Still just good or bad...

End league tables, say governors: "End league tables, say governors Tests Children sit tests at 11 and 14 which form the basis of league tables School governors are calling for an end to the current system of league tables and national tests in England. The National Governors' Association (NGA) said the tables held information that was too narrow and misrepresented what happened in schools.

Instead it wants schools to be given a grade based on comparisons with others in similar circumstances, and tests that check individual pupils' progress."

An interesting one which relates to the ideas of 'effectiveness' discussed by Ball (1995) - here you can see one measure of success is being replaced as it misrepresents what is 'good' about schools. It's replacement? Another form of grading system. Schools are still cast in the roles of good or bad. They might have changed their approach, but there's an underlying assumption of what the problem is and how to measure / fix it.

Reference:

Ball, S. J. (1995) ‘Intellectuals or technicians? The urgent role of theory in educational studies’, British Journal of Educational studies, Vol. 43, No.3, 1995, pp.255-71, Blackwell

Big word bingo

Am just reading Stephen Ball's 'Intellectuals or technicians?' article and am having a wading through treacle moment, so to lighten the mood... I'm noting down all the big / complex words from his article and play 'big word bingo' with all the other course texts in the hopes of finding something more difficult to read!

So... mark your cards with...

nosologies
parsimonious
adumbrated
panopticon
polyvalent
concomitant
ameliorative
hegemonic
imbricated
proselytising
ontological
epistemological
dispositif
semiotic

Mind you... having trawled through the whole thing, it is quite an interesting, thought-provoking article.  I just wish he hadn't tripped over and swallowed a dictionary on his way to typing it up... 

Useful resource on post-modernism

post-modernism @ the informal education homepage: "post-modernism and post-modernity Page upon page of print has been devoted to the post-modernism. But what actually is it, and what implications does it have for informal educators? Barry Burke investigates."

Have to say... I've read the description of postmodernism in the Study Guide... and I'm really not any the wiser! The above page is a good introduction to the concept in an educational context... and the whole site generally is a great resource for all things educational thinker / theory!

E891 on Facebook

For anyone who's got a Facebook account or would like a reason to get one if you're involved with E891... there's now a Facebook group for course-wide discussion of issues, concepts, ideas... anything related to the course really! 

There is no OU-hosted forum where anyone studying E891 can meet... so this little space on the interweb should provide a neat little home for all things E891 which can't be met by the tutor group system which is currently in place.  Or that's the theory at least!

Zotero - The Next-Generation Research Tool

Zotero - The Next-Generation Research Tool: "Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself."

It's been a while since I used it - but I'd forgotten how useful this free little tool is if you're using Firefox as your main browser. If you're not sure if it's something you might like - take a look at the Demo and see the stuff it can do. Very cool! Obviously, that's 'geekily cool'... but still...

My fad is your philosophy

My fad is your philosophy: "The social sciences too often make the mistake of equating their research methods to those of Science - that can simply never be the case. The human-ness of education as a social activity will always, happily, leave lots of room for innovation, for compassionate response to situations, for philosophical (and even ideological) influences on practice, for simply trying out ideas from wherever they might be culled."

Interesting and thought-provoking response to Estelle Morris's calls for evidence-based education - and captures a lot of my discomfort with the arguments put forward by people such as Morris - and earlier, Hargreaves and Ravitch.

Estelle Morris: Education should not be based on untested theories

Estelle Morris: Education should not be based on untested theories | Schools comment | EducationGuardian.co.uk: "The Institute for Effective Education (IEE) will develop, test and evaluate ideas on how to improve education. They will find out what works in teaching and learning, and why. The Institute, which will be both international and independent, will create a hub of evidence for education innovation by using innovative approaches and scientific evaluations similar to those in medicine."

The push for evidence-based education strengthens...