tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post5544151335469011854..comments2024-03-14T02:53:31.171+00:00Comments on Tom Bennett's School Report: The Ten Commandments of Lazy Education JournalismTom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-89615061334560513862012-02-27T12:41:18.197+00:002012-02-27T12:41:18.197+00:00Welcome to Earth.Welcome to Earth.Tom Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-29345802013531634652012-01-14T19:09:20.673+00:002012-01-14T19:09:20.673+00:00Ah, the First Goldacre Fallacy is this:
Medicine=...Ah, the First Goldacre Fallacy is this:<br /><br />Medicine=Science<br /><br />He most certainly commits the second.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-72469038542488611732012-01-04T18:58:09.839+00:002012-01-04T18:58:09.839+00:00Mr Bennet, sir, how very dare you have an opinion!...Mr Bennet, sir, how very dare you have an opinion! <br />Haven't you heard of the Gorwell Initiative? All teachers with an opinion are to be shut in a vault with Jeremy Kyle show footage on a loop for sociogyrorecalibration. Of course those with no opinion will be invited to cascade corporate messages to a wide-eyed audience of peers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-71671835327516845122012-01-04T14:27:53.297+00:002012-01-04T14:27:53.297+00:00What's the first? And do you mean he commits t...What's the first? And do you mean he commits this fallacy, or is the scourge of it?<br /><br />TTom Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-48139978049831920142012-01-04T14:05:29.923+00:002012-01-04T14:05:29.923+00:00Just as an aside I like to call point 10 "the...Just as an aside I like to call point 10 "the Second Goldacre Fallacy" after Ben Goldacre.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-31523117641636756232012-01-01T19:39:30.610+00:002012-01-01T19:39:30.610+00:00Point 10 absolutely bang on! Can I add that school...Point 10 absolutely bang on! Can I add that schools are expected to cure societies ills but then pressurised into focussing solely on results of tests! You can't have both.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-51327049032820863752011-12-29T10:45:29.520+00:002011-12-29T10:45:29.520+00:00An effort from up north (quite a reasonable piece,...An effort from up north (quite a reasonable piece, to be fair, except for the headline):<br />http://www.scotsman.com/news/education/tearaway_children_terrorise_scotland_s_teachers_1_2028203dazmckhttp://maths4edinburgh.edublogs.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-58296211191486976022011-12-29T05:43:15.647+00:002011-12-29T05:43:15.647+00:00Let's face it, there are a lot of good teacher...Let's face it, there are a lot of good teachers in our schools, but there are also a lot of bad teachers. We need to get better about weeding the bad ones out. They are going to harm countless children's futures and probably cause some anti social behaviour problems in the future. In the private sector, we are callous about doing formal 360 feedback applying the "Bell curve" to the results, and GETTING RID of the bottom 10%, but at the same time REWARDING the 20% of top performers and giving them new and expanded opportunities. There is no reason why this principal can't be applied to Education. I this country we tolerate the good teachers get worn down by the BS and the bad teachers carry on doing the minimum. We need to grow up and shake things up a bit. End the big Pension hand outs for poor performers, pay decent teachers a Decent wage.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-59831985002950687352011-12-28T20:29:37.746+00:002011-12-28T20:29:37.746+00:00What about e-learning (or indeed any other new tec...What about e-learning (or indeed any other new technology)? That will revolutionise everything won't it? Education will be transformed and will be completely different thanks to the new wired generation. Oh, except it won't.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-90686275957631135112011-12-28T17:31:46.686+00:002011-12-28T17:31:46.686+00:00@ everyone Thank you for your feedback. Your views...@ everyone Thank you for your feedback. Your views are very important to us. Apart from the first one, which I didn't understand.Tom Bennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-62621468600491586512011-12-28T17:18:22.307+00:002011-12-28T17:18:22.307+00:00To be fair (not that I see any reason to be), many...To be fair (not that I see any reason to be), many of these stories aren't so much Lazy Journalists as Stupid Politicians. OK, that last phrase is tautological, but you know what I mean. I've taught since 1975, with about four years off to have kids, and during that time have seen countless wonderful new initiatives: they came, we saw, they didn't conquer. Sometimes, as one of your correspondents observes, they're on a merry-go-round and disappear/reappear at roughly predictable intervals under another name. But they all have one thing in common: they're totally pointless, either because they're what all halfway-good teachers are already doing, or because they're something that no teacher should waste time doing. <br /><br />The big problem now, of course, is that OFSTED have become Iniative Enforcers, so one can't get away so easily with just ignoring the Initiatives and continuing to teach sensibly. (And some of these initiatives, if followed au pied de la lettre, are totally mad: differentiation, for instance, where one's supposed to be teaching every individual student something perfectly designed for their own target. (Just before Christmas, the SLT member responsible for ensuring that we teach in the approved fashion* circulated a beautifully-produced document full of great differentiation ideas, such as 'Write different tasks on cards and place them under the seats of each student for them to pick up when they come into the room.' (What happens if Thicko decides to sit in Brainy's seat for once? And when does one find time to rush round comparing seating plans to cards between the time the bell goes and the time the little darlings enter the room? And - but you get the idea.)