Link: Annotated Bibliography on Teacher Professional Development in Crisis

From the team at INEE. A useful annotated bibliography on literature related to Teacher Professional Development in Crisis.

Check it out here.

p.s. Whilst I'll admit posts are very thin on the ground these days as I focus on other projects, be sure to follow on Twitter for a heads up on new posts! Get following! @GEDBlog

Report: Every Child Needs a Teacher: Closing the Trained Teacher Gap

October 5th is World Teachers' Day, so it seems fitting to provide an excerpt from the report from the Global Campaign for Education entitled Every Child Needs a Teacher: Closing the Trained Teacher Gap.

The report on teacher training and poor conditions faced by teachers: 

'Some countries count those who have completed primary school and a one-month training course as trained, while others require a three-year education degree. Even with these flexible and often low standards, a third of countries report that no more than half of their pre-primary school teachers are trained; at primary level, reported rates are slightly higher, but thirty one countries report that fewer than three quarters of teachers are trained (to any accepted national standard) and a number report falling levels of training. In Mali, where half of primary school teachers are trained, only a quarter have had training lasting six months or longer. Nearly half of countries reporting training levels at lower secondary level state that fewer than three quarters of teachers are trained. Niger had just 1,059 trained lower secondary school teachers in 2010 – compared to 1.4 million children of lower secondary school age. 

[...] 

The overwhelming lesson is that high quality education requires sufficient recruitment of teachers who are trained, supported, paid and managed as professionals. The recruitment of low-skill, untrained teachers in recent decades has proved disastrous for education quality - and much current training provision needs improvement. Teachers are paid paltry amounts, for example just $125 a month in Niger; many have to travel long distances to collect pay that is often days, weeks or even months late. A motivated, highly skilled teacher workforce produces the best education; yet too often teachers are treated as low-grade service delivery employees, expected to deliver classes and administer tests according to a script, and rewarded or punished on the basis of test scores. The deprofessionalisation of teachers denies students the possibility of great teaching.'

I couldn't agree more with this statement: 'A motivated, highly skilled teacher workforce produces the best education; yet too often teachers are treated as low-grade service delivery employees' .

What is your experience as a teacher? Have you felt supported, or undervalued by your school? Is too much pressure placed upon teachers? What can help teachers perform their best, and therefore help bring out the best in students?

Worth reading the report in full - you can find it here. 

Grade inflation - time to give in?

An interesting debate and not something exclusive to the USA. Every year when GCSE or A-Level results come out in the UK talk of grade inflation fills the news.

Chris Blattman suggests here that we shouldn't resist 'the new equilibrium'. Having marked students' work myself, I kind of agree with this. As Chris Blattman suggests, surely it's all relative? So, for example if there are only five piles of graded work ranging from A+ to B-, in theory is this not the same as the graded work in five piles ranging from A to E? And I hesitate to add: the B- therefore being equivalent to the E...or have I been subjected to too much of a private school mentality?! Or do certain grades have connotations and therefore an A- will always be viewed (subconsciously) as better than a B despite the fact their quality is the same (given that they would both be in the second pile of graded work).

I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on this and Chris Blattman's suggestion that we should go with the flow. 

Education in the Africa Progress Report 2012

From the Africa Progress Report 2012:

'Looking towards 2015, there is an unfortunate air of resignation hanging over much of the region. Many governments and donors appear to view a large shortfall against the MDG targets in education as an inevitable outcome. Indeed, much of the debate surrounding the MDGs in education has moved on to dialogue on the “post-2015” agenda.   

Without discounting the importance of this dialogue, the shift in priorities is premature. As many countries across the region have demonstrated, rapid progress towards the 2015 goals is possible. Both Tanzania and Ethiopia reduced out-of-school numbers by over 3 million in the first half of the decade after 2000. The immediate challenge for governments and their development partners is to identify strategies aimed at getting more children into school, reducing dropout rates and improving learning achievement levels.  

Some of the barriers to participation in education can be swiftly removed through well-designed policies. 

[...]

The more difficult part revolves around teaching. Ultimately, no education system is better than its teachers. With a deficit of around 1 million teachers, Africa urgently needs to step up recruitment. However, far more needs to be done to raise the quality of teaching. Many of Africa’s teachers enter classrooms with limited subject knowledge. One survey found that fewer than half of grade 6 teachers in Mozambique, Uganda and Malawi were able to score at the top of the competency level for the pupils. Teaching is typically delivered in rote fashion, reflecting training systems that regard “child-centred learning” as an alien concept. In-service support systems are weak. And whether as a result of low morale, poor pay or a lack of accountability, Africa’s schools are plagued by an epidemic of teacher absenteeism.'

Check out the Report for more on what more can be done for education across various different African countries. 

How do we achieve poor quality education?

No, the title isn't a typo. I thought I'd take a look at the flip side: rather than trying to propose ways we can achieve good quality education (something which has no doubt been covered better elsewhere), how about how we end up with poor quality education?

Language of Instruction: Learning in a language that isn't your mother-tongue has a hugely negative impact upon learning outcomes. I've highlighted the importance of focusing upon it in earlier posts. Various studies have been done that prove how bilingual or multilingual models can have a positive impact upon students' learning, and how such models can lessen the potential for conflict. Despite all of this, the language of instruction issue has yet to be mainstreamed in educational development. Of course, in countries where there are hundreds of languages (including dialects) it is perhaps not a straightforward area to reform. 

Standardisation: Seems an obvious one, but just because an educational model has worked in one country, it does not necessarily mean it will work elsewhere. A curriculum needs to be relevant to the context in which it is taught. Let us not forget the importance of context to a relevant and quality education.

Teachers: Poor pay. Lack of professional development. Large class sizes. Difficult conditions. Low status in comparison to other professions. Does this combination really sound conducive to a quality education?

Poor management: Even if teachers do remain positive and wish to be agents of change, this can often be thwarted by poor management and leadership. 

There you have it. It's not an exhaustive list, so now it's your turn: can you think of other areas which lead to poor quality, irrelevant education? Do you think there is one particular area which requires our immediate attention? Share your thoughts in the comments box below. 

Event announcement (London): In Teachers We Trust - The Finnish Miracle

Where: Institute of Education, University of London (Nunn Hall)
When: 29 March 2012
Time: 0945 - 1615

Further information can be found here. Looks to be a thought-provoking event. Free to attend but you need to be quick - registration for the event closes on Thursday 15 March.

Teaching - vocation or profession?

We all have that one teacher we'll never forget. Did they learn how to be that good, or were they born with it? The question is an important one in the context of developing education. I read today that teachers in the private Pakistani institution Hunny would leave 'if offered a job in a government school'. The reason? 'Pay is better there, and teachers do not always turn up' (meaning less work). Full article here. 

This raises the age-old question of whether teaching is a profession or a vocation. Despite the rise in child-centred approaches in the classroom, quality teachers are still required to act as facilitators in this new environment. And, they are still a prerequisite of a quality education. Why then the low status of teachers in countries like Pakistan? Although there are some exceptions e.g. South Korea, why have teachers never quite reached the same professional heights as lawyers or doctors? More importantly, what can be done to help raise the status of teachers in contexts such as Pakistan, where for example, greater teacher input into curriculum decisions is not necessarily welcomed by headteachers?