Education in Britain
Pedagogy is a difficult word, not only in pronunciation. The quality of classroom teaching is the most important aspect to improve the level of education and teaching. But in Britain at least, education has become the most difficult priority.
According to the latest data released by the Paris-based OECD, the performance of British schools "has not improved significantly in a changing world". The members of the organization are mostly rich countries. According to programme for international student assessment's survey, Britain's ranking has hardly changed in the three years since the last international test results were published. The object of the test is students aged 15, and the purpose is to compare the reading, mathematics and science levels of students from all over the world.
Britain's ranking in science has improved, from 2 1 to 15 among the 70 countries that participated in the survey, but its ranking in reading and mathematics remains at 22nd and 27th respectively. For a country with a successful education export industry (think of overseas students who are sent to British universities and private schools and bring a lot of income to these institutions), this is really frustrating.
The level of school education is almost always in the headlines, and all the new ministers say that the government is determined to make greater efforts to improve it. Then why did these efforts fail one after another? Part of the answer lies in the fact that the scores of Britain as a whole hide the huge differences between schools in England and those in Scotland and Wales. After the decentralization of education policy, the education level of the latter two actually declined.
At the same time, in England, the emphasis on examination and supervision introduced by the Labour government in the first decade of this century seems to at least help prevent the serious decline of school education. However, the head of the Federation of Primary and Secondary School Principals accused successive governments of being "obsessed" with the reform of school structure, but neglected the attention to classroom teaching.
Teresa. The Mei government hopes to expand the number of grammar schools (selected middle schools) and religious schools, although there is controversy about the social division caused by these two types of schools. Prior to this, former Prime Minister David? With practical benefits, the Cameron government has pushed most secondary schools out of the control of local governments, turned them into independent colleges, and opened up a new category: free schools led by parents and charities. It also hopes to apply this college model to all schools, including primary schools (the plan has been cancelled).
Prior to this, the college project was launched during the Labor Party's administration, which triggered the current war of attrition with the education departments of local governments.
The background of these reform efforts is that the recruitment and retention of teachers have now reached a crisis level.
The Director of Education of OECD said that the shortage of teachers is a "big bottleneck" to improve the education level. Therefore, even those education officials who try to whitewash the survey results should accept the opinions of the Federation of Primary and Secondary School Principals.
Credible solutions include the success of "Education First", which took the lead in recruiting the best young graduates into the classroom and promoted it to the whole country a year ago. For example, the Financial Times has launched a project called Now Teach, which aims to encourage middle-aged professionals who change careers to receive on-the-job training in order to teach some subjects with shortage of teachers, such as mathematics and language.
Teachers' continuous professional development is the key, and there must be a well-known and meritocratic promotion channel. More basic measures to retain teachers will also help, such as housing subsidies, or better teaching methods supported by evidence. For example, it is very effective to encourage British schools to follow the example of Asia and adopt the method of "mastering mathematics". Schools in Asian countries are always at the top of the Pisa rankings.
However, there is still a heated cultural debate between ministerial officials who believe in passing exams and experts who believe that future employment needs more skills education. As long as this debate continues, Britain is likely to continue to stand still.
The above is an introduction to the education problems in Britain. Please refer to.