<br /><br />Oh well. Back to A2 coursework marking. Don't you love those long holidays when we can just chill out? <br /><br />*Not that I blame her - it's part of her job specification. Sigh.Sue Simshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15868265477624790008noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-64737341331392954772011-12-28T17:12:25.772+00:002011-12-28T17:12:25.772+00:00Any article explaining that 'TEACHERS WANT TO....Any article explaining that 'TEACHERS WANT TO...' or 'TEACHERS ARE...' or 'TEACHERS DEMAND RIGHT TO...' because of course we all think the same and behave in the same way about every issue. <br /><br />The media (sorry, some of the media!) love to generalise about us, honestly young journalists these days, they don't do any critical thinking, mind you they've been failed by the schools...Neilnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-9025241780384018812011-12-28T12:28:43.055+00:002011-12-28T12:28:43.055+00:00I think you'll find that if you substitute the...I think you'll find that if you substitute the word "children" with "Patients" and the word "school for hospital" that the list gains ten new uses! Goodness, that makes you a health correspondent too!Carolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-90339970252696650162011-12-28T09:51:14.742+00:002011-12-28T09:51:14.742+00:00How about
EXAMS WERE HARDER IN MY DAY (usually ap...How about<br /><br />EXAMS WERE HARDER IN MY DAY (usually appears mid August)<br />WE SHOULD PAY TEACHERS MORE (but not from my taxes)Claire Bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-48530119880471038872011-12-28T09:49:32.268+00:002011-12-28T09:49:32.268+00:00'When you build a mountain you create a valley...'When you build a mountain you create a valley' love it, will use it!Russhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05453520880691692970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-81999409874420397842011-12-27T23:17:43.299+00:002011-12-27T23:17:43.299+00:00SCHOOLS TO BE FREED FROM LOCAL AUTHORITY CONTROL
...SCHOOLS TO BE FREED FROM LOCAL AUTHORITY CONTROL<br /><br />This one has been regurgitated almost every year (or more) for as long as I can remember. I've just turned 47 so either the degree of local authority control in this highly decentralised country was so awesome that it's taking decades to break, or the Department of Education is so incompetent that it can't achieve what most other departments in central government can do in one parliamentary sitting, or it's just plain bollocks to fill space?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-33829356874479819882011-12-27T21:46:54.441+00:002011-12-27T21:46:54.441+00:00You forgot the 'let's do this great new in...You forgot the 'let's do this great new initiative' that has already been done numerous times, that good teachers still do & that already works. Phonics for instance...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-42215717078491621082011-12-27T21:31:17.966+00:002011-12-27T21:31:17.966+00:00Excellent, as ever. And to be clear to a commenter...Excellent, as ever. And to be clear to a commenter above, "some people are better at stuff than others" is not the same as the "theory" of multiple intelligences. Oh, and it is not an actual theory by the scientific definition of the word.Irondanimalnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-3293632597774208182011-12-27T19:19:59.696+00:002011-12-27T19:19:59.696+00:00Point 9 - made me nearly widdle myself laughing, b...Point 9 - made me nearly widdle myself laughing, bang on! <br /><br />Lots of good points, my view - Ministers create false conflict in education to gain votes, journalists create it to sell papers etc and teachers get horribly battered in the middle. Shameful stuff that strangles what should be a rigorous and mutually supportive sharing of best practice between quality researchers, practitioners and teachers across education. Much of, government, newspapers and hideous edu-businesses should butt the hell out.PractitionerJenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09515233333109966391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-31220533969686419622011-12-27T17:48:01.308+00:002011-12-27T17:48:01.308+00:00I love it all, although doesn't saying "s...I love it all, although doesn't saying "some people are better at stuff than others" then get a bit eroded by calling the theory of multiple intelligences (note: not how Head teachers, LAs & Ministers implement this theory. The actual theory. That some people are better at stuff than others & we should recognise that) stupid?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-48791100017534912442011-12-27T17:30:07.738+00:002011-12-27T17:30:07.738+00:00Interesting very interesting you seem very disenfr...Interesting very interesting you seem very disenfranchised by government, this could be a result of working for them for years or just that all they do is not good enough either way they dont do it for you do they. I am a school governor so find this insight interesting I have loads to learn about education and think you could prove very useful in that respect dont you?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com