{"id":37381,"date":"2017-01-04T11:16:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T19:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=37381"},"modified":"2017-01-04T11:16:15","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T19:16:15","slug":"seven-ways-education-needs-change-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/seven-ways-education-needs-change-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven ways education needs to change in 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"crisis-of-meaning\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When James Callaghan, then UK prime minister, launched his great debate on education<\/a> at Ruskin College Oxford in 1976, the content and role of education became a hotly contested subject. Schools today, however, are now less concerned with education, and more with how social engineering can achieve a variety of external goals external. The legacy of New Labour, in particular, is that schools have become the focus for resolving all \u201csocial ills\u201d, from obesity to radicalisation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The call for school well-being league tables<\/a> along with an obsession with character, self-esteem, and happiness is the most recent expression of this social engineering. So in this new year, enough is enough \u2013 it\u2019s time to take education back to basics, with my seven suggestions for 2017.<\/p>\n

1. Put subjects at the heart of the curriculum<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the current climate, the true meaning of education has been lost. In its purest form, education is the simple means of passing knowledge and understanding on to a new generation. But the number of debates, enquiries and books with titles such as \u201cWhat is education for?\u201d or \u201cWhat are schools for?\u201d is indicative of a crisis of meaning.<\/p>\n

Despite the Association of Teachers and Lecturer\u2019s views<\/a> that \u201csubjects\u201d are old-fashioned, elitist and inappropriate for today, school subjects actually provide the best access<\/a> to powerful knowledge based upon the consensus in the academic disciplines, rather than just the arbitrary whims of teachers.<\/p>\n

The way I see it is simple: teach a knowledge-based curriculum and \u201ccharacter\u201d and the rest will take care of itself. But teach character, and you will be denying pupils an education.<\/p>\n

2. Stop reducing education to \u2018skills\u2019 and \u2018learning objectives\u2019<\/h2>\n

Education is different from skills-based training, and all the talk of \u201clearning objectives\u201d means that education is now something with specific and determined ends \u2013 making it no longer differentiated from training.<\/p>\n

Even at doctoral level students are now expected to set out their \u201caims\u201d and \u201cobjectives\u201d. But just because it is so familiar and rarely challenged doesn\u2019t mean that it isn\u2019t an error. Schools may, and do, waste children\u2019s time by offering various bits of training \u2013 but that is schooling not education.<\/p>\n

3. Take things back to basics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Education is something we should value for its own sake, not for another purpose \u2013 it is an end in itself not a means.<\/p>\n

Almost every teacher and teacher trainer now believe that the instrumental purpose of education is to promote social justice<\/a>, which embodies a rather patronising view of ordinary people as \u201cvulnerable victims\u201d, or the poor and \u201cneedy\u201d. But if you actually educate children and young people properly they will learn to think for themselves rather than just being indoctrinated \u2013 which is what \u201ceducation for social justice\u201d actually means<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. Recognise that education is for all<\/strong><\/p>\n

Education begins with the premise that all children can be educated in all subjects to the highest level possible. But today\u2019s error is that some children are thought to require a different sort of education. Or it is believed that certain children can\u2019t do certain subjects<\/a> such as mathematics, physics, or languages. Or that some pupils \u2013 most recently white working class boys<\/a> \u2013 can only reach a low level in a subject.<\/p>\n

If you think any of this you can\u2019t teach and should not be in a classroom.
\n

\"Maths,<\/a>

Maths, not just for the smart. Pexels<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

5. Get rid of the obsession with pedagogy<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1981 Brian Simon wrote his seminal paper: \u201cWhy no pedagogy in England?\u201d Today if he was alive and writing it might be titled \u201cToo much pedagogy in England\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pedagogy isn\u2019t just a pretentious term for \u201cteaching\u201d, but an attack on subject-based education<\/a>, which it tries to replace with technological know-how or some \u201ctransformative\u201d activity that encourages critical reflection on pupils\u2019 beliefs and knowledge \u2013 which they barely have. Or it offers them some \u201ctherapeutic\u201d activity such as mindfulness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

6. Trust teachers to teach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Traditionally, education was based on a commitment to knowledge and understanding and the need to find ways of teaching subjects to children. And it was a messy business that teachers had to work out through experience \u2013 which meant a lifetime spent in the classroom.<\/p>\n

But calls for<\/a> \u201cevidence-based\u201d education has led to an attack on subjects and teachers no longer trusting themselves to teach \u2013 a point well argued by teacher Mark Taylor<\/a> who argues that:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s simply no sense in seeking what we might call an evidence-based moral purpose.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This needs to change. We need our teachers to be confident in their abilities to teach their subject.<\/p>\n

\"Let<\/a>

Let teachers teach. Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n

7. So that more of them will stay in the job<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are few educators today and there are too many trainers and facilitators concerned with soft skills. This has produced what has been lampooned as the \u201csnowflake\u201d generation of students<\/a> who can\u2019t cope with difficult subjects and ideas. This is an indictment of a whole generation of educators and their antipathy to knowledge.<\/p>\n

We need to grow more teachers committed to Matthew Arnold\u2019s vision of getting children to learn<\/a> \u201cthe best that is known and thought in the world\u201d \u2013 as the inspector of schools and English poet famously said. That is the noble task of a noble profession and we need to rebuild it.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Dennis Hayes is Professor of Education at the University of Derby <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When James Callaghan, then UK prime minister, launched his great debate on education at Ruskin College Oxford in 1976, the content and role of education became a hotly contested subject. Schools today, however, are now less concerned with education, and more with how social engineering can achieve a variety of external goals external. The legacy […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":37382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[42631],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-37381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-crises-of-meaning"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSeven ways education needs to change in 2017 - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/seven-ways-education-needs-change-2017\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seven ways education needs to change in 2017 - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When James Callaghan, then UK prime minister, launched his great debate on education at Ruskin College Oxford in 1976, the content and role of education became a hotly contested subject. 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