tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30198286849719712032024-03-14T02:53:33.500+00:00Tom Bennett's School Report
Tom Bennett, founder of researchED, author, and behaviour advisor to the DfE, exorcises his demons here. Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.comBlogger281125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-89668677835195460772023-04-23T09:54:00.003+01:002023-04-23T09:54:32.453+01:00Bleeding inside: why mental health is too important to get wrong<p> </p><div class="row margin-bottom-md" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><div class="tes-article-content-area-region-header tes-article-content-area-region" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="col-lg-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"><div class="panel-pane pane-node-title" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.52941rem; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px;">Bleeding inside: why mental health is too important to get wrong</h1></div></div></div></div></div><div class="row margin-bottom-md" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><div class="tes-article-content-area-region-header-left tes-article-content-area-region" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="col-xs-12 col-sm-6" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"><div class="panel-pane pane-entity-field pane-node-field-news-article-byline" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field-name-field-news-article-byline field-type-entityreference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20200810063005%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.tes.com%2Fnews%2Fauthor%2Ftom-bennett&data=05%7C01%7C%7C66b477dbb0a843b3a80708db430d0a3a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638177495506367817%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=M1R7pXXd%2BBOZDEGWWCt8evA4yNn4rzeRAEnBx7Xe1lM%3D&reserved=0" originalsrc="https://web.archive.org/web/20200810063005/https://www.tes.com/news/author/tom-bennett" shash="hnPNbmjHYqAUdiuaaK+MgnpCYQ2PfSJp0xMwD4eCPmxMTmwpannU5KnVG0/c0qLli+BYERAsiTGWVbUoPPYyMMZqV9aaRpQWQRbJooyXOCVa79Bd4xG982RiktHbwlfGLqvJlMzQ9lJWunlQM4joE6bx4YbJlsEKHBr/5nCLBjc=" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0078d4; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Tom Bennett</a></div></div></div><div class="panel-pane pane-entity-field pane-node-field-publication-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #58657f; font-size: 0.875rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 10px;"><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field-name-field-publication-date field-type-datetime field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="date-display-single" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Originally published on the TES </span></div><div class="field field-name-field-publication-date field-type-datetime field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="date-display-single" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></span></div><div class="field field-name-field-publication-date field-type-datetime field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="date-display-single" style="box-sizing: border-box;">16th June 2016 at 11:20</span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="tes-article-content-area-region-header-right tes-article-content-area-region" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div></div><div class="row margin-bottom-sm" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><div class="tes-article-content-area-region-content tes-article-content-area-region" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="col-lg-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"><div class="panel-pane pane-entity-field pane-node-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-right: 30px;"><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tom Bennett tries to get behind the headlines on claims of a rising tide of mental illness</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="" class="media-element file-default img-responsive" height="251" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200810063005im_/https://www.tes.com/sites/default/files/482461311.jpg" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: 89.642857px !important; max-width: 100%; touch-action: auto; vertical-align: middle; width: 250px !important;" tabindex="0" width="700" /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">Mental illnesses across the population, but particularly concentrated in younger groups, are getting worse and more common. Exam stress is now leading to more and more children suffering from mental health problems. This is all obvious, right?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">But nothing to do with mental health is obvious. Despite this, there is a rising tide of commentators who believe that everything in the first paragraph is true. More worryingly, many seem to be unconcerned with substantiating those claims. And if you ask for supporting evidence, discussion quickly degenerates to accusations of "not caring" about mental health in children, or "not listening to people on the front line".</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">That wouldn’t be funny even if it were true. None of us should have to prove ourselves in the High Court of All The Feels, as if whoever emotes the most, wins. I shouldn’t have to count off friends I’ve lost to suicide, or seen buried in their own misery, to participate in this discussion. Virtue signalling appals me. It’s charitable to assume that everyone cares about this topic, and deal with the facts as best we find them. I just assume that we would all prefer a world where everyone enjoyed optimal physical and mental health. But how to get close to that? </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">There are two claims, it seems to me, within the scare quotes: </p><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-inline-start: 2.5em;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">There is a current and new crisis</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">It has been measurably increased or instigated by current educational policies</span></li></ol><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Is there a crisis?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">Our definitions are vital. If you believe that any level of poor mental health constitutes a crisis then yes, there is, but that would be a banal, pointless conclusion. We reserve terms like crisis to refer to specific events, just as the words endemic, pandemic, epidemic refer to specific levels of public health disorder. This has a concomitant effect on funds and resources made available, differences in response and so on. Doctors describe pain as acute or chronic, anaesthetics as local and general. Words matter. A crisis is "an emergency, or an unstable, dangerous situation". It entails, for example, a sudden worsening of mental health. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">This is important. Understanding the true extent (and cause) of a problem is essential in how we respond to it. If a doctor finds a patient choking in a restaurant, knowing the difference between a cardiac arrest and a cayenne pepper allergy makes the difference between CPR and tracheotomy with a steak knife and a Bic pen. Understanding who is ill, when, how often and why, is a crucial part of dealing with the problem. Anxious responses that "Everyone is sick!" leads us nowhere. Crucially, it can lead to people who do need help not getting it. I’ve had pupils say they wanted to end it all; a hasty referral to the CPO revealed they just needed to talk through, for example, their parents' divorce. Symptoms can indicate multiple causes, just as headaches can present in both hangovers and brain tumours. Diagnoses are best left to diagnostic professionals, which is why self-reported (or even school-reported) data needs to be analysed very carefully before we accept it as rigorous. A recent lump on my eyelid had me reaching for my last Will and Testament; turned out to be a stye. And a sore throat can be followed by a funeral. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">Dr Stan Kutcher, one of Canada’s leading experts in young people’s mental health, a<a class="processed" data-mz="" href="https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20200810063005%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecasket.ca%2Farchives%2F50211&data=05%7C01%7C%7C66b477dbb0a843b3a80708db430d0a3a%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638177495506524546%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=khQtuZDfdEX%2FrMjfnqo3nVOF%2Fy1sU7QGwn1hnLylTzI%3D&reserved=0" originalsrc="https://web.archive.org/web/20200810063005/http://www.thecasket.ca/archives/50211" shash="f8CO22QEGd/CueNVtfUn91NOv2n+9pzNd34lX6LN8eJ91hIyrqrJN7lbX7g79T3ko5UrMlaNxko2vcl2dsl3Vy/7/4S7oyPkMnqTm/twLPtcf0Kv+y1YRedlCtwmSe3EjbsmNE9N0iqOGpv/jQEdn1+ZsADgdd5tO2mQcgfcgnQ=" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #6376ec; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">grees that misdiagnosis is a problem</a>: </p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 17.5px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 10px !important; padding: 10px 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; word-spacing: 1px;">We have the same proportion of mental illness in our society now that we had 40, 50, 60 years ago. There is no epidemic of illness, there is better recognition of illness, which is good but what we’re seeing now is an epidemic of ‘I think I have a mental disorder when I’m just really feeling unhappy,’ and that is a direct reflection of poor mental health literacy…Now depression happens in adolescents and depression is a serious disease and if you have depression you need the proper treatment for depression, but feeling unhappy, that’s not depression…So I think a lot of people have become confused with all the talk about mental health and mental illness without the literacy to understand what they’re talking about.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">Kutcher takes mental health very seriously, and where it exists he is adamant that provision needs to be made. But there is an important lesson here: only mental health professionals are qualified to diagnose mental illness, not well-meaning armchair bloggers or columnists…or even teachers. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Are exams driving our children mad?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">Sadly, a lot of rhetoric I’ve heard has already focused on one possible cause: exams. Throughout social media and cross-stitched through headlines we see an extraordinary attribution to current school systems as the Petri dish of many mental health problems. But there really isn’t any data to serve this theory. Which isn’t to say it isn’t true, but that the data we have can’t support that conclusion. However if you suggest that this is the case, (and suggest the claimants write cheques the data can’t cash), those already wedded to the anti-exam cause often cleave to their cherished beliefs at the expense of reason or evidence.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">God knows, there’s a lot I would change about the way that we assess children. But we abuse their trust in us when we falsely ascribe symptoms and syndromes to them as a group that might not be true. It’s as if we become complicit in an enormous Munchausens-by-proxy, (where the sufferer pretends their children are sick so that they can enjoy the status of carer, victim and martyr). This is why I find recent speculation often unhelpful. Is mental health a serious public health problem? God, yes. Is enough being done about it? It probably never could. Do we all care? Redundantly, unsurprisingly enough, yes, I think lots of people do care. Do we have a problem as a society talking about it? Without a doubt. Is there a crisis? It’s incredibly hard to say. Are people more or less well than 10 years ago, or 100? We have almost no idea. Some indicators (admissions for self harm at A&E) are up. Others (suicide rates per 1000) are down. Do the former indicate a real rise, or a rise in our ability to talk about these things, to seek help? Maybe. We don’t know. People who want to show boat on alarmist claims are free to do so, while simultaneously unicycling on the moral high ground. But surely the truly moral thing is to seek the truth?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Big claims, small evidence</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">One thing certainly has increased: newspaper stories referring to a mental health crisis. This should surprise no one: crisis, conflict and alarm are prime engines of attracting interest. But recently they have frequently referred to one of two pieces of data: a 2004 study of mental health (which is interesting, but clearly can’t tell us if there is a current crisis or not) and a parliamentary answer about the dramatic rise of A&E admissions for mental health problem in young people, which could be as easily explained by the reduction in community mental health services as any other factor. That’s the point; we just can’t tell. I’m deeply distressed by the lack of provision for people with mental health problems. But this doesn’t justify creating narratives that serve our project. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">I’ve read a lot of data indicating that more people are, for example, accessing mental health services, or attempting to – waiting lists are another rich data seam. But is this a genuine rise in unwellness, or a rise in expectations of availability and accessibility? To put it another way, why would we be more unwell now than before? Are we claiming that society was more or less stressed during the Blitz, the Winter of Discontent, the recession of the 80s? We just don’t know. We’ve certainly improved both our attitudes towards and our capacity to treat mental health. And we’ve got, I’m sure a long way to go. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">First, do no harm</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">I recently came across an interesting, unsettling word: "iatrogenic". It means: "caused by the diagnosis, manner or treatment of a physician." This syndrome is particularly acute in mental health; because a component of our mental health is built from our self-perception, psychiatry recognises that some mental health problems can be exacerbated through misdiagnosis: bipolar disorder in paediatric patients, chronic fatigue syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, for example. Just as we can be convinced of itching sensations or headaches, we can be talked more deeply into sub-optimal mental health in some forms, like Itchy Leg Syndrome. Or look up delusional parasitises (in fact don’t, because you’ll catch it). Copycat suicides are also well known, which us why there are oft-ignored guidelines for how the press reports it. This spike in suicides after a well-publicised suicide is called the Werther effect, when clusters of suicides emerge in schools or communities, and seems particularly pronounced when a cherished celebrity like Robin Williams takes their life. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">None of this ameliorates the challenge of poor mental health; what it does is remind us how important it is to diagnose sincerely, carefully, and accurately. And when we discuss it in public, we take the utmost care not to sensationalise, or worse, use it to promote a political or personal/commercial agenda. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">Mental health is a problem too important to discuss in terms of anecdotes, strongly held opinions or insta-hot-takes. In 2010, 14 employees at Foxconn City (an industrial park in Shenzhen, China) committed suicide. People (mostly reporters, then readers) were scandalised; and many believed it indicated that Apple and Hewlett Packard (among other major customers at Foxconn) had driven them to suicide…until it was pointed out that the suicide rate of the employees was still below the national average (above 20 per 100,000; by contrast, Foxconn employed around 350,000 people). In fact, it would probably be easier to make a case that they were doing something right there, not wrong. Numbers matter. To people like me, who aren’t used to dealing with them at this level of nuance, it’s easy to bulldoze and bully figures to mean what we want, especially when simple conclusions help our personal crusades. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">But is that a good enough attitude when people’s lives and wellbeing are at stake? </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">Obviously, that’s rhetorical.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Care Wars</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">One option is simply to suggest that if you don’t believe there to be a crisis then it implies some kind of compassion deficit; that you’re unwilling to do anything because you’re (in the words of one person to me) "downplaying the problem" (or worse, "Trivialising children's distress in order to seem intellectually superior"). This is a powerful rhetorical device but a terrible way to understand a problem. If one person succumbed tragically to scurvy, would we be guilty of downplaying the tragedy if we hesitated to call something a crisis? If flu infection had held steady for 100 years, should we be castigated for suggesting that the pattern was stable rather than alarming? </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">"You don’t care enough" is an unworthy response, and somewhat of an insult to the cool-headed stalwarts of medicine who prefer to deal with facts, not fiction. Let us observe the principle of charity and accept that everyone in this conversation cares about the mental wellbeing of children. And then let’s move on, because in a world where everyone cares, caring by itself loses currency. Broken legs don’t heal because we care; they heal because we stitch and set and sanitise them. And broken hearts and minds need more than good wishes; they need clinical, professional diagnoses and support. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 1px;">Society has only just started to have public conversations about private mental health as a public issue. That’s good. Let’s not derail that awakening with pseudoscience and intemperance. Too much is at stake. </p></div></div></div></div></div></div>Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-61403687217916088072021-03-25T12:26:00.002+00:002021-03-25T12:26:42.707+00:00Why the schools of the future are the schools of the past: my review of Radio 4's Future Proofing Our Schools<p> <i><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Review of Future Proofing Our Schools, hosted by Sangita Myska, Radio 4, March 24</span><sup style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">, 9:00am</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipr6Z-HXL9gM4ZMwhtB8oGl1b4rxw82kUK2ipHR6MChNOJNXeqzsX87v-n_w8QXgGy41w74OmdTdsiA5rYA4tVZutIKNYdj_e5gNfAinAQatjs7BPIuZkcsor5DC1GDCvvBzl3Ton2q74/s1600/1*13toWrqEFTl9YOLX8-_rNw.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipr6Z-HXL9gM4ZMwhtB8oGl1b4rxw82kUK2ipHR6MChNOJNXeqzsX87v-n_w8QXgGy41w74OmdTdsiA5rYA4tVZutIKNYdj_e5gNfAinAQatjs7BPIuZkcsor5DC1GDCvvBzl3Ton2q74/w640-h480/1*13toWrqEFTl9YOLX8-_rNw.jpeg" width="640" /></a></i></div><i><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The universe runs on circular rails. The march of seasons, the arc of the planets, mark out our lives in reassuring metronomic heartbeats. More predictable still is the endless resurgence of the Cult of 21<sup>st</sup> century Skills, as reliable as death and taxes and unlovelier than either. Every few years, and at least twice a generation, some excitable movement emerges to claim that everything that has been done before on education is unfit for purpose, revolution is imminent and necessary, so hold on to your Learning Hats and ready your muskets of independent thinkiness. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I’m so used to it I get anxious if I haven’t heard this claim made at least once a week. ‘Have they been? Have the 21<sup>st</sup> century people been yet?’ I ask my wife anxiously at the end of the day. She assures me that they have, and I sleep like a child. All is well. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The 21<sup>st</sup> century cult – and I call it a cult, because it is a faith-based position, immune to facts- was back on the Radio 4 program<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tcb9" target="_blank"> <i>Future Proofing Our Schools</i></a>, hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCSangita" target="_blank">Sangita Myska</a>. The program claimed it sought ‘solutions to complex problems’. Instead, it found simple answers to questions no one was asking, along with ones that were already old when Queen Victoria went to school, and equally wrong then. This was a greatest hits collection of progressive education; within minutes someone had said, ‘Why do we need to learn things when they can look it up on their phones?’ and I was clapping my hands with glee to come across so pure a specimen of woolly Pollyanna futurism.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Some of the opening premises were gloomily familiar: ‘Victorians created the basis for modern education,’ and, ‘What and how kids have been taught has been broadly same for 150 years.’ Because the answer to the former is ‘What, you mean walls and teachers? Great!’ And the answer to the latter is ‘You haven’t spent much time in any schools, then.’ I wonder how many teachers would recognise the reductive caricature of what they taught as ‘rote learning and patriotism’. These lazy tropes of the Factory School Model are common among people who are unfamiliar with what education is like. <a href="http://hackeducation.com/2015/04/25/factory-model" target="_blank">But they are cliched mistakes, as explained here. </a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">From the outset, this program struggled to get beyond these tired old tropes. It begins with the assumption that nothing has changed for hundreds of years and education is ripe for reinvention (a fallacy that particularly animated Tony Blair). The first part is untrue, and the second premise doesn’t follow anyway. Improvement, of course. But reinvention? Certainly some aspects of schools have endured- rooms of groups of students, studying subjects in reasonably domain-specific curriculums, led by an expert- but that might actually be seen as a form of evolutionary success, not failure. Maybe the ‘classrooms and teachers model’ endures because at their heart they work. Like wheels being round, there <i>might</i> be ways to make them better, but there are a hell of a lot more ways to make them worse. Like, open plan fun factories with no teachers, subjects, or tests, for example. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">These assumptions re-emerge every few years usually because some well-meaning politician or billionaire wants to create a world-class education system. The problem is, they often reach for 19<sup>th</sup> century answers that have been tried, and failed, for decades. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">To explore this wobbly question, we focused on one school in the Netherlands: <a href="https://medium.com/pi-top/meet-the-school-with-no-classes-no-classrooms-and-no-curriculum-7cc7be517cef" target="_blank"><i>Agora</i>,</a> started in 2014 by four principals who wanted to recreate what a school could be. And they left no stone unturned as they did so (probably asking ‘what even ARE stones?’ in the process. ‘Maybe we need to reimagine stones as a form of blancmange. Or a kind of tartan.’). They had a bold vision: no classrooms, no teachers, no lessons, no curriculum, no grading. By this point I wondered if they really wanted to run a school at all, like someone asking for a cheese sandwich but hold the cheese and bread. But that kind of thinking wouldn’t go down well in Agora, where students were invited to follow their interests and explore subject that animated them. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">On the surface, this sounds like the ideal way to solve one of the great problems of education: engaging students, motivating them to want to learn. Surely if we allow them to follow their heart songs, interest is guaranteed? So we heard about students who were exploring the Great Barrier reef, and using it as a vehicle to learn about speaking English, biology, chemistry etc. There was another student who wanted to make a skateboard, so she learned about carpentry and the construction of ball bearings. It sounds fantastic. And that’s the problem. It <i>does</i> sound fantastic. Who wouldn’t like to be allowed to follow their dreams and learn a hundred things on the way? The leaders of the school (or chief imagineers or something) claimed that this was how the curriculum was taught: it was ‘hidden under the table’, and students would learn by the end of their courses all that they would need to know. On paper it sounds as exciting and innovative as the Starship Enterprise. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Except that just doesn’t fly in the real world. Iesha Small, was the polite voice of reason here. She pointed out- correctly- that if you allow children to only follow their interests, you condemn them to the circumference of their imagination, which contrary to romantic speculation, is not infinite, but is cruelly circumscribed by the edges of one’s experience. Put simply, we don’t know what we don’t know. If we have never heard of something, how are we supposed to value or pursue it? Schools exist to challenge and interrogate students’ experiences and point them to the wonders of what has been said by people before them and far from their worlds. And without formal assessment, how do you know if students have learned what they need to learn? <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Further, it ignores the practical difficulty associated with learning in such a piecemeal, cross curricular way. As a teenager I was crazy about science fiction and would probably have wanted to do a project on how to build a jetpack or something. But to do lessons (sorry, ‘challenges’) on this, I would have quickly come up against two problems: a lot of what I would need to know is quite boring, and a lot of what I would need to investigate is quite hard. You would have to be the world’s most motivated teenager to stick with that. So this model assumes that children are perpetually inclined to persist studying very, very hard and boring material. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Even worse is that the more you study, e.g. jet packs, you realise that most subjects, like physics and history and mathematics, have long and highly evolved disciplines; bodies of content, hierarchies of knowledge, methodologies, tools and paradigms, that have evolved over centuries, and for a reason. You can’t do calculus without understanding arithmetic, nor arithmetic without numeric recognition, concepts of equality and so on. In other words, it’s very hard to understand a bit of e.g. physics without understanding all the physics that led up to that bit. A little learning isn’t just a dangerous thing, it’s also very inefficient. And that is why we teach subjects as discrete subjects. You can try to teach algebra through Zumba or something (and a decent teacher will always find ways to illustrate it imaginatively) but you will find it a hugely inefficient way to do so, when most children will benefit far more from an expert, patiently unpacking a discipline from the ground up, correcting common misconceptions and reteaching the parts that need to be retaught, before moving on to the next, harder step, but only once the foundations have been secured. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Much of the Agora behaviour policy was based around the idea that we should trust children to direct their own behaviour. ‘We have a lot of faith in them and we trust them a lot.’ Perhaps we should try that philosophy in society more broadly, and parking tickets should be a serving suggestion. I’m sure people would come around. ‘When you open their Google agenda you will see a lot of meetings they have put there themselves.’ With who, their stockbrokers? The Dalai Lama? <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"></p><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Teacher (sorry, Challenge-Facilitator): what are you doing today Billy? <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Billy: meetings innit? <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Teacher. Ah ok, Carry on. </p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Good luck with that. They myth of the ideal child is not, it seems, a myth for some. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">The program promised to stress test the innovative ideas by a panel of contributors, although at least two out of the three were enthusiastic advocates of the groovier end of the educational spectrum. Sugata Mitra was present, and he gave his support for Agora’s hip, anarchic model. Most pointedly he supported the idea that children would, if left to their own devices, teach themselves. This absurd idea is decimated by the merest contact with an average child, but square ideas like that weren’t welcome. Mitra is famous of course for his Hole-In-The Wall experiment, where computers were installed in remote locations and, as he put it, children ‘taught themselves how to use them and use the internet’. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Except that’s not really what happened. This project, which famously caught the eye of Bill Gates, doesn’t sound so amazing when you look closer. Far from children transforming. Into autodidactic polymaths, the sites were either torn apart, or dominated by large groups of big boys who used them to play games. Donald Clark fisks this daft idea beautifully in his blog here. With a lack of shame I can only characterise as ambitious, he then claimed that he replicated the ‘success’ of that in Newcastle, the Self Organised Learning Environment (SOLE) <a href="https://behaviourguru.blogspot.com/2021/03/sugata-mitra-and-hole-in-research.html">which I may have written with some scorn about here. </a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Children learn by themselves until they don’t want to, at which point we have problems. This is why most children, almost all of the time need their curriculums pre-selected by adults with expertise and guided behaviourally through often challenging material even when the student doesn’t enjoy or see the point., Not because we want students to be helpless vessels of joyless facts, but because we want them to understand the universe in which they are immersed, and often that takes hard work before you reach the summit and see for miles. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I should note at this point that the only people who sincerely claim that children will self-teach, and do so in purposeful and persistent way, are commonly people who have themselves never taught a year 9 class of actual average children. Behaviourally the kinds of children who can drive their own learning with little external stimulus, are highly capable and highly self-disciplined children. In theory, you can run this with a school full of the children of Swiss diplomats. Every other child needs a lot of love, motivation, nudging and support. Or in other words, teachers. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Who do these schools potentially work for? Incredibly privileged children who already possess enormous tenacity, curiosity, literacy, numeracy, and all the gateway skills that advantage a minority over others. With parents who can provide tutorial support in the case of an emergency, and who have comfortable home circumstances, internships and opportunities to fall back on if they fail to learn much. Tiny, tiny slices of the student demographic, who can afford to fail. Like Summerhill, the famous school started by AS Neill, with around 67 students and fees of up to 18K per year. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">Who falls off a cliff? Everyone else. These schools have been tried before. Look at the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29518319" target="_blank">disastrous Free Schools of the 1970s</a>, where children, free to do as they please, unsurprisingly often told their teachers to fuck off. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">There is nothing new about what is being attempted at Agora. In fact much of what they advocate goes back to the progressive educationalists of the late 19<sup>th</sup> and early 20<sup>th</sup> century, or even back to Rousseau with his child-centred philosophy that could only ever work for a privileged few. Yet still, every so often people try to sell this as the latest thing. But it’s just reheated leftovers from a philosophy that the real world stubbornly rejects, with a fresh coat of space paint. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">There wasn’t much ‘stress testing’ of this approach, however, or they would have found that it snapped under scrutiny. Aisha Small made a valiant voice in the wilderness, saying, ‘This would widen disadvantage,’ and the host Sangita Myska, perhaps sensing the lack of challenge offered by the majority of her guests, played devil’s advocate well. ‘I can hear teachers screaming at the radio at this,’ she said, possibly hearing me having a mental breakdown across London. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">So while this made great radio- I was hooked- and the presenter did the heavy lifting in terms of scrutiny, balance and challenge, it was an odd half an hour. It reminded me that, to many people these flights of fancy are seductive, and appeal to values that resonate deeply: liberty, wonder and trust. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">But it is hard to get away from the fact that, for most kids, the school model of the teacher-led classroom is simply the most efficient way to help children learn about the world around them- including things they are not interested in, which they may later develop an interest or aptitude for. That’s how you raise standards and promote wellbeing, learning, safety and the habits that help children to flourish. Pretending that they are some kind of innately altruistic beings who willingly self-direct their learning and behaviour towards the greater good is a fantasy that can only be sustained by people who have never worked with average children from the real world. And the least advantaged children can’t afford to waste the precious learning years of their lives on fairy tales and blind optimism, as the subjects of an experiment where only the most privileged will succeed. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;">I wish this school well, sincerely, and I admire their ambition and love. But these things are not enough when other people's lives at stake, and this is not a model that scales up meaningfully. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm;"><i>Next week: should we breathe underwater? Should shoes be made from jam? Join us as we etc. etc </i><o:p></o:p></p>Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-86349558966442212772021-03-24T14:28:00.005+00:002021-03-24T14:28:46.903+00:00<p> </p><div class="panel-pane pane-node-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(35, 31, 32); color: #231f20; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 41px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 22px 0px 11px;">Sugata Mitra and the Hole in the Research'</h1></div></div><div class="panel-pane pane-node-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(35, 31, 32); color: #231f20; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></div></div><div class="panel-pane pane-entity-field pane-node-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(35, 31, 32); color: #231f20; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" data-quickedit-field-id="node/3917/body/und/0" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"></p><div class="media media-element-container media-default" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 15px; overflow: hidden; zoom: 1;"><div class="file file-image file-image-png" id="file-5018" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h2 class="element-invisible" style="box-sizing: border-box; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 34px; font-weight: 500; height: 1px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 11px; margin-top: 22px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute !important;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150809211846/https://www.tes.co.uk/file/classroomofthefuturepng" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration: none;">classroom_of_the_future.png</a></h2><div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></div></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">By Tom Bennett</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Shawshank Redemption</em>, Andy Dufresne escapes from the titular jail by finally crawling through the sewage pipe, clawing his way, hand over hand, through a river of turds before he emerges into a storm that washes him clean. It’s a good scene. Every time I read someone claim that children will teach themselves maths and English if you only give them a computer, I feel like I’m watching that scene, but in reverse. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">I’m talking about Sugata Mitra, of course. He’s back: ‘Internet learning boosts performance by 7 years’ <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150809211846/https://www.tes.co.uk/news/school-news/breaking-news/internet-learning-boosts-performance-seven-years-sugata-mitra-study" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration: none;">a coy headline </a>in this week’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">TES</em> suggests.</p><blockquote style="border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 22px; padding: 11px 22px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;">"Pupils can perform at more than seven years above their expected academic level by using the internet, a pioneering study has concluded. Professor Sugata Mitra found that eight- and nine-year-olds who were allowed to do online research before answering GCSE questions remembered what they had learned three months later when tested under exam conditions. Now the Newcastle University academic is giving undergraduate-level exams to 14-year-olds, and has told TES that these students are also achieving results far beyond their chronological age. Professor Mitra, whose famous Hole in the Wall experiment showed how children in a Delhi slum could learn independently if given access to the internet, argues that his latest work in the UK could challenge the entire exam system. A reliance on testing memory means that other cognitive skills are not being adequately stretched, he believes."</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">Professor Mitra is famous for his Hole-In-The-Wall experiment: </p><blockquote style="border-left-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 22px; padding: 11px 22px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;">"In the initial experiment, a computer was placed in a kiosk in a wall in a slum at Kalkaji, Delhi and children were allowed to use it freely. The experiment aimed at proving that children could be taught by computers very easily without any formal training. Mitra termed this Minimally Invasive Education (MIE)…. This work demonstrated that groups of children, irrespective of who or where they are, can learn to use computers and the Internet on their own with public computers in open spaces such as roads and playgrounds, even without knowing English." </p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150809211846/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugata_Mitra" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration: none;">Click here for more</a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">These are big claims indeed, and many people have believed them, some of them with Monopoly cheque books. He won the TED prize in 2013 (which now seems designed solely to annoy me) and $1 Million. Many more sponsors have queued up to support it, which must be the first time anyone has queued up to put money <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">into </em>a hole in the wall. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">Unfortunately, Donald Clark has fairly comprehensively debunked many of the HOTW claims, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150809211846/http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/more-holes-in-sugata-mitras-hole-in.