access. Using current-day technology should be a normal part of what we do. We need to close the gap between schools, education and the real world.”

*High-tech devices will erase the gap in access to knowledge that exists between poor and wealthy. The superintendent who bought 6,000 iPads said:  “It’s an equalizer. There’s no difference in learning advantage from the poorest to the most affluent.”

*Using laptops and tablets will transform traditional teaching. Etc..

The use of technology, apparently, is the answer then to all sorts of education challenges. Or is it? Where exactly is the evidence in support of this proposition and the various associated claims? Cuban reminds us, for example, that research clearly shows that certain practices do, indeed, “work.” Take pre-school education. Study after study done on three and four year-olds who were in preschool programmes and their progress through schools and into adulthood show short- and long-term gains in academic achievement, earnings, and other behaviours . But ,when  it comes to research supporting major purchases of laptops, tablets, and similar devices, such a cumulative body of evidence is ‘missing-in-action’, claims  Cuban.

Occasional studies that do show promising results for new technologies are, according to Cuban, dragged in to cover the near nakedness of research, much like a fig leaf, to justify the high costs of these new devices in the face of little evidence. The fact remains that no one knows for sure whether the new hardware and software appearing in schools works.

So, if this is the case-why such an investment in new technology? Cubans explanation is   to do  pretty much with politics.  He says ‘school boards and superintendents also buy high-tech devices because they want to be seen as technologically innovative and ahead of other districts. In this culture, the value of technology is equal to social and economic progress. Because school boards are completely dependent upon the political support of their parents, taxpayers, and voters to fund annual budgets, being seen as ahead of the game in technology garners public support. Not to adopt new technologies, even when funds are short, means that district leaders are failing their students and against progress.’

I must admit to being baffled about the ipad fad-given that it is difficult to work on and far inferior in performance to mini-laptops if you want internet access and speed. A triumph of design and marketing  over substance.

It does seem that Cuban makes a compelling case-policy and practice should be informed by robust up to date evidence.  But it is also true that our youth are highly proficient in the use of new technologies, and, crucially, enjoy working with them and they allow  for , self-evidently, greater  personalisation of learning and for learners to take more ownership of their learning and to work with greater independence but also to work within networked teams with a global outlook,  all of which must be positive. So why is evidence in support of such  new technologies in the classroom  so  very hard to come by?

SINGAPORE AND ITS EDUCATION REFORMS-BUT WHAT ABOUT FREEDOM?

SINGAPORE AND ITS EDUCATION REFORMS

Drive to encourage creativity and innovation

But what about is political culture?

Comment

Singapore’s education system is geared to providing the skilled manpower for business and industry to sustain its economic success. It has a “strong focus on mathematics, science and technical skills”, according to the OECD .  Its system is particularly good, in recruiting, training and nurturing good teachers.  In a report this month the OECD said ‘Singapore is notable for its comprehensive approach to identifying and nurturing teaching talent. It has  developed a comprehensive system for selecting, training, compensating and developing teachers and  principals, thereby creating tremendous capacity at the point of education delivery.’ Who can knock that?

Although widely regarded as a highly successful education system Singapore has attracted two main criticisms. First, that it hot houses its children (like many other Asian countries, including South Korea)) putting too much pressure on them to perform and conform ,with  a particular emphasis  on after school tuition  . Secondly, the system hasn’t encouraged creativity and innovation in its students who may succeed academically but seem to lack flair, creativity and individuality.

It is noteworthy that Singapore, in terms of its population, is roughly the size of Norway yet one is hard-pressed to name a Singaporean who has world class stature in any profession now, or indeed in the past (excepting Lee Kwan Yew). The same cannot be said of Norway.  Of course it is difficult to link this causally to the education system but it does raise a big question mark.

In addition, Singapore’s political culture may also act as a drag  on creativity, individuality and innovation. Its political culture is authoritarian-a plural democracy it is not- and it has an underdeveloped democratic civic culture-which hardly encourages freedom of thought, speech and expression. Stability, respect for authority and continuity are paramount.

And,  while the education gap between the Chinese, Indians and Malays has narrowed since independence in 1965, there is still a “long tail” of stragglers behind the top achievers.

To be fair, the school system has been changing since reforms began in 1997 to promote creative thinking and lifelong learning to keep up with the knowledge economy.

Its small size makes it easier to manage and change with the times and Singapore couldn’t be accused of standing still . The government has also created bright career prospects to attract good educators.

