How do people really learn?

The importance of trust

Back in January I wrote in this blog that:

If we want to promote real learning… there's actually no alternative to reliance on trust -- and to rebuilding trust where necessary -- […] in professional ideals and ethics.

Most of this (the bit in italics) was a quotation from an article by Michael E McIntyre. In this article he wrote about the need

to rediscover the supreme importance of trust and responsibility, including professional ethics, despite their occasional abuse.

The tide may be beginning to turn in this direction, at least as far as education is concerned. A recent article on the BBC website by the TV and radio journalist Mike Baker suggests that recent government policy changes may represent a move away from micro-management towards increased trust and autonomy. In the article (called Is it time to trust the teachers?) Mike suggests that 30 years ago we had 'high autonomy and low accountability' in education in the UK. Then we moved to 'low autonomy and high accountability'. He suggests that there is now a realisation that what we need is 'high autonomy and high accountability'. He goes on to say:

So schools and teachers should be trusted more: trusted to devise their own curriculum, their own teaching styles, and their own forms of assessment.

But the price of that freedom is strong accountability. But an accountability that is more intelligent than the rather crude measures we have had until now, which have distorted school behaviours.

Great stuff, Mike!

More criticism of A-levels

Hot on the heels of the article in last week's TES suggesting that A-level teaching stifles independent thinking and creativity (see my previous blog entry) comes an item in today's Independent newspaper putting forward much the same idea. Anthony Seldon and David James argue that A-levels are 'part of a damaged process' that lacks academic integrity, and they refer (amongst other evidence) to the study mentioned in the TES article.

It is a really good sign, I think, that more and more people are now pointing out that (notwithstanding league tables and targets etc.) our present educational system lacks rigour/integrity and is not optimised for promoting independent thinking and creativity. There does seems to be increasing concern about how people really learn, and of course I welcome this.

Seldon and James suggest the International Baccalaureate as an alternative to A-levels. I don't know much about the IB, and must try to find out more. Could the IB help schools to promote real learning? 

Independent thinking squeezed out by a constant focus on boosting league table scores

A survey by ACS International Schools suggests that university admission tutors believe that the need to 'teach to the test' and a constant focus on boosting league table scroes are stifling independent thinking and creativity in A-level teaching. (This was reported in an article in the TES last week, under the headline HE want creativity).

This view is similar to that expressed by Rebecca Front and reported in my last blog entry:

Constant testing leaves little room for independent thought.

Maybe the tide is really beginning to turn, as more and more individuals and organisations realise the importance of promoting real learning.

(The odd thing about the TES article is that it appears to refer to a survey that was published nearly a year ago - I'm not sure why they have waited until now to cover it.)

“Education has to be about more than hitting targets”

Friday’s Guardian contained an interesting reflection by the actress Rebecca Front on what she valued in her own education.

Of her school, she writes:

Academically it was nothing special. But there were enough flashes of brilliance and wisdom and real affection from the staff to offer an education in the truest sense – a drawing out of what was there in us all anyway…

What stays with me as I get older are the off-piste moments from teachers with a little freedom to be iconoclasts or enthusiasts.

She has a very different perception of present day education:

… the strictures of the national curriculum throttle the individualism of great teachers, and… constant testing leaves little room for independent thought. Education has to be about more than hitting targets.

I think we need to be cautious of the ‘golden age’ tendency – the mistake of imagining that things were much better a generation or so ago. There was certainly some dire teaching in schools, colleges and universities in the second half of the twentieth century – I remember being on the receiving end of it at times. But, like Rebecca Front, I also remember being greatly influenced by those teachers whose very identity was partly forged by their enthusiasm for the subject(s) they taught, and who could project this enthusiasm to their students.

For me Rebecca Front’s article suggests one way in which we might seek to understand and define how people really learn. Is real teaching and learning simply about effective sharing and developing of enthusiasm?