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration: none;">most notably here</a>. The allegedly miraculous learning hotspots had been largely vandalised and cannibalised; those that were left were dominated by older male children who used them not for teaching themselves Mandarin or critical race theory, but playing games and, I imagine, downloading stag flicks. It seems to me that the more outlandish the magic bullet claim in education, the more someone is willing to pay to subsidise it – and the less critical people become of it. But Mitra’s work taps into zeitgeists that are very, very groovy indeed: student-guided learning, the perpetually-approaching-but-not-quite-yet tech revolution of education, and the need to replace the ossified dogma of factory-farm learning. It’s like Ken Robinson regenerated into the next Doctor and the Sonic Screwdriver became a laptop. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">His web page lists science-fiction as one of his interests. I fear this passion has bled into the research. It’s proper to play the ball, not the man, so I’ll confine my comments to pointing out that Professor Mitra has a BSc, a MSc and a PhD in physics, not cognitive psychology, education or anything apparently related to learning, classrooms or pupils. Still, feel free to have a punt, mate, everyone’s an expert in education. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">"The findings on primary pupils answering GSCE questions were revealed in a paper published earlier this year to little fanfare," the feature in </em>TES<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> says.</em> There may well be a reason nobody got their trumpets out. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">Christian Bokhobe of the University of Southampton has written <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150809211846/http://bokhove.net/2015/07/31/predatory-journals/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration: none;">an important blog </a>about what he calls predatory journals; publishing platforms of ill repute where caveat emptor should be the reader’s watchword, where almost anything can be published for instant, superficial credibility. He refers to Beal’s List, a searchable database of journals that act more like vanity presses for desperate academics than respectable outlets for peer review. Read <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150809211846/http://bokhove.net/2015/07/31/predatory-journals/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration: none;">more here</a>, but suffice it to say that Professor Mitra’s work appeared in a very, er, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">boutique</em> publication that features on Beal’s list. Which, of course, isn’t to say it isn’t perfectly respectable. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Of course.</em> I’m just saying it’s on that list.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">Besides, there was a little bit of brass action when it came out – just more of a Last Post than a fanfare. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">You can find t<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150809211846/http://jehdnet.com/journals/jehd/Vol_3_No_3_September_2014/6.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration: none;">he actual publication here.</a> In essence, what Professor Mitra and co did was this: they took groups of 8- and 9-year-old students, assigned a group research task to them exploring a specific question relevant to a GCSE exam, tested them for recall, and then tested them a few months later. The Year 4 pupils performed better in the later test. Professor Mitra’s conclusions contained the ideas that a) students could self-organise their own learning with minimal input from a facilitator (which is essentially the conclusion of the Hole-In-The-Wall caper), plus b) they remembered it so well that it showed our exams over-emphasised factual recall at the expense of other faculties. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">It’s quite a read. To my mind, it represents a lot of what can go wrong in educational research. The design of the experiment is quite odd. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150809211846/https://eflnotes.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/some-obvious-notes-on-mitra-and-crawley-2014/?preview=true" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; text-decoration: none;">It’s explained succinctly here</a>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">But for brevity’s sake, I’ll mention my highlights. For a start, it’s based on – wait for it – 23 students. You heard me: 23 students. Roll that about for a while, really rub your tongue around it. That’s tiny, statistically meaningless. Secondly, are we somehow saying that students who collaboratively learn from the internet will improve as time passes with no intervening intervention? Holy smoke, we just invented educational cold fusion. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">You’ll forgive me for not being particularly impressed by hand-picked students taking part in a test where they’re made to feel special, given a thin slice of a syllabus to work on, and then tested for that exact piece of syllabus…and then scaling up that work into a magic GCSE grade. Give me a page of quantum physics to memorise, then ask me about it. Can I have a PhD?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">The claim that children can teach themselves perfectly well using only a computer seems, to my poor mind, utterly unproven. I’ve taught a loooot of pupils with largely unfettered access to computer-based projects, and unless you hover like a drone on some of their shoulders, they’ll be cruising Fifa emulators and googling PewDiePie all lesson. What about them? This belief in the power of children to self-organise and self-tutor is, to me, a faith-based position. Who needs those bloody teachers, eh? Because that’s what this seems like to me: a somewhat brutal rejection of the power of teacher-guided education. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">Further, the project seems to be pursuing an utterly overt agenda of disputing the way we assess pupils. Lord knows we’ve got leagues to go in this area, but presenting a tiny case study as some kind of evidence that we overteach facts isn’t helpful. It seems like more of an pub philosopher’s opinion on education, a kind of "Who needs school when you’ve got Google?" for the Kardashian generation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">I’ve seen Professor Mitra speak, and I have absolutely no doubt that he is committed entirely to the education of children, and to this idea as a possible solution to the global education deficit. Unfortunately, this isn’t it, and good intentions are a worthless currency when almost everyone in the educational ecosystem has them. I would care less about this, but, like Sir Kenneth of Robinson, people with money are listening to him; people with educational budgets are wondering if all they need to do is cut a few teachers and buy a few laptops; teachers eager to impress or improve are binding children to groupwork and self-led projects when they should be…well, teaching them. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;">Children matter too much for their one chance fore education to be blown on the roulette wheel of unfathomably bad science. Here’s to all the teachers trying to make a difference. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"> </p></div></div></div>Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-82021405800240280582020-05-24T11:38:00.000+01:002020-05-24T11:38:12.910+01:00New normal, new behaviour: behaviour policy templates for schools after lockdown. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last week I wrote my suggestions for how schools should approach behaviour when they re-open their gates to a larger cohort of pupils after lockdown (note: NOT re-open. Schools have been open continuously throughout this difficult period, and references to the contrary offend those who have been toiling constantly under the shadow of disease, anxiety and isolation).<div>
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<a href="http://behaviourguru.blogspot.com/2020/05/rebooting-behaviour-after-lockdown.html" target="_blank">http://behaviourguru.blogspot.com/2020/05/rebooting-behaviour-after-lockdown.html</a><div>
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These suggestions were by their nature, general, and offered as a lens through which we can understand student and staff behaviour, and what we might need to think about in order to maintain- or create- the standards necessary to help keep us as safe as possible. But general suggestions are only useful up to a point. Schools and classrooms are concrete things, and require concrete strategy. </div>
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Many schools have been thinking about their behaviour policies, and addressing exactly this. What do we tell students to do? What do we tell staff to do? What do we tell parents? How do we communicate this? As there will be 1000s of school nationally, and many hundreds of thousands of schools internationally considering this, I thought it would be useful to provide some examples of what some schools have come up with on this topic. These have been sent to me on the condition that they are anonymised so the schools can't be identified. Many of them are works-in-progress, and are unfinished. </div>
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The link these policies via Dropbox is <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d7lpo60u37l8015/AADdvsIxkkM5UtugMO8nLbb-a?dl=0" target="_blank">here</a>. Some of the files are whole policies, some are appendices or addendums, and some are contracts and similar. </div>
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But what they do offer are ideas about the types of systems and details schools are thinking of. If you or your school are attempting to do the same, you may find it useful. These are serving suggestions, and nothing contained within them should be seen as prescriptive or ideal. </div>
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Having said that, there are many, many overlaps between them, which suggests to me that there are similar challenges facing all schools, and many of these will have similar solutions. As I indicated in my previous post, there appear to be 7 main areas that must be systematically and intelligently addressed:</div>
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<li>Decide what existing behaviour you want to reinforce</li>
<li>Decide what new behaviour you want to see (especially in response to Covid-19, but not only that)</li>
<li>Design a system for training staff in the systems. </li>
<li>Design a system for training students in these systems</li>
<li>Design appropriate consequences for staff/ students not following (or being able to follow) these systems. These could be sanctions, rewards, pastoral conversations, retraining, counselling etc. </li>
<li>Design a system to monitor and maintain these systems</li>
<li>Plan reboots and reinforcement of 1-6: CPD, induction training, reminders, assemblies, etc.</li>
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Tip: it would be hugely advantageous to any school that wants students to observe the new behaviour successfully, to consciously and strategically prepare the students in advance of their return as much as possible. This should, wherever possible, involve teaching the new standards to parents and guardians, in order to obtain as much consent and partnership as possible. Remember: successful behaviour needs to be <i>taught</i>, not just <i>told</i>. If time and resources permit, I recommend all schools reach out to parents as proactively as possible and communicate what is required, why, and how they can help. Emails, texts and letters are all useful vehicles. Some schools are sending YouTube videos or similar to parents, detailing and exemplifying the new circumstances, and many families will find this useful. </div>
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I hope you find some of these helpful. Thank you to everyone and to the many schools who have contributed to this. I wish you safety and peace in these difficult times. Schools remain arks for many of our children. I sometimes think they are civilisation's greatest invention, and a reminder of what it means to be human. They remain the places where I have seen human nature at its best, and this crisis has only reinforced that conviction.</div>
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Tom </div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d7lpo60u37l8015/AADdvsIxkkM5UtugMO8nLbb-a?dl=0" target="_blank">LINK TO SAMPLE POLICIES HERE</a></div>
Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-37716250984132192022020-05-14T23:36:00.000+01:002020-05-14T23:36:24.201+01:00Rebooting behaviour after lockdown- Advice to schools reopening in the age of COVID-19<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Rebooting behaviour after lockdown<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Advice to schools reopening in the age of COVID-19<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>By Tom Bennett<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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No one would have believed in the last term of 2019 that a microscopic enemy was gathering speed against us. ‘With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter,’ as H G Wells said. Suddenly, a meteor landed in our schools and abruptly playground sounds – almost - ceased. <o:p></o:p></div>
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All schools suddenly became special schools, serving the children of key workers, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged. Almost every student in the UK was sent home on what was effectively a fixed-term exclusion. Even the default model of the physical classroom experience was replaced by emergency remote learning. The effects of this earthquake will be impossible to understand fully for years. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And now, or at some point in the future, schools will be thinking about opening their gates wider to more groups of pupils. Whenever that is, and in what sequence, is for others to decide. But whatever the shape and timing of this awakening, schools will need to face and meet the challenge it presents, as they have done so capably throughout this upheaval. If character is revealed by crisis then the education sector has demonstrated heroic levels of fortitude, compassion, and perspicacity in one of its darkest hours. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Better behaviour is the beginning of everything <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Good behaviour is the core mission for every school, whatever age or stage. Get behaviour right and everything else is possible. It is the beginning of safety, equity, dignity, curriculum, opportunity and learning, not an afterthought or something that only matters when students misbehave. And now, with more students returning after a long furlough at home, behaviour will matter more than ever. Here are five reasons why:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Students may have partially or entirely lost the habits that enable them to flourish as learners and as member of the school community. This will matter more for some than others. Students from socially privileged backgrounds may be able to cope better with uncertainty, anxiety and change more than students who have more fragile, vulnerable or chaotic circumstances. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Many students - especially young children - will already have hygiene habits that we would probably describe as less than ideal, that become dangerous in the current climate. Not washing hands, picking noses, fingers in mouths, sharing juice boxes (or -sadly - cigarettes, for older students), or spitting, these are difficult things to unlearn.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Staff, too will have to observe not only this type of virological etiquette but also be expected to train and maintain these behaviours in others. For staff members who feel that their behaviour management skills aren’t yet secure, this is a challenge. Even for staff who do feel secure in these skills, it will mean a raising of expectations beyond what is normally expected. <o:p></o:p></div>
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These are all huge challenges, and ones that seem unique to this crisis. But teachers and schools have managed behaviour for as long as we have had children to teach. I would like to share some advice for school leaders and classroom teachers based on my experience of many schools in the UK and abroad. Schools that have worked hard to build fantastic cultures where children and staff work in a safe, calm, and orderly environment where everyone is treated with dignity. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Doing this is no easy feat, and requires focus, strategy, heart and brains, sustained over a period of time. Rather than ask every school to reinvent this wheel simultaneously, here is my list of ten ideas about how schools manage it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>1. Define what you mean by good behaviour</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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There is an opportunity here for schools to re-evaluate what they actually want their behaviour to look like. Many schools implicitly assume that everyone already knows what good behaviour is, that students know how to do it, and staff know how to maintain it. There is an assumption that we don’t need to define it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But this is the beginning of many errors. There is no consensus. Students have very different ideas and habits of how to behave. Staff do too. Teacher and leaders who assume everyone telepathically agrees on the behaviour standards will be continuously surprised by the reality of the matter.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Teachers should define what behaviour they think is ideal in their classrooms; leaders, in their schools. Be concrete. Vagueness is the enemy here. If you are vague, you’ll barely be aware of when behaviour goes wrong; and students will not grasp what is expected of them. What does fantastic behaviour actually look like in a test, lining up for lunch, starting the lesson, carpet time? And so on. <span> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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If we do not do this, we condemn students who have not understood to remain so, and advantage those who already do. Before schools return, leaders and teachers should use the time to consider what their behaviour standards actually are, instead of leaving it to chance. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Areas where this will especially matter, of course, will be: travelling through school; lunchtime queuing and dining; entry and exit to classrooms and school; classroom conduct; toilet etiquette; assemblies; practical subjects; number limits everywhere; outlining safe spacing where 2m distancing is possible and defining behaviour when it is not, along with dozens of other areas. Every school’s circumstances are different, and <span> </span>staff need to carefully think about pinch points, waiting areas, corridor sweeps, truancy, absences, registers, bottlenecks, and a hundred other issues that will be specific to their geography, layout, student groups, footprint and resources. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>2. Good behaviour must be <i>taught</i>, not <i>told</i>. </b></div>
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A common mistake many schools and teachers make it to wait for misbehaviour to occur, then react to it, often simply. This is like waiting for a fire to catch before dousing it. The best teachers and schools actively teach the behaviour they want to see, as if it were a curriculum. Do you want students to be kind, or work hard, or listen hard in assemblies? Teach them to do so, don’t just tell them. If you tell people they may misunderstand. They may not care. They may disagree. They may find it hard. But if you teach them what these things mean, they will understand. If you provide examples for them, they will grasp what it means in their lives. If you demonstrate the behaviour, you let them see that you value it. If you explain the behaviour, they understand why it matters. If you tell them their behaviour matters because they matter and so does everyone else, then they feel valued and are more likely to value the norms you describe. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>3. Build routines, habits and norms. </b></div>