An OECD report says that while Singapore has significantly closed its achievement gaps and focused on bringing up the lowest achievers, there is still a stronger correlation between socio-economic status and achievement than Singapore education leaders would like.

Singapore, of course, is very much aware of these criticisms, and its educators are open to new thinking .Indeed, it is seeking to drive home the importance of character-building and resilience among pupils.

Speaking in Singapore’s Parliament, recently, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat noted that the future is “less about content knowledge, as content will have to be re-learnt and even un-learnt during one’s lifetime”.  Mr Heng added: “It is more about how to process information, discern truths from untruths, connect seemingly disparate dots and create knowledge even as the context changes. It is about developing an enduring core of competencies, values and character to anchor our young and ensure they have the resilience to succeed.”  This will sound familiar to reformers across the world.

Among the changes now being brought in- The Community Involvement Programme (CIP) will be renamed “Values in Action”. More than just a name change apparently , the programme will move away from the quantitative aspect of clocking mandatory hours. Instead, students will be asked to reflect on their experience, individually and in groups, during curriculum time. Schools will also be encouraged to develop four- to six-year development plans for sustainable community involvement.

Mr Heng said  ”I hope that the introduction of ‘Values in Action’ will, over time, allow students to see themselves as part of the larger community, and for the community to adopt the school as one of their own.”

In 1993, the Government started the Edusave Scheme aimed at maximising  opportunities for all Singaporean children. The Scheme rewards students who perform well or who make good progress in their academic and non-academic work as well , and provides students and schools with funds to pay for enrichment programmes or to purchase additional resources. The Edusave scheme was last reviewed in 2009. Mr Heng noted the existing scheme is “tilted towards academic achievements”. But he added: “As we place more emphasis on holistic education and character development, it is timely to align our recognition framework.”

Three major initiatives have been launched since 1997 in a bid to foster greater creativity and innovation in students. The first of these, Thinking Schools, Learning Nation, was launched by the prime minister in June 1997. It focuses on developing all students into active learners with critical thinking skills and on developing a creative and critical thinking culture within schools. It includes the explicit teaching of critical and creative thinking skills in the classroom , the reduction of subject content, the revision of assessment modes,  and a greater focus on process rather than outcomes when assessing schools (in theory at least).  The Master Plan for Information Technology in Education, was also launched in 1997. It is an ambitious attempt to incorporate information technology in teaching and learning in all schools.  The third and most recent major initiative focuses on university admission criteria. The Committee on University Admission System in 1999 recommended that admission criteria move beyond considering just the academic attainment of students for admissions and take into account extra-curricular performance.   But the Government still maintains its strong  say over curriculum issues.  And performance in competitive, academic exams remains the major determinant of educational and social mobility.

The new Edusave Character award will recognise up to 10,000 students each year who display traits such as resilience and civic responsibility.

The number of Edusave Awards for Achievement, Good Leadership and Service will also be doubled from 17,000 to 34,000 and its monetary quantum will be raised. The new awards will be given out from early next year.

The main changes are:

- New Edusave Character Award to recognise students who exhibit values such as respect and resilience. Up to 10,000 awards – of between S$200 and S$500 – will be given out each year.

- Doubling the number of Edusave Awards for Achievement, Good Leadership and Service (EAGLES) to benefit 34,000 students yearly. Monetary quantum of award will be raised by between S$100 and S$300.

- Community Involvement Programme (CIP) to be renamed “Values in Action”, with greater emphasis on reflections by students.

However, this extract below, from a  2000 report ‘ Education Reform in Singapore’ , is as relevant now,  as it was  then,    and  probably best sums up the real challenge facing Singapore-the elephant in the room. The report concludes ‘The larger problem for Singapore’s educational reform initiative is that Singapore’s nation building history resulted in an omni-present state that cherishes stability and order. A desire for true innovation experimentation and multiple opportunities in education cannot be realized until the state allows civil society to flourish and avoids politicizing dissent.’

Education Reform in Singapore: Towards Greater Creativity and Innovation? by Jason Tan and  S. Gopinathan (2000)

http://www.apecknowledgebank.org/resources/downloads/singaporecurriculumreformcreativity.pdf

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, FINDING FLOW AND ITS RELEVANCE TO EDUCATION

FINDING  FLOW

Another dimension of positive psychology and its relevance to education

Comment

Positive psychology is making inroads into current educational thinking. Here is one aspect- Reaching a state of Flow-bear with me!

Flow in psychology’ is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.