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All staff dealing with students must consider these questions:<o:p></o:p></div>
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a) What behaviour do I want them to think is normal? Then, tell them what it is and teach them what normal means in many circumstances. Don’t let them define normal behaviour. Challenge them when it is not met. Show them how to do it. Correct them every time they can’t or won’t do it. Never let it slide. Define the new normal by bringing it to life. <o:p></o:p></div>
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b) What habits do I want them to develop? If I want them to be punctual, clarify what punctuality means. Insist upon it. The more a behaviour is demanded, and challenged by its absence, the more practice students get performing it, until it starts to feel habitual. We seek, ultimately, to change their behaviour habits, not just their behaviour. <o:p></o:p></div>
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c) What routines do they need to learn in order to succeed as learners and human beings? This is crucial. In order for it to be as easy as possible to behave, students should be taught the specific sequences of behaviour they are expected to demonstrate. Some students find these hard to remember; some are not used to behaving the way school expects (e.g. waiting their turn, sharing, queueing, clearing their table, putting hands up, listening) so teach the routines that make things easier for everyone, check their understanding, get them to practice the routines, and crucially, do so constantly until you are satisfied everyone understands and can do them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>4. Don’t wait for pupils to misbehave- be proactive.</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">The techniques described form the core of good behaviour teaching. They are proactive, and they are a support and scaffold to good behaviour. They are particularly important for many students who would be more at risk of sanction or exclusion due to insecure behavioural habits. They help to create conditions where good behaviour is more likely and bad behaviour less likely. They pre-empt misbehaviour, defuse and diminish the risk of escalation, and teach children social habits that are portable far beyond the school gates. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>5. Make boundaries meaningful. </b></div>
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Students need to know that deliberately misbehaving will result in consequences; the school must develop immediate/ fast responses. When behaviour is poor, or fails to meet the standard, it must be challenged. Student need to know a line has been crossed. These lines can be managed by many means. Mild sanctions can act as a deterrent but only if consistently and fairly applied, and when there is a high expectation that they will occur. Rewards too can have a small, short-term motivating effect. Both sanctions and rewards are an essential part of any school’s system, otherwise some students will feel there are no boundaries. They also set a clear expectation on the student body that certain behaviours will not be tolerated, and some will be celebrated. By themselves they are insufficient for all students at all times, as any one technique is. Other consequences, such as pastoral conversations, reteaching behaviour, therapeutic approaches, etc. must also be part of the whole school repertoire. Consequence systems, in order to be highly effective, need to be as consistent as possible throughout the entire school. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Most consequence systems fail because they are inconsistently applied by individual teachers, or across a school community. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>6. Rewrite your behaviour policy and consequences to reflect the current circumstances</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">In these times of heightened risk to our health, it is important that students (and staff) are made aware that unhygienic behaviour has to be reclassified from a misdemeanour to something much more serious. Public-facing staff have lost their lives by spitting assaults and disease transmission. Students must be explicitly told that the consequences for behaviour that threatens distancing measures, respiratory or tactile hygiene, are very serious indeed. And malicious, deliberate acts of transmission (eg spitting, coughing) must be treated with the greatest seriousness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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While it would be inappropriate to detail precise tariffs for every school circumstance, any student caught deliberately breaking such rules should receive serious and possibly severe consequences: immediate fixed term exclusions, parental meetings, in-school isolation etc. Schools should also, in the most extreme cases consider the use of reporting matters to the police. The point isn’t that we want to see such reactions; but as ever with any sanction, the sincere and authentic execution of it conveys a clear message to the student body about what behaviour is tolerated and what is not. This is, quite literally, a matter of life and death for some, and especially adults. These are not normal times. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>7. Train staff first. </b></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">A big mistake many schools make is to believe that you can change student behaviour simply by telling them. Similarly it is a mistake to believe that staff will instantly know what to do if you tell them once. Teach- don’t tell- the behaviour staff need too. Leaders need to spend time with staff before students, and front load their professional development so that they both understand and know how to implement the new routines and are able to teach it to children. Old, whole-school standards should be reinforced alongside new expectations, because if we assume that staff already understand the rules perfectly then we risk papering over misunderstandings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>8. Implementation is everything</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">New norms and standards can be taught, but unless someone monitors and maintains these standards, they quickly wither. Even the most diligent of pupils and staff tend to lose habits unless they are reinforced. Some will hardly need this, and for others it is vital. If you lead a school or a classroom, maintaining routines is the glue that keeps standards high. So build a monitoring schedule. When will you check that standards are being met? What will you do in response? Reteach? Reprimand? Remind? How will you record it so that you have a sense of how behaviour is going?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>9. Reboot your expectations constantly. </b></div>
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Behaviour needs to be a state of constant re-creation. Staff need to repeat the expectations constantly, and in unison throughout the school day with all children. Positive cultures are immersive. Students- and staff- need to see the norms as frequently as possible. This means a) continually, on a day-to-day basis. They should be modelled, explained, mentioned, pointed out, demonstrated and insisted upon and b) Formally in a targeted way. This means though periodic reboots of the expectations, standards and behaviours needed for students and staff to flourish. For students this might mean once a term in a period of formal re-instruction like a morning or day. For staff this might mean planned CPD for all staff- especially new, but including everyone. We imbed culture by repetition, and if we expect people to remember it forever without reinforcement then we guarantee that standards will slide. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>10. High expectations means high support. </b></div>
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Everyone, form staff to students, have been through difficult times. All have seen their routines turned upside down. Some will have had relatively happy circumstances spending time with family, others will have suffered trials, and some tragedy. This is why a proactive approach to behaviour is even more vital now. When behaviour is taught, people understand what they need to do, and can do it better. But asking more of people without helping them build the skills they need to do it is to invite disaster and difficulty. The higher the expectations- and they must be higher now- the higher the support required to achieve them. Staff training, calm student induction, checking for understanding, consistent repetition of norms, demonstrated and corrected where necessary, these are the foundation of good behaviour. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">Finally remember: all rules have exceptions. </span></b></div>
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Routines, norms, and consistency are how cultures are built. As an approach, it is a rising tide that lifts all ships. The most vulnerable or challenging students often need structure more than other children, who may have been living in a challenging, turbulent or unstructured environment. If students feel that they are valued, that they matter, and that their behaviour matters, they are far more likely to turn up and try. This is not only consistent with having high expectations, it is intrinsic to them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But schools must be aware that students with the most challenging behaviour sometimes – but not always – need even more than these factors. They may need a more targeted approach, pastoral support, therapeutic strategies, and so on. They may need complex programs of support that involves work inside or outside the classrooms, multi-agency approaches etc. Not all students will need this. Some students with typically mainstream behaviour will need more support than before due to their circumstances (e.g. bereavement or anxiety) and some will thrive and surprise us with their resilience. We should not assume that students are returning to school traumatised, and equally nor should we assume they are fine. Whole school approaches that assume all children are anxious and confused may have a negative effect. Be alert for signs of difficulty and let all students know that discrete pastoral support is available. Remember that a calm, safe, structured school culture is one of the best ways to reduce anxiety and promote good mental health. Students need to see adults being positive, hopeful and in control of themselves- whether we feel it or not. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There is an opportunity, even in this dark time, to relaunch into the future in a way that makes it as likely as possible that children- and staff- will work together again in a calm, safe environment where everyone can flourish in dignity with one another. I cannot say it will be easy because it won’t be, for anyone. But it will be worthwhile, as everything that matters is.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I live in the certain hope that we will see each other again in better times and hold our families and friends once more. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Good luck<o:p></o:p></div>
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Tom<o:p></o:p></div>
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May 2020<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/f1mdjnzd70w9ciz/Lockdown%20Behaviour%201.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank">View a shareable summary of this post HERE</a></div>
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<i>NB: To be clear, these views are my own, and do not represent any official guidance of any kind. This post has been summarised and designed into a one sheet pdf that people are very welcome to share for free if they find it useful. </i></div>
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<i>Thank you to the excellent Oliver Caviglioli for his assistance with this. </i></div>
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Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-69628745423422494662019-05-13T20:41:00.001+01:002019-05-13T20:41:19.465+01:00Good schools help children behave<div style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">
<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Schools need to teach behaviour, or the most disadvantaged suffer twice</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">This is a tale of two students. The first student is lucky. She comes from a close extended family, two affluent parents with spare income and time to invest in their child. She is read to on a daily </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">basis, and</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> reads to her parents and other family members. Because her family has time (and the inclination to do so), she is carefully taught millions of micro</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">-</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">behaviours that comprise the messy </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">field</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> of </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">positive social interactions</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">- she is taught how to speak confidently to adults, how to resolve disputes without aggression, how interact with her peers</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, and so on</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. When she misbehaves, she is patiently retaught what she should </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">have done</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. By the time she gets to school she has already acquired a huge amount of cultural and social capital. She is already in the top quarter of the class for reading, writing, comprehension, arithmetic, and so on. She rarely gets into trouble because she understands the habits of formal group settings. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">The second child is not fortunate. She comes from a home where one or both parents are rarely present. Her principle carers demonstrate unreliable levels of affection, and she experiences various levels of physical and emotional neglect or abuse. No one reads to her. She never plays with an adult. She is supervised more by a television set or tablet than by an adult. By the time she starts school, she is a hundred miles behind her peers academically. She has not learned to share because no one has shown her what it means. Desperate for attention, she finds it by shouting and acting out. Frustrated by her </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">relative inability to access lessons, she withdraws from any form of academic effort. Having never been taught to focus or concentrate, she struggles with the most basic of tasks set in class. The disadvantage gap has begun in earnest. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I was interviewed by the Telegraph recently, which came out as this interview. I’d like to offer a little commentary on some of the misconceptions that people have made about it- some of them reasonable, some of them less so. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I think the first, and most significant one is the headline: ‘Progressive teaching methods have fuelled rise in poor discipline.’ One of my axioms is that behaviour has </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">often </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">been </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">sidelined</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> in teacher training for several decades. Many teachers receive little formal training in the very serious business </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">of</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> running a room. It might be a short lecture, or less, but very often the assumption is that teachers will pick it up on the job as they go along. I’ve long insisted this is a dreadfully haphazard process where the lucky learn and the unlucky do not. That’s a terrible waste of a lot of time and learning. When asked why, I suggested that here are many reasons- one of which </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">is the predominant ideology in education</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, progressivism. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">This is not some contentious new word I just invented. It is an educational philosophy over a century old, with a long and well-established tradition. Progressives have (until recently it seems) been very happy to describe themselves as progressives. One of its principle tenets is that it is a child-centred approach to education, and that children are naturally disposed to learning, and curiosity. This maps on to several </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">classroom processes- for example pedagogy, teaching methods that emphasise enquiry learning, child led projects and so on. It also maps onto behavioural methods, such as the need to avoid sanctions, and to allow children to follow their own ‘natural’ inclination to learn what they wish. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Which isn’t to say that these approaches will never be used by a teacher who doesn’t self-identify as progressive, nor that they are only reserved for progressive teachers. But there is a clear tradition. Some people have, oddly claimed that progressivism is not these things, or is not a coherent philosophy, but I am at a loss to explain their perverse ignorance of educational history. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">But anyone who claims that children are naturally inclined to learn e.g. trigonometry without some level of adult coercion, has obviously been working with some very lovely children. Some will of course. But we didn’t get to just teach the super keen children. We have to teach them all- the reluctant, the disaffected, the fearful. Which is where we return to child one and two.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">The fortunate child enters the classroom with high levels of self-regulation, carefully formed habits of self-reliance, sociability, and the ability to interact with adults and peers without dispute. The unfortunate one lacks these. Of course, this is no simple binary- children will possess a spectrum of such abilities and habits. But which child will flourish more readily in a classroom? If you said the second child, then I have some real estate on the Moon I would like to sell you. These children start the race with lead boots and their hands tied behind their back. It is the tragedy of inequality, and gruesomely obvious in any classroom. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Of course, these circumstances don’t map easily onto something so crude (and nebulous) as class. Middle class children can be abused, neglected, raised in laboratories of cruelty and lack. Working class children can thrive in atmospheres of civility, ambition and cultural richness. Which is just one reason I don’t find it useful to refer to class when discussing children in these circumstances. For example, I didn’t use it in my interview (although the article paraphrased it as such). But, but. There is a very strong correlation between economic disadvantage and other forms of disadvantage, health patterns, co-parenting, free time, capacity to explore reading, and a thousand other aspects affected by affluence. This is beyond dispute. To be poor is to be exposed to multiple factors of </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">risk</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. The relationship is </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">absolutely not </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">a clear </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">or </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">causal one, but to deny the correlation is odd. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Schools that look after more children of such circumstances frequently have to contend with magnified levels of absenteeism, poor behaviour, lateness, primary caring issues, mental health issues and so on. Again, this is beyond dispute. This is why schools like this deserve more support than those who serve demographics more akin to the Cotswolds. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Which is where schools become more important than they already were. The most successful schools I have seen that serve challenging demographics, that manage to create</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"></span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">inclusive, </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">vital</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, positive cultures where al</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">l</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> children thrive, behave, learn and flourish, actively teach children what good behaviour looks like. Because they understand that children often- through no fault of their own- have not been exposed to good habits, or taught as well as they might have been, how to operate in the complex world o</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">f society. No child is born aware of the mores of the community. They must be taught at some point. And if they have not been socialised thoroughly into habits that help them flourish, who can blame them for defaulting to sub-optimal habits that might make sense to them, but will hurt their chances of thriving? If we abandon children to the </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">habits</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> they bring with them, then we abandon them to greater disadvantage as they grow up</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, just as we must not abandon them to the limited horizons of their existing interests academically.</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I refuse this awful social determinism. I believe every child, no matter what their circumstances, deserves the opportunity to learn not just an academic curriculum, but one that will help them unlock their potential, and compete equally with their more advantaged peers. I have been lucky enough to see many schools that understand </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">this, and</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> break their backs to support children to become the best versions of themselves. </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">It maddens me to see, sadly, people from fortunate circumstances deny that disadvantaged children often need this kind of support, simply because (presumably) they cannot imagine circumstances less fortunate than the ones they or their children have enjoyed.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">It’s too easy to rush to simplistic interpretations of </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">attention-grabbing</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> head</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">l</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">ines, or article framing devices. I don’t believe that group work causes misbehaviour- which is</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">why I didn’t say </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">anything as daft as that, any more than I would claim that chanting times tables made children behave</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">. But I do believe that assuming all children want to learn without much direction or correction, is naïve. There are many reasons why children misbehave- natural disinclination towards effort, poor prior attainment, boredom, dislike of subjects</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">, mental health issues</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> etc. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">I merely suggested that </span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">one</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;"> reason why behaviour management had been de-emphasised in education</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">al training</span><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">was because the dominant educational paradigm of the last few decades- progressivism- suggests that children will eventually behave positively if lessons are well planned around child-centred principles, and that consequence systems, sanctions etc are largely unnecessary, as are extensive programs of behaviour instruction. Not ‘group work causes misbehaviour’, Lord help me. I get why people thought the article said this, given the way it was constructed, but I certainly didn’t. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">In a way the confusion people expressed about this topic is very much a sign of the times. Having lacked a mature discussion about behaviour and culture and socialisation for decades, it is easy for such discussions to devolve to simplistic boo/ hooray arguments. That’s why it’s time for us to start to have a healthier discussion about such matters. For students (and staff) working in tough conditions, it can’t happen quickly enough. </span></div>
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Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-25231369712959105022018-10-24T17:41:00.002+01:002018-10-24T18:32:26.417+01:00Perfect isolation. Why the hysteria about removal rooms misses the point. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every now and again a story about schools finds legs and I have to read it twice to understand if I’ve missed anything. Recently you might have seen a minor uproar as it was announced that ‘’schools are using isolation rooms to punish pupils as young as five years old’ and that this practice (‘dubbed barbaric’) is used ‘across the country.’ I’m certainly glad I was sitting down to read that ‘youngsters can remain there for up to one day,’ and I gasped to read that it was a ‘sign of an institution giving up.’<a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/isolation-rooms-how-schools-are-removing-pupils-from-classrooms/" target="_blank">(1)</a><br />
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I felt like I was taking crazy pills reading it, which was then picked u across a few more outlets, before exploding onto social media in a glorious firework display of ill-temper and scalp collecting.<br />
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Because using isolation booths is a perfectly normal, useful and compassionate strategy that is so common across the school sector that anyone expressing shock to discover it has, I can only assume, sent very little time actually working in a school. I can only imagine what they would think when someone tells them how sausages are really made. It’s easy to nurture fairy tales about how institutions are run if one never has to work in one or has never seen one run successfully. Well, I have. And they’re not a new thing. If you like you can find a CBBC report about them from 2005. And if you’re feeling adventurous you could read the DfE guidance from 2016 that says:<br />
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<b>Isolation in schools</b>Schools can adopt a policy which allows disruptive pupils to be placed in an area away from other pupils for a limited period, in what are often referred to as seclusion or isolation rooms. If a school uses seclusion or isolation rooms as a disciplinary penalty this should be made clear in their behaviour policy. <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/488034/Behaviour_and_Discipline_in_Schools_-_A_guide_for_headteachers_and_School_Staff.pdf" target="_blank">(2)</a></blockquote>
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So, to be clear: isolation is when students are removed from the classroom, usually for misbehaviour, and taken to a designated space to work in a supervised circumstance. What it isn’t, is solitary and unsupervised confinement. But why let the facts stand in the way of a good panic?<br />
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<b>Why remove students?</b><br />
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Angst at the removal of students in the first place usually reveals, I think, the unfamiliarity of some commentators with the challenging classroom. This is not uncommon. Most people outside of these environments know little of how difficult it can be dealing with challenging behaviour on a daily basis. This is not The Bash Street Kids. This is not To Sir With Love, where Sidney Poitier wrestles with what we are told are delinquents, but who all sit calmly and discuss life with the teacher. Some students’ behaviour is very dark indeed. I’ve been sworn at, assaulted, sat on, threatened, pushed over, taunted, bullied, in my career. I’ve seen teachers sexually assaulted, surrounded in their car by gangs, and menaced by angry families carrying pipes. That’s high-end stuff. At the more everyday level, it’s not uncommon to have to deal with explicit sexual slurs, racist jibes, almost obsessive levels of disruption, shouting, leaving the room without permission, rudeness, malicious comments and work avoidance strategies that approach Olympic levels.<br />
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If you went to a school where behaviour was pretty civil on the whole, I get that you might wonder what teachers are getting so mean about. It’s just kids mucking about, having a giggle, being kids, isn’t it? But that erases the lived experience of teachers in schools where behaviour is…sub-optimal. And if you think it’s tough being a teacher in a room like that, imagine what it’s like being a student, drowning in a shark tank you can’t leave.<br />
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<b>You're here for your own good</b><br />
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No, if we care about staff retention; about student wellbeing; about bullying; about creating environments where mental health is nurtured rather than harrowed; about education; about the dignity of every member of the class, then we need a removal policy. And that means somewhere to take them.<br />
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<b>What's in a name?</b><br />
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Isolation spaces are called many things: removal rooms, inclusion rooms, reflection rooms. By all means, use the moniker that makes them sound the scariest, but what they do is provide a vital mechanism to maintain calm, civil, safe classrooms. What, I wonder, should we do when a student tells a teacher to fuck off? Or uses racist abuse against a classmate? Or punches someone in the throat? Or just make classes intolerable through the 1000 cuts of incivility and disturbance?<br />
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Some geniuses suggested ‘a quiet word to the side’ or ‘leading a class discussion about what we should do next.’ Good luck with that, never teachers. The instant you don’t make a big deal about such behaviour, you normalise it. What you permit, you promote. And unwittingly you make it more likely that the behaviour will be repeated. Students literally cannot understand why teachers don’t have students removed who swear or fight or humiliate staff. And they’re right.<br />
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All students have a right to learn, and teachers have the right to perform their job in safe and structured spaces. If students behave in ways that make that impossible, then it is entirely appropriate that the good of the community, the safety of others the dignity of the class is protected. There has never been a society that could permit its conventions to be abused and broken without response.<br />
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<b>Couldn't you just ask them not to misbehave?</b><br />
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So, dispensing with the Pollyanna view that all students must be permitted to remain in the classroom regardless of what they do (which is sentimental nonsense advocated by the well-meaning witless) we arrive at our next consideration: what to do with them?<br />
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You could park them in another room, of course, and that has its uses. But it’s imperfect, inviting disruption to that room as well as the last one. You might decide that the student’s behaviour is indicative of some difficulties unique to them that need some form of support or succour. In which case one response might be counselling, or a pastoral meeting, or whatever balm is needed. But what if the behaviour is wilful, malicious, deliberate? What then? Of course, we can turn to sanctions as one option (amongst many) as a way of reminding the student that community rules are important, and their abuse can’t be tolerated. Of course, sanctions by themselves aren’t universally effective as behaviour modifiers. But what strategy is? Knowing with certainty that misbehaviour will result in an unpalatable consequence is one way we deter people from misbehaving. It has no innately curative powers. Nor is it designed to- any more than prison is assumed to reform character. What is does, is uphold community norms; it sends a signal to the rest of the school cohort that behaving badly towards one another won’t be tolerated; that consequences will unfold.<br />
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And I reiterate: sanctions are just one part of a school’s whole game plan to build a culture of dignity, compassion and wisdom; but a part it indisputably is.<br />
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<b>Sitting doing work quietly 'not torture' our report reveals </b><br />
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Sitting at a desk with vertical slides, being required to work from textbooks and worksheets is hardly the act of a tyrant. It’s certainly not an ideal learning environment (usually- I can think of many circumstances when I would choose to do exactly this, when revising, for example) but the ideal environment- the classroom- is no longer an option as a result of the student’s actions.<br />
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Do I really have to explain all this? Apparently, I do. And that is why we still need to have this conversation. And why I am delighted that we’re talking about this, however imperfectly. Because schools need to see that, underneath the melodrama and the outrage and the inanity of those who believe children can be cured magically with nothing but love and smiles, there are teachers and schools working hard to build structures and systems where love and kindness can flourish, scaffolded by boundaries, direction and consequences. Where children can learn these virtues, and responsibility, and fortitude and sensitivity to the needs of others.<br />
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First do no harm, advises the Hippocratic Oath, confusing those who wonder if that includes the surgeon’s incision to stitch a kidney. Children need boundaries. Boundaries need guarding, or they aren’t boundaries anymore, but suggestions. We remove children from classrooms because we care about their wellbeing and the wellbeing of the community and attempt to resolve that tension by allowing lessons to continue while the individual student is sent into circumstances of short sanction, or access discussions and support impossible to provide in the presence of 29 other students.<br />
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Removal rooms: not only a good, but often- not always- a necessity. If you want to run a school scandal story, write about schools that don’t do enough to redirect misbehaviour, not those who are doing everything they can. It’s perverse that we’re in this stage where those taking misbehaviour seriously are peppered with arrows like St Sebastian, but here we are. What’s encouraging is that there are now enough teachers and schools on social media savvy enough to not stand for it and speak up. If you want to learn how to maximise the dignity and calm of a school, listen to those who have done it, not those who couldn’t find a classroom with a Sat-Nav.<br />
<br />Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-54023528760905738122018-07-27T11:29:00.004+01:002018-07-27T11:29:58.353+01:00Why the Education Select Committee got exclusions completely wrong<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><i>When the Education Select Committee released its misguided report on school exclusions, I was already writing my response. The Guardian asked me if I would write a short piece for them, so I cut a slice from the body of it, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/26/school-exclusions-zero-tolerance-policies-disruptive-pupils?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other" target="_blank">which appears here</a>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>This is the rest of my that piece. I think that some of the points the report makes deserve further rebuttal. This is a serious topic and goes to the heart of how we educate children. If we get this wrong- and frequently we do, and the Committee sadly has- then we make schools harder to run, classrooms less safe, teachers’ jobs much harder, and the lives of countless children made a misery. </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9aG2Ch567OvXq9j5dp1b8ClnTcLMKMlh09ozLzxot8bILrY3k2H6xPXaqwJNEwsQidWXtoGGy_SdkN8sFxC6cPTOcaJhHaJ88_IEl7Qj3Fxkspes4g0qrrESftgnBGloawHrN6BQJNws/s1600/dontgiveup2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="302" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9aG2Ch567OvXq9j5dp1b8ClnTcLMKMlh09ozLzxot8bILrY3k2H6xPXaqwJNEwsQidWXtoGGy_SdkN8sFxC6cPTOcaJhHaJ88_IEl7Qj3Fxkspes4g0qrrESftgnBGloawHrN6BQJNws/s320/dontgiveup2.jpg" width="285" /></a><span lang="EN-US">Children across the world will be familiar with the Just Because Fallacy, commonly expressed as, ‘Because I said so!’ It’s not a great argument, but parents can get often away with it. House of Commons Select Committees should not, and the recent publication of <i>Forgotten children: alternative provision and the scandal of ever increasing exclusions </i>is a case in point. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>The false premise of the report<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The entire premise of this report is that villainous schools are excluding too easily, exiling innocent children too hot to handle. But should we reprimand a school for excluding if it has followed its own procedures, given children multiple chances to amend their behavior, and still found themselves at the end of a very long rope? Most schools I have ever seen would do anything rather than exclude, but exclude they must sometimes, for the safety and well-being of staff and students. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>How should we actually reduce exclusions?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">When I wrote Creating a Culture, we found that one of the most important aspects of many successful schools was that they had clear, well understood boundaries and rules, and that students by far preferred that; they felt safer; lessons were less disrupted, and bullying was minimized. What was perhaps counter intuitive was that these schools also had almost aggressively inclusive aspirations; they tried everything they could to include everyone they could, on the grounds that everyone in the school building was a member of the school community. Ironically this meant that many children at risk of exclusion were successfully brought back into the fold. High expectations and a focus on personal accountability can have an amazing effect on children who lack structure and boundaries in their lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>The worst opinions about exclusion frequently come from people with little experience of hard classes or schools<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In this debate I frequently encounter simple ignorance amongst many who devoutly advocate inclusion at all costs, and a lack of understanding of the damage caused to those forced to cohabit with the violent and the persistently disruptive. If you have ever had to teach, or study in an atmosphere of chronic aggression and toxic levels of threat, you would think twice about making it harder for schools to exclude, particularly when it is already such a small percentage of children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Do the numbers point to a scandal? TL; DR: No<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And what about those numbers anyway? </span>The most recent DfE exclusion report tells us "The rate of permanent exclusions across all state-funded primary, secondary and special schools has…increased from 0.08 per cent to 0.10 per cent of pupil enrolments, which is equivalent to around 10 pupils per 10,000." <a href="applewebdata://5F71024C-CE12-499B-BB6E-2EAF7AA83B83#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="color: #954f72;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></span></span></a>Of course our aim should always be zero exclusions eventually. But an increase of 0.02% seems an odd figure to panic about. We have 8 million children in the UK, attending 24,372 schools. 48,000 students attend alternative provision in the UK- 0.6% of students. If 6,685 students were excluded in one year, that represents one for every four schools. And the levels of exclusion are still lower than 2007. <o:p></o:p></div>