Part psychological study, part self-help book, Finding Flow is a prescriptive guide that ‘helps us reclaim ownership of our lives’.  The author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has devoted his professional life to the study of happiness and how we can attain it.

Based on a far-reaching study of thousands of individuals, Finding Flow contends that we often walk through our days unaware and out of touch with our emotional lives. He describes the mental state of flow as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” Our inattention makes us constantly bounce between two extremes: during much of the day we live filled with the anxiety and pressures of our work and obligations, while during our leisure moments, we tend to live in passive boredom. So, the  key, according to Csikszentmihalyi, is to challenge ourselves with tasks requiring a high degree of skill and commitment. So at its most simple level-instead of watching television, for example  play the piano. Transform a routine task by taking a different approach. In short, learn the joy of complete engagement. Though they appear simple, the lessons in Finding Flow are life-altering.

Flow first came to Csikszentmihalyi’s attention while he was studying artists for his postgraduate thesis. As they worked the artists seemed to go into a trance-like state. To his surprise he found that the finished product was less important to them than the process of doing the work itself. External rewards were less important than intrinsic pleasure, an observation that went against the grain of psychological thinking at the time.

 

According to Csíkszentmihályi, there are ten factors that accompany the experience of flow. While many of these components may be present, it is not necessary to experience all of them for flow to occur:

 

Clear goals that, while challenging, are still attainable.

 

Strong concentration and focused attention.

 

The activity is intrinsically rewarding.

 

Feelings of serenity; a loss of feelings of self-consciousness.

 

Timelessness; a distorted sense of time; feeling so focused on the present that you lose track of time passing.

 

Immediate feedback.

 

Knowing that the task is doable; a balance between skill level and the challenge presented.

 

Feelings of personal control over the situation and the outcome.

 

Lack of awareness of physical needs.

 

Complete focus on the activity itself.

 

So what relevance does this have for education? Csíkszentmihályi has suggested that overlearning a skill or concept can help people experience flow. Another critical concept in his theory is the idea of slightly extending oneself beyond one’s current ability level. This slight stretching of one’s current skills can help the individual experience flow. Flow can lead to improved performance too. Researchers have found that flow can enhance performance in a wide variety of areas including teaching, learning, athletics and artistic creativity. Flow can also lead to further learning and skill development. Because the act of achieving flow indicates a strong mastery of a certain skill, the individual must continually seek new challenges and information in order to maintain this state.

 

In the late 1980s Csikszentmihalyi and several colleagues undertook a longitudinal survey of over 200 talented teenagers to discover why some are able to develop their talents while others give up. One of their principal findings, published in Talented Teens – The Roots of Success and Failure was that ‘flow was the strongest predictor of subjective engagement and how far the student progressed in the school’s curriculum in his or her talent’.

 

The authors suggest three ‘promising steps for promoting optimal experience in the classroom’:

 

1. The most influential teachers were found to be those who always continue to nurture their interest in their subjects and do not take their ability to convey that enthusiasm for granted. Learning was found to flourish where the cultivation of passionate interest was a primary educational goal.

 

2. Attention should be paid to ‘conditions that enhance the experience of maximum rewards’. Everything should be done to minimise the impact of rules, exams and procedures and to focus on the inherent satisfaction of learning. (In a more recent interview, Csikszentmihalyi has stated that although it makes some sense to work on students’ weaknesses, it makes even more sense to work on their strengths, ‘Because once someone has developed strengths, then everything else becomes easier.’)

 

3. Teachers must read the shifting needs of learners. The flow state is not a static one: once a skill has been mastered it is necessary to add more complexity if the student is not to become bored – there must always be a close fit between challenges and skills. The teacher’s sense of timing and pace, of when to intervene and when to hold back, is therefore crucial. There must be freedom wherever possible for the student to control the process, but teachers must also draw on their experience to channel students’ attention.

 

References:

 

Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Rathunde, K. (1993). The measurement of flow in everyday life: Towards a theory of emergent motivation. In Jacobs, J.E.. Developmental perspectives on motivation. Nebraska symposium on motivation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

 

Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály (1975), Beyond Boredom and Anxiety, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

 

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997) Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. Basic Books, New York.

 

Csikszentmihalyi, M (2002), Flow: The Classic Work on How to Achieve Happiness, Rider, London

Thoughts about Education on www.newhorizons.org

 

Csikszentmihalyi, M, Rathunde, K, and Whalen, S (1997), Talented Teenagers: The Roots of Success and Failure, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Scherer, M (2002), ‘Do students care about learning? A conversation with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’Educational Leadership 60 (1)