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With something as vital as education, it’s important to make decisions that are as evidence informed as possible, and there simply isn’t a substantial evidence base to suggest that these things have been causal factors. In fact, it is possible to argue that our system has an incredibly low rate of permanent exclusion. I’ve worked with many excellent PRU leaders who are quite clear- most of the students they look after and educate absolutely need to be there- mainstream is not the best environment to meet their complex needs. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>No evidence exclusions ‘discriminate’ against SEND students<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Claiming that school disproportionately exclude children with special needs is a red herring. If we define the worst behaved children as having special needs then of course we will see them represented robustly in exclusions. And lumping violent or aggressive students in with children with learning difficulties is an act of conceptual legerdemain itself. I’ve seen students kicked, teachers punched, sexual assaults on staff and children by other students who, quite simply, need to be somewhere else. What, I wonder, is an acceptable amount of sexual harassment a teacher should be expected to put up with? How much bullying of frightened children is permitted? Because that is the reality for many adults and children in many schools, or persistent destruction of their lessons by students who can’t, or choose not to make the right choice. It would be madness to suggest the best thing to do is keep students in the classrooms to terrify others. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Teacher training for behaviour is currently erratic, and often poor<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Teachers barely have any behaviour training as it is, often expected to pick it up on the job- if they’re lucky. Leaders have no guaranteed training route to acquire skills to run behaviour at a school level. So what we do need is better and guaranteed training for teachers and leaders in how to de-escalate conflict, to lay down boundaries, to direct behaviour clearly and consistently. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>High expectations help to build schools where students are less likely to be excluded, not more<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And there is another flaw in the report’s argument. Schools run on high expectations, with clear boundaries and well-defined cultures of good behaviour, are far, far better places for all students. Students who would be at risk of exclusion for a succession of less serious problems, overwhelmingly do better in such schools because their behaviour is caught early and amended, through strong social norms, remedial work and targeted nurture. In order to create these cultures, schools need to be able to invoke, as a last resort, exclusions. If they cannot, then they are forced to retain students who have so far removed unmanageable by other methods. What does the committee think forcing schools to retain such pupils will make the schools do that they weren’t doing before? It presumes that a great many schools are putting out kids with the rubbish. Where is the data to sort this?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And it’s no good complaining that the data is hard to find. If there is a case to be made that this is common, then make it. Don’t point to rising exclusion rates, presume a cause, then suggest a remedy you probably preferred all along to counter it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Just say no to Independent Review Panels<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Independent review panels to direct schools to reinstate pupils, would be a disaster, because if schools are forced to reinstate students they have felt fit to exclude, their entire behavior systems fall apart: think of the effect on staff moral to see a violent student return. What boundary would they respect? What would the victim of bullying feel or think, to see their safety and well-being so carelessly sacrificed on the altar of a middle-class ideology that insists all children are angels and telling a child their behavior has led to their removal, is a crime too great to countenance?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We abdicate our responsibility as adults when we fail to protect children from disruption and violence. We abdicate our responsibility as employees and professionals when we permit staff to be exposed to intolerable levels of stress and threat. We abdicate our responsibilities as professionals when we permit such trespasses against it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Stop describing PRUs and AP like rubbish bins<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I certainly agree with the claim in the report that ‘for many children alternative provision can be transformational and has made a real difference to students’ lives.’ Amen to that. PRUs aren’t sin bins, and to suggest otherwise is an enormous insult to the great many PRUs that work daily miracles with the most difficult of customers We need more of these excellent institutions, and more funding to do so. We need to iron out the variation between areas. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>All children are created equal; but some are more equal than others<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">This idea of a Bill of Rights seems attractive, but rights for whom against whom? Children at risk of exclusion? What about children at risk from those at risk from exclusion? What about staff at risk from those children? What about those children for whom exclusion is a ‘positive choice’, to quote the document? What about children whose needs cannot be met by a mainstream setting? </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Don’t shame schools into bad decision making<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">‘Schools should publish their permanent and fixed term exclusion rates’. Fine. But what does that tell us? By itself those data are 2-dimensional. A school might exclude more because it carries out its own behavior policy thoroughly and effectively; a school might exclude less because it fails to do so. Or it might be going through a period of renovation, changing standards and challenging students to meet them. Bluntly, a higher than normal rate might be a sign of health, not sickness. Or it might not. It depends <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>The curriculum is not the problem<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The claim that the curriculum has made it more likely for students to be excluded is simply bizarre, and naked ideology. Schools still provide an enormously varied exposure to a huge, wide range of subjects. The idea that children are somehow bullied or oppressed by expecting them to do well at Maths and English is absurd. It also embodies frighteningly low expectations for some children, as evidenced by this submission from a contributor: ‘Creative and technical subjects which a lower ability child would find more accessible, have lost their validity and are disappearing from many schools. ‘ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I have no idea what a ‘low ability child’ is. One that’s ‘good with their hands’ I suppose? I only know ‘someone who isn’t good at something yet.’ If they are low ability, shouldn’t we be focusing on making them high ability, not settling for second best and deciding they’re fit only for building brick walls? Let’s never become so callous to expect such mean achievement from our children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Don’t forget to teach children and look after them<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">‘The Government should issue guidance to all schools reminding them of their responsibilities to children under treaty obligations and ensure that their behaviour policies are in line with these responsibilities’ </span></i><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Really? The government should remind schools about something they should know already? This leads to…<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">‘The Government and Ofsted should introduce an inclusion measure or criteria that sits within schools to incentivise schools to be more inclusive.’ <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">This is where, of course, all reports end up: Ofsted should make schools do this, or else. The vagueness of its terms can’t hide the ambition behind it. </span>Nice Ofsted rating you have there. Be a shame if anything….happened to it.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>We extensively consulted with lots of people we agree with<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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A further problem is exhibited in the choice of the committees investigation. They spoke to a lot of parents of excluded children, but how many parents of bullied children? How many teachers shattered by stress? I see many advocates of…well, of the kind of conclusion the committee comes to, but not many groups who wouldn’t. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This results in faulty causality. To hear from a few people who are critical of for example, so-called zero tolerance policies, and then decide they must be behind rising exclusions, is weak reasoning. I (sadly) know a lot of people who swear by homeopathy, but I wouldn’t base public health policy on them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Zero Tolerance policies rarely exist in practice<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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There is a broader discussion to be had about zero tolerance policies. This isn’t the place to go into it but I will say that first of all, even the stricter schools usually aren’t entirely zero tolerance, and allow actually have many exceptions to apparently inflexible rules. Secondly, aren’t there some behaviours we really should have zero tolerance over How much sexual assault are you prepared to allow against children and staff? How many assaults? I’m extremely at ease with the concept that schools should have zero tolerance over some things. Third, no one was ever excluded for not having a pen. The most common reason for exclusion is persistent disruption. That little phrase hides an ocean of discord and offence. This is no small matter. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>I Object<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The suggestion that students excluded for more than five nonconsecutive days need some kind of defense attorney (‘independent advocate’) is bizarre. Who will advocate for the students living in fear? The teacher unable to cope any more with shattered lessons and tattered nerves? The choice to send a student to alternative provision should be, remember, a decision made for the well-being of all. Schools should not feel they have to act as prosecutors in these circumstances. They should be encouraged- or trusted perhaps?- to make tough decisions with all staff and students involved in the equation. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Needs or wants?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">There is reference to the fact that many children referred to have unmet needs, which is a shibboleth for many in the sector to explain away any form of misbehavior. It is common to describe any form of misbehavior as representative of an ‘unmet need’, which is an odd and unscientific way to describe that people frequently behave the way they do for a reason, but neglects to appreciate that the reasons for some behaviours are intentional, or malicious. The logic here is circular; if a student misbehaves badly, they must have an unmet need. If they have an unmet need, then it isn’t their fault they misbehave. If it’s not their fault it must be the school’s fault for not meeting that need. Therefore, misbehavior is the schools’ fault. Let that, as they say, sink in. If a pupil tells a teacher to f**k off, and punches a child at break time and calls them a sissy for wearing makeup, that’s the fault of the school. At some point the absurdity of this position has to be confronted. At what point do we stop describing behaviour as a manifestation of an unmet need and ascribe personal responsibility to the student? At what age? Do murderers exhibit unmet needs? What allowances should we make for the arsonist? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>But apart from that I loved the play<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">To leaven this scorn, I should add I find there are multiple areas of agreement with the report: alternative provision is indeed too unpredictable both in availability and quality. Some areas have scant resources to its usage. There does indeed need to be more collaboration between AP and mainstream settings. Some of the very best practice I have seen has been in PRUs, where the needs of the neediest students can be addressed in a high staff: student ratio in circumstances where structure is tight, predictable, consistent, and expectations are high. Compassion and boundaries are more important, not less in such circumstances <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b>Conclusion<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Schools should be run for as much benefit as possible, for as many as possible. Nobody likes exclusions. But they are necessary and vital. As much as possible should be done to prevent getting to that point, but when they are needed, they are needed. This is too important to get wrong. If the recommendations of the committee were implemented in any way, the lives of too many children would become worse, not better. Everyone in education needs to get serious about this, or we sacrifice children and teachers on the altars of our orthodoxies. The Education Select Committee has written a beautiful satire of what shouldn’t be done, but it would make more sense if you held it upside down and read it backwards. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-70923700538217725022018-06-23T00:20:00.003+01:002018-06-23T00:20:58.590+01:00White lines, don’t do it? Behind the media spin, Spielman’s misquoted comments on behaviour are cause for celebration<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPvRu2cUdSih6U79KCYXPYlub5aueE44EAHbNkkFjfnY-jgEW5PeQ8OiYhKiqOODBnDUZcCbX2fJgFTkwYVhC33bZmgmokSRdPrhjTYbAOGk7bZyYzfo16n83UmoF16OVtkQ04xkGVwj4/s1600/gor-cersei-feature.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="1344" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPvRu2cUdSih6U79KCYXPYlub5aueE44EAHbNkkFjfnY-jgEW5PeQ8OiYhKiqOODBnDUZcCbX2fJgFTkwYVhC33bZmgmokSRdPrhjTYbAOGk7bZyYzfo16n83UmoF16OVtkQ04xkGVwj4/s640/gor-cersei-feature.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spielman at her address to the Festival of Education</td></tr>
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Brace yourself: Tom Brown’s School Days are about to make a comeback. According to recent headlines, Ofsted have indicated they’ll soon be expecting schools to make like Bash Street and get medieval on their classes: <o:p></o:p></div>
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‘Ofsted backs return to old-school punishments’ thundered the Times. ‘Ofsted boss: give pupils lines, community service and detention for misbehaviour,’ gasped iNews. The Daily Mail, sensing blood in the water, put gas in the tank with ‘Ban phones in schools and bring back old-fashioned punishments like lines and litter picking, Ofsted chief demands,’ and it wasn’t clear if this made them happy it was happening or sad that it didn’t go far enough. <o:p></o:p></div>
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That was nothing. Half an hour before the Chief Inspector of Ofsted, Amanda Spielman delivered a keynote speech at the Wellington Festival of Education this week, I appeared on a radio talk show. The host opened with, ‘So, Ofsted wants to bring back old punishments like the cane and the belt. Tom Bennett, what’s your view on that?’ By dinner time I expected her to be campaigning for crucifixion, stabbing. As you can imagine, the response on social media was measured and thoughtful. ‘Not up to her job…God save us from a woman who went to school in the 60s and thinks that should be the model….’ ‘How can you ask disturbed children to write lines….’ ‘This woman has no idea…’ ‘How many schools actually do this….’ Ad absurdum, ad infinitum. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Everyone can relax. Spielman is recommending nothing of the sort. She’s not advocating a return to the tawse, the elephant slipper, or even writing out lines particularly. What is interesting is that everyone appears to be up in arms about fake news these days, but no one appears to be particularly concerned to do anything about it themselves. Everyone seems determined that children be raised to critical thinkers, but some seem determined to avoid it personally. Headlines are circus barkers, reeling in the real estate of your attention. Trust them like a chain email from a philanthropic billionaire. Read the full article before you comment. And try to discern points that have been directly attributed to the subject of the article, and which ones are the writer’s summary.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Her comments, which I was there to hear at the Festival, were actually sensible and refreshingly practical. So sensible that her detractors had to invent things she said in order to get properly upset about them. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/amanda-spielmans-speech-at-the-wellington-festival-of-education" target="_blank">Luckily, we can read the text here</a>, and I think it’s worth picking through its bones:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXZ-hakrfBGF7hdBYSZw10_p9EH2PprMgYG25960vLHvocrTkg2NOcGkR8I7aUxlpraLmMzSe1_hdscsK1Dx6ysWIzPveXAML9AKYrbsWLZa0HJxtULRPi_MPtUSPrDFECaO_CgfKVsWQ/s1600/DgOcHwyX4AAO_3T.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXZ-hakrfBGF7hdBYSZw10_p9EH2PprMgYG25960vLHvocrTkg2NOcGkR8I7aUxlpraLmMzSe1_hdscsK1Dx6ysWIzPveXAML9AKYrbsWLZa0HJxtULRPi_MPtUSPrDFECaO_CgfKVsWQ/s320/DgOcHwyX4AAO_3T.jpg" width="320" /></a><b>Amanda's Epistle to the Wellingtonians</b></div>
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....I also want us to have a clearer focus on behaviour. We welcomed <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/behaviour-in-schools" style="color: #954f72;">Tom Bennett’s 2017 behaviour review</a> and are looking at how we can incorporate the recommendations relating to Ofsted in the new framework.</blockquote>
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Well, I would agree with that, wouldn’t I? But it’s been a long battle to get the concerns I <o:p></o:p></div>
raise to the level they are. I believe behaviour is one of our top priorities in schools, and I’ll bang a drum for better understanding and training until the stars burn cold. In a world where behaviour has fallen off the radar as a concern, seeing it back there fills me with a timid optimism. <br />
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Pupil behaviour is the number one concern that parents raise with us: the first question they want answered in a report is ‘what the behaviour is like?’, ‘is the school a safe environment?’ and ‘will they be protected from bullying?’ We also know that behaviour is a primary driver of low morale in the profession. My position is that I want to see behaviour get the attention it deserves in our inspections, probably through a separate behaviour and attitudes judgement.</blockquote>
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Of course it should. Of course it should. In what universe would the safety of the child in the school NOT be the number one priority of every parent, or society more broadly? The separate category is interesting, as I think it’s been unhelpful to lump it in with other aspects of a school’s evaluation. Not that they can’t be related (obviously they are, intimately) but it’s so important, it deserves its own focus. And parents and students deserve to know how safe they will be. I hope this happens.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And when I talk about behaviour, I’m not just talking about serious disruption or bullying, important as these are. I want us to look just as hard at low-level disruption, which stops pupils learning and which can make the job of classroom management miserable.</blockquote>
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I hit the ‘like’ button for this like a monkey with a toffee hammer. Low level disruption sounds cute, but it’s kryptonite for any lesson. It normalises rudeness, laziness, and grinds teachers down over weeks and months. It is no small issue. It is the most common reason for classroom behaviour to disintegrate. Taking it as seriously than the more rare, extreme forms of misbehaviour is right on the money. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I fundamentally disagree with those who say that taking a tough stance on behaviour is unfair to children. Quite the opposite, there is nothing kind about letting a few pupils spoil school for everyone else. That is why we expect heads to put in place strong policies that support their staff in tackling poor behaviour. And I think it’s entirely appropriate to use sanctions, such as writing lines, ‘community service’ in the school grounds, such as picking up litter, and school detentions. And where they are part of a school’s behaviour policy, they’ll have our full support.</blockquote>
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The League of Professionally Outraged People should read that back a few times as they bite down on a rolling pin and huff Echinacea. She’s NOT advocating lines, NOT expecting schools to do a damn thing except manage behaviour consciously, deliberately and vigorously. No mention of corporal punishment, children up chimneys, or water torture. In fact, almost the opposite: if a school leader has policies in place designed to promote better behaviour, then Ofsted will back the Head teacher’s right to do so. And they mustn’t be worried that if they use mild deterrents like low level sanctions that they will be penalised for doing so. So, what she said was actually a vocal declaration of support for head teachers. But when did truth, or facts matter when there is outrage to be manufactured?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Repellere PiXLarum! </td></tr>
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Most of the conversations I’ve had with people in the last 24 hours have been around this point. A frightening number of people seem to be utterly against any idea of sanction at all. Which is odd because in all my journeys I’ve never seen a single example of a community that didn’t use some form of sanction to reinforce its boundaries and agreed conventions. If history has produced such an entity, it must be hidden and lost, like Atlantis. Real communities need boundaries and consequences. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, it needs much more than these. Good behaviour is promoted in so many ways: consistency of messaging, professional warmth, high expectations, good interpersonal skills, efficient chains of command and administration and so on. Sanctions are merely part of the jigsaw. But they are part of the jigsaw. Without their option, no school can operate. What Spielman is saying is only one of the most practical sand sensible things I’ve heard an HMCI say in years. No wonder it upset people. In the field of education, speaking the truth truly is a revolutionary act. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Victorian educationalist bans electricity</b></div>
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There’s no doubt that technology has made the challenge of low-level disruption even worse, which by the way is why I also support recent calls to back heads who have decided that the way to improve behaviour is to ban mobile phones in their schools. I’m not the target audience, but nevertheless I am yet to be convinced of the educational benefits of all day access to ‘Snapchat’ and the like; and the place of mobile phones in the classroom seems to me dubious at best.</blockquote>
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While we all pick ourselves up from the floor as we realise that Amanda Spielman does not use Snapchat (‘Out wiv besties Seany Seany Harford and Lucky Luke LUV EM #blazin’), this should no longer be up for debate. Smartphones may, in some boutique circumstances have utility in a classroom context. But their default accessibility is an enormous burden on classroom management. The distraction is simply too great for many students. And it is the least able, the most in need, who suffer the most from these distractions. Despite the exhortation of hobbyists and enthusiasts, there is very little evidence that the use of smart tech adds much to educational outcomes, and a good deal of evidence to suggest it can impede the focus of many. For far too long, tech was unquestioningly seen as an incontrovertible boon to learning. This Appeal to Novelty has been disputed and dissected more and more, and I’m glad of it. The tech dividend is a fairy tale spun by manufacturers and gadget acolytes. Children need protecting from such passions, and schools should be spaces where children do not feel they have to be online all the time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>It takes a village</b></div>
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There are obvious limitations in what we’re able to observe about behaviour in a single day. But we are looking to overcome them. As Tom suggests, there is scope for more dialogue with a wider range of staff – such as trainees and lunchtime supervisors – who are more likely to witness poor behaviour. </blockquote>
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This would be a huge step. Too often inspectors speak to a skewed sample of positive, hand-picked pupils and staff. To really find out what a school is like I recommend talking to the most vulnerable, marginalised or less visible members of the community; those most likely to see or experience the sharp end of behaviour and misbehaviour. There is an ocean of informed opinion here that can be mined. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We’re establishing an expert advisory panel of heads and teachers who have taken a strong and successful approach to clamping down on poor behaviour to give us their advice. </blockquote>
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Again, very interesting. Not a lot of detail, but it would be a big step forward towards a practitioner-informed understanding of good behaviour and how to achieve it even in the most challenging of circumstances. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Alongside that, we fully support Tom’s proposal of a national behaviour survey. Such a survey would allow pupils and staff to give us their honest, anonymous appraisal of behaviour in their schools before an inspection takes place. </blockquote>
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I can’t emphasise this enough. Inspections are often synthetic experiences; the school is on best behaviour, and frequently everyone holds in their stomachs and buries the bodies until Ofsted are on the stage coach out of Dodge. This isn’t just misleading, it’s dangerously suggestive. Learning is inextricably linked to the quality of behaviour, and schools with poor, but less obvious problems, can be given clean bills of health when they need a sick note to improve. Ironically, a ‘Good’ judgement can make the patient less well, not more. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The only way to really dig under the stone and see what lies beneath? Ask people- anonymously. And not just a few; everyone. All staff, all students. What is your experience of behaviour? How frequently are lessons disrupted? What types of behaviour? This approach isn’t perfect but it’s 100 times more valuable than the performance of an inspection. It can be a quick survey done online, collated, crunched and stored, to be used in 100 different ways. In a future post I hope to expand upon what model this survey could take.</div>
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Finally, I want to address, once and for all, the cacophony of rumours we hear about badly behaved children being hidden, perhaps on a conveniently timed spontaneous school trip, during inspections. My research and analysis teams are currently designing a study to try and assess the extent of the problem and what we might do about it.</blockquote>
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This, and indeed, this. It’s heartening to see the HMCI take this seriously at last. Sadly, I can only confirm that this is a very, very common practice in some schools. I boggle at those who say it doesn’t happen, and invite them to get out a little. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We will be airing more concrete proposals for consultation on the framework shortly. In the interests of expectation management, I should point out that it will be an evolution not a revolution. Schools rightly expect stability, and policy makers need a degree of comparability to make informed intervention and policy decisions.</blockquote>
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Comments like this mark Spielman out as a sober, careful and professional partner to the school sector, but that gets drowned out by the headlines and fury. Slow and steady progress rather than moving fast and breaking things. I wonder which model teachers and heads would prefer?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Nor do I expect Ofsted to be doubling its budget any time soon. But within the envelope I do have, I want to be sure we use our resources to maximum effect. I’ve spoken before about the amount of positive feedback I have had about the professional dialogue between inspectors and schools. Many heads find it to be invaluable CPD and a real driver of school improvement. So, a key priority is rebalancing inspector time, so that there’s more time on site engaging with you and less time spent on the less visible activities.</blockquote>
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She ends on another note of sobriety and caution; that Ofsted expect to do better with the resources they have in general and are looking at ways to maximise the good of what they do. So much for the Sturm Und Drang of recent years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So far, much of this is hypothetical. We’ll know it when we see it. But I urge the commentariat to look beyond the thrilling but wrong froth of melodrama and listen to what is actually being suggested. These ideas have all come from teachers and heads, not manufactured in the Ofsted hollowed-out volcano. God knows schools, and children, deserve classrooms that are safe, where children are supported. And I think this speech foreshadowed some very good things indeed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-64950994456135417752018-06-05T18:23:00.001+01:002018-06-05T18:23:36.620+01:00The Rubik’s Cube of school behaviour - why exclusions are needed to make complex systems work<div class="Body" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border: none; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b><span lang="EN-US">The Rubik’s Cube of school behaviour - why exclusions are needed to make complex systems work<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdu7aWdGy1-pq3aL6VZ3rMYt8jtMEmpWVtu_IYIohjDxE9-RgaPEeSVcHhbQ0f7A9YPqbsBM12466_4yPp5-3BMhyphenhyphenKwCHAQfI1CI0X1T22VkK9jlt8KsZtya17gEs7pqeNt4R87WSyI9U/s1600/d617826b7e15351536a848b0d6ab934f--conceptual-illustrations-funny-illustration.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="236" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdu7aWdGy1-pq3aL6VZ3rMYt8jtMEmpWVtu_IYIohjDxE9-RgaPEeSVcHhbQ0f7A9YPqbsBM12466_4yPp5-3BMhyphenhyphenKwCHAQfI1CI0X1T22VkK9jlt8KsZtya17gEs7pqeNt4R87WSyI9U/s320/d617826b7e15351536a848b0d6ab934f--conceptual-illustrations-funny-illustration.jpg" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-US">Boys and girls of a certain age will recall the Rubik’s cube, the craze that, like many others, conquered the world and then vanished forever. Everyone thought they could have a crack at solving it, but few could. Most could get one side completed. But the problem was that when you started on the next, you ended up spoiling the perfection of the first one. The world was full, at one point, of cubes with one side solved, left in frustration in waiting rooms everywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Schools are like that: complex systems, hard to solve, easy to mess up the bit you got right.<span> </span>There are two problems:</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -12pt;">1. You can focus on one aspect- like punctuality, or equipment, or homework, but in a system with finite resources, shifting focus from one thing often means neglecting another. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -12pt;">2. Another problem is the law of unintended consequences. Sometimes what seems like the right thing to pursue, is only part of a larger problem. Sometimes, focussing on fixing one part of the system leads to a break somewhere else. Sometimes, despite the best of intentions, trying to do the right thing makes things worse. Getting rid of your wheels might make your car lighter, but it’s not going to go any faster, or anywhere fr that matter.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Take, for example, the Rubik’s Cube of the global environment, and the problems that beset it:<span> </span>finite resources, escalating populations, exponential consumption and so on. We’re like Wile E Coyote, sawing away at the plank upon which we stand, high above a canyon floor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">One part of that problem is plastic. Its virtue- indestructibility- is also the problem. What won’t break down, chokes our wildlife and beaches, and drives a tractor through delicate ecosystems. The 20th century’s wonder polymer, infinite in its utility, starts to become a resource hoover, locking away material we find hard to recover. The sensible person might reasonably deduce that the solution is to make sure that all plastics are biodegradable. This seems on the face of it to be good advice. The plastic breaks down, the material returns to the wild, and we can reharvest it as we please. Problem solved?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9koxVfsZhuTX8SjfnD7Al5XSGmFMKV5eIK8TOS1YUUh6FEtWJxSkDjwPvc0kGIUsIeY_2dqwTCbrZUs-uRCtnX49eoHG3pgznWvZZlvnfuwUEabxo6-SxTT-ck3VrDs9eHzOktd5P5Kg/s1600/children_3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="346" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9koxVfsZhuTX8SjfnD7Al5XSGmFMKV5eIK8TOS1YUUh6FEtWJxSkDjwPvc0kGIUsIeY_2dqwTCbrZUs-uRCtnX49eoHG3pgznWvZZlvnfuwUEabxo6-SxTT-ck3VrDs9eHzOktd5P5Kg/s320/children_3.png" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-US">No, problem shifted. If we throw our lovely biodegradable bottles into the normal bin, as opposed to the recycling bin, then it goes to compost. But these new degradable materials are harder to compost; they are too dry, and the machines that sort such things cannot work with the wrong balance of materials. So, often biodegradable (rather than recyclable) plastic simply goes to landfill, and we are back where we started.<span> </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Experts in such matters believe that one thing we need to focus on is making sure manufacturers consider the entire life of a plastic product; thinking about not just the end but the afterlife of the bottle. How can it be reused? The value of a plastic bottle (once emptied) is in its shape, its bottle-ness, not in the raw material. So make them valuable by retaining their shape. Make them worth collecting centrally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The point is that a straight-line solution isn’t always the best way to achieve the goal you want. It can even makes things worse not better- or make the goal harder to achieve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Back to schools and behaviour. I meet many well-intentioned people who love children and want nothing but the best for them.<span> </span>But frequently the mistake they sometimes make is to call for the abolition of (or an absolute reduction in) exclusions, permanent or fixed. They cite the enormous correlation between exclusion and prison; they frequently point to the high prevalence of mental health issues in the excluded, or the fact that a great many of them fall into unemp</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 12pt;">l</span><span lang="EN-US">oyment or crime. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">There is no room for humbug in this discussion Everyone wants to see less of that. I have never met a defender of a school’s right to exclude say, ‘Who cares?’ when faced with those bullet points Let us not dwell on who cares the most, as if only one side of this discussion had a monopoly on compassion. Care wars are ideological rather than practical. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The problem with removing or reducing excursions artificially, by simply making it harder to do so, or by creating toxic disincentives at a system level to do so, is that while it might seem like a job well done, it is a simplistic response to a complex problem. The problem of crime is not that there are prisons. Crime is a problem because it happens too much. Prisons are a symptom. We do not solve criminality by closing prisons, although to a mad bureaucrat it might seem like a victory. But that victory is pyrrhic. permanent exclusions are and should be a last resort- another view with few genuine opponents, although acres of words are wasted on imagining otherwise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">If behaviour has nowhere to go, it goes nowhere<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Every system needs a terminal sanction point. There must be, for that system to function, an understanding that there are lines that cannot be crossed without serious consequences. Every society needs a removal clause, because no society can tolerate its members ignoring its own mores and customs. To look at it another way, no society has ever thrived which has not been able to do so. I regard these as axioms for the existence of any form of civilised community. Beyond handfuls of people over short sales fo time, morality must be codified, understood, and patrolled by consequences. Law becomes essential in large groups. I’ll reconsider those axioms the instant someone provides me with counterexamples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And without consequences, we have no law. If nobody thought any sanction would follow murder, would anyone be unwise enough to argue anything other than that murders would escalate? Even if some obeyed the custom, some would always ignore it, and that is enough. Indeed, it would become advantageous to be a rule breaker in such a system, because it would give you an edge over the law abiding and virtuous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Hoping good people will be good is not enough. All communities need customs, enforced by penalties. Lest anyone raise an obvious objection, of course, sanctions are only part of a greater school system. No behaviour can truly be sorted by sanction alone. They must be communicated, valued, shared. But culture without consequences soon becomes no culture at all, ruined by a minority, but sufficient, element within our communities that seeks its own ends with no account of the needs of others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEdZ9AjSXYmPlzWdqZ7RZoZzwQjvMIYvT24XNv2PbT117EPPb9pdZzHM6bn1vtOVLePzPVjW7dbOIoXtL5BQcS7SGQPBtrUrTyqsNHUJhS2Fx8hTBb8w8cYZLKoMZ_ESFMtIluzXXcEg/s1600/Tutoring-picture.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="1280" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEdZ9AjSXYmPlzWdqZ7RZoZzwQjvMIYvT24XNv2PbT117EPPb9pdZzHM6bn1vtOVLePzPVjW7dbOIoXtL5BQcS7SGQPBtrUrTyqsNHUJhS2Fx8hTBb8w8cYZLKoMZ_ESFMtIluzXXcEg/s400/Tutoring-picture.jpeg" width="400" /></a><b><span lang="EN-US">Exclusions support the whole behaviour system<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Lose the concept of removal, and the whole system suffers. If no one can ever be removed, what deterrent exists for the determined? And in such circumstances, what is to deter lesser misdemeanours? I’ve seen many such schools, where the generous intention to include (no matter what), leads to the unintended outcome of civility’s doom. Children, often our best guides in these matters, are perplexed when we the adults do not protect and serve them in times of danger. ‘Why didn’t you send him out sir?’ I’ve heard from mature children who wonder if we have forgotten how to adult. ‘Oh but there’s no use sending that boy out,’ I’ve heard from normally sound professionals. ‘It won’t do them any good.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">That kind of thinking makes the mistake of the amateur Rubikologist. It believes that ends are best served directly and simply. Removing a violent or abusive student from the mainstream community, internally or otherwise, has an enormous impact. It makes the classroom a safer place to work and study. It facilitates learning. It makes the job bearable. It promotes the idea that all children will be treated with dignity, and that dignity given succour by the system. It models to staff that they are valued, and they are not expected to suffer endless wounds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Even the best special and alternative learning environments have internal removal processes. They understand that even in circumstances where the most troubled and damaged children are brought to be looked after, loved and taught, there will be rooms, zone and circumstances to which they must be taken, both for their safety and the safety of others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Remember, this is done so that more children than ever can be included, meaningfully. </span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Getting the best for everyone, not just a few<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">This isn’t about composting nuisance children in the recycling tub. It’s about creating a culture where everyone knows that rules and rights are valued and- crucially- upheld. Removals are the glue that holds this culture together. Without them, everything else crumbles. With them, not only is the culture possible, but they eventually aim to their own extinction, as children are helped to manage their behaviour better, earlier. Because, perhaps counter-intuitively, the sensible and measured use of removals, helps to reduce the need to remove. Removing that option only turns the classroom into a holding pen, the corridors into a no-man’s land, where behaviour starts to bubble and boil over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">If we want to save the environment, we need to think more about how we use plastic, not ban plastic. And if we want to reduce exclusions, then we need to exclude sensibly, with care about when it happens, to whom, and what then happens to them. But at a time when we are debating such matters, it is important to know why we use them in the first place. And to appreciate that behaviour in a school is a complex machine, too complicated to be fixed by simply plucking out a part that offends us. I know this often baffles those unused to running such systems. But for the sake of every child and staff member- and for the good of all, not just the many or the few- we need to remind ourself that we teach children as they are, not as we would wish them to be.<span> </span>And by that simple act, we help them to flourish more than they could have ever imagined. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-70059726363206507582018-04-27T12:23:00.001+01:002018-04-30T09:01:37.925+01:00Impressively wrong- why Alfie Kohn’s advice on running rooms is not great<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Enough is enough- it's time to stop taking bad advice about behaviour when children's futures are at stake</b><br />
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Years ago I waited tables in TGI Fridays, where they used to run competitions for staff to see who could sell the most sticky, smoky meat and goldfish bowls of margaritas. Until one day the good times stopped rolling and the managers decreed there would be no more. The reason? One of them had read a book: ‘Punished by rewards’, and claimed that it described how people shouldn’t be incentivised by something so gaudy as an incentive. The author was Alfie Kohn. Years later when I became a teacher I discovered his advice was following me around like eyes on a painting in Scooby Doo. Kohn has become one of the most influential writers in education. His books have found homes in libraries from Beirut to Bearsden. Sadly, rarely have trees been so needlessly pulped.<br />
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I frequently hear him described as a behaviour expert. But I find this strange, because surely one of the defining qualities of expertise is to say something right about one’s field from time to time, and he is frequently, impressively not. Were I to connect a Speak and Spell to a ouija board it would produce paragraphs with greater classroom utility. A Magic 8 ball is wiser in these matters. When someone asks me for behaviour advice and I’m in a hurry, I sometimes just shout, ‘Do the opposite of what Alfie Kohn says!’ from my train window as it pulls away from the platform.<br />
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And surely the hallmark of expertise in classroom management is…well, some form of demonstrable ability to run classrooms that present frequent, challenging behaviour? This is apparently controversial in education, where a year or two in a private school is often all that is needed to build a career upon. If we ran the army like this, the Queen would speak Russian and live in a minaret.<br />
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Only in education. Maybe, also in tarot and homeopathy. This is one reason why I set my shoulder firmly and fiercely to the cause of improving our use of evidence. It isn’t enough, to imagine how wonderful it would be if children behaved one way, if reality disagrees. We mustn’t lounge lazily on our punts, scooping up turds from the river of fancy and calling them lilies. Noble falsehoods are still false. I wish children could reliably divine the right thing to do, and build curriculums inspired by passion and richness. But this is fantasy football teaching. Meanwhile in the real world, real children need guidance and love and boundaries. And it falls to us. There’s no one else.<br />
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<b>What’s it all about, Alfie?</b><br />
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Kohn describes, <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/tes-talks-alfie-kohn" target="_blank">in an interview in the TES,</a> how he has a number of problems with behaviour management as it is commonly practised and understood. Even talking about a “behaviour issue” in schools is misguided, he argues.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
By using the word ‘behaviour’, we are only focusing on observable actions, thereby missing the motives, needs and values of the people engaging in the behaviour, so as soon as we involve that word I’m already worried because we are now in thrall to the ideology of behaviourism and we are missing most of what matters with respect to children.</blockquote>
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I don’t know any people interested in behaviour management who aren’t also interested in engagement, motivation, and the ocean of multiple factors that drive our actions hither and thither. But it is easier to attack a position when it is mischaracterised. Describing all other systems in such a desiccated manner is a rhetorical slight, not a serious objection. Actions flow from character, and desire, and goals, and habit, and a hundred other things. We know this. This is a familiar but reductionist counter argument to claim that many teachers are only interested in mindless compliance. Where are these teachers? The ones I see all the time genuinely care about the actions and the character of their students. Kohn’s charge, like that of many armchair educationalists, rests on enormous slights to the hard work and integrity of millions of teachers. Yet he is high-fived like a hero by some teachers. But when we do so as a profession, we high-five our own professional dissolution.<br />
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<br />
<b>Vote for Christmas, says controversial new farmer mayor tells turkeys</b><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
‘It took me a while to realise that these kids [who were misbehaving] weren’t trying to make my life miserable- they were trying to make their time go faster. [An] over-reliance on textbooks, worksheets and a diet of disconnected fact and skills had caused them to switch off and act up.’ </blockquote>
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This summarises perhaps his most profound and damaging error: bad behaviour is somehow the fault of the teacher, not the pupil. This may be news to you. It is certainly news to me. When I started, I planned for hours, I endured awful insults and behaviour, I tried games and jokes and VAK activities and everything I could think of and through it all I cared so awfully much about the children that it nearly broke me. I loved them as much as any teacher could; I wanted the world for them. But all of that was dashed against the cliffs of their indifference when they didn’t want to behave. Children are people. They have their own baggage and aspirations and desires and hinterlands. It is rarely the teacher’s fault if they misbehave. Sure, a poorly planned lesson can make things worse- poor pace, badly pitched challenge, confusing tasks etc. But none of that makes anyone misbehave. For the most part children misbehave because it amuses or distracts them. And sometimes there is a deep need or difficulty being expressed, But in a mainstream class, the majority of misbehaviour is intentional and merely mischievous. It doesn’t represent an pathology, and certainly not a pathology of the teacher’s inadequacy as he suggests. This is teacher-blaming, pure and simple. Hoorah for Alfie Kohn- we’re rubbish!<br />
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<b>Down with the evil oppressors </b><br />
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His second complaint revolves around the power dynamics of classrooms:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
‘The other reason I’m concerned is that to say there is a behaviour problem says as much about the speaker as it does about that [behaviour] he or she is observing. When we say there is a behavioural problem with kids, we are taking advantage of the fact that we have more power than they do and we get to focus attention on what the children have done, rather than whether our expectations are reasonable.’</blockquote>
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This is a common theme in his work, and one of the ones I find most problematic. There is a perfectly natural (and very human) tendency to doubt one’s right to direct another. Good; without that reservation we would be unfettered egotists and tyrants. I see many teachers- especially new ones- wracked with this doubt, unable to inhabit the idea that they are needed to guide another’s actions.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A teacher, yesterday</td></tr>
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But direct we must. Only the most naive of educational tourists (and here we do lay our scene) would see the classroom as requiring anything less than structure, common values and shared standards of common conduct. Such things do not develop spontaneously, or unconsciously. Communities do not self-regulate without shared values and behaviour that are often described explicitly. Routines, rules and conventions are the glue that bind society; in fact, they define and embody the society, and its culture. Without rules and conventions, societies cannot endure. History provides us with a neat tableaux of ‘no examples’ of successful societies with no rules, and the enforcement of those rules. Only the most optimistic anarchist believes otherwise, and evidence is not on their side. Nobody sensible would claim that communities can flourish in the absence of direction, authority and boundaries.<br />
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<b>You’re going home in a 21st century ambulance</b><br />
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There isn’t a public space that doesn’t run on the invisible rails of rules. We accept them without a squeak in circumstances where it would be impossible to function without them: swimming pools, libraries, football stadia. Agreed conventions is the difference between a successful traffic system and The Cannonball Run. It doesn’t depend on everyone agreeing to agree- the law is the law. Only in education do we see this odd belief that these rules should be co-constructed, democratic, child-driven, adult-faciltated. Why on earth? The intelligence that lands rockets on comets wasn’t obtained from a vox-pop at circle time. And raising children is far more important than astronomy, so why leave it to children? We guide them towards maturity and autonomy; we don’t boot them over the cliff of responsibility and tell them to grow feathers and start flapping. We don’t ask drivers what side of the road they’d prefer.<br />
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Kohn’s insistence that formal, undemocratic, institutional authority is intrinsically unjust falls short on this very practical principle: that, while all authority can be abused- and we can easily think of multiple examples- the claim that the solution is to divest ourselves of authority, leads to further injustice. Without rules, and some form of leadership, societies descend into quarrels; quarrels provide opportunities for strength and cunning to dominate; and inequity is exacerbated, not ameliorated. Kohn promotes the rudderless classroom, the democratic classroom where children freely choose wisely. I invite him to try this full time with a group of year 9s on a sunny day when a wasp flies in the room.<br />
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These theories are no harmless and abstract hypotheticals; his ideas have impact. Many find solace and comfort in the values that Kohn expounds; many well-meaning educators, eager to multiply liberty, and dignity and agency, are tempted to design classrooms on this model. But the results can be disastrous. Children of lack; children on the fringes of society; children with nothing; children who desperately need the life boat of a free education, as a parachute and safety net, are being deprived of the natural assets of this social contract, and left to heartless fortune. Without safe and calm classrooms, the education of countless children is robbed from them, their opportunities stillborn, never realised, never imagined.<br />
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<b>Punished by Reading these Words</b><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
‘I don't want to send my kids to school where the adults are primarily focussed on mindless obedience. Mindless obedience is not a good thing; it’s merely more convenient for adults…Schools should be looking to create ‘working with’ not 'doing to’ places.’</blockquote>
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Good conduct is much more than convenient; it’s essential, and not just for the teacher, but for the pupils. A well-behaved class spurs everyone on to greater heights. More is possible, better lessons become manageable. This doesn’t have to mean monastic silence, but it does mean a collectively understood appreciation of how they should behave at different times. It’s hard work. But what in life that we value is achieved without effort?<br />
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Picture a football match. Without a shared understanding of what the rules of the game are, the match simply doesn’t exist. When everyone participates, everyone benefits. The rules are not arbitrary, but essential to the practice of the game. And look beyond that, to the terraces. See the thousands of supporters, all bound by rules and regulations that keep them safe. These rules of conduct are not arbitrary, but utilitarian, often moral. And they aren’t decided democratically. The rules are there for everyone’s benefit. There isn’t a huge amount of room for discussion because they’re fairly obvious what they need to be. Extend that to a classroom. I happily- necessarily in fact- take great pains to discuss with pupils why the class needs rules, and what they are, and why. But I waste little time discussing if we should have them or what they should be. I know what they need to be. I’m an adult and a teacher. What can they tell me about it that will surprise, thrill or confound me? The idea that children should co-construct their own boundaries is the most impressive trick the devil ever pulled off.<br />
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Some kids are perfectly conversant what he rules of civil conduct need to be, because they have already absorbed them at home. Other kids aren’t so lucky. Classrooms aren’t democracies, and to pretend otherwise is simply a lie. We don’t take a vote when we’re crossing the road. ‘Who wants to look first, and who wants to run across screaming Moana songs?’ We don’t vote on bed time. We’re adults. And children need us to act like adults.<br />
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The opposite of ‘do as you please’ isn’t ‘Arbeit macht frei’. You can set firm boundaries with love. You can be on their backs 24/7 and still show them you care about their thoughts and efforts. In fact I think its essential to do so. Kohn’s work is full of false binaries and straw men; invented monsters and dummy foes.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
‘This is not about teachers standing back and allowing children to do whatever they want.’</blockquote>
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But that’s where this leads. What happens if they don’t agree that it is rational to be good? What then?<br />
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Kohn say it is ‘breath taking to watch this work in the classroom, with fewer kids playing up, and more pupils authentically engaged in answering questions that are meaningful to them…Most of the time that kids act disrespectfully, its because they don’t feel respected by the teacher.’<br />
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I cannot stress how corrosive this is. I’ve been coaching teachers in challenging schools for almost a decade, and I can assure you that telling them the reason kids are acting up is because they aren’t displaying enough respect is kryptonite to their mental wellbeing. Teachers self immolate in blame games already; they don’t need more reasons to hate themselves. Why do we persist on deifying these false prophets? Why is it that education is the sole sector where we suffer these platitudes, and put them on posters?<br />
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<b>A punch or a pony?</b><br />
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He has a particular bee in his bonnet about sanctions and rewards because they encourage an extrinsic attitude to good behaviour, ie it is only done to avoid penalty or reap reward. But this is a massive oversimplification of how we nudge and encourage people to behave well. We don’t offer children a punch or a pony and ask them to get back to us. We create environments where it become rational to behave well, where the reasons for that behaviour are explicit and students learn to make the right decision. Sometimes that decision is directed by adding some sanctions as a deterrent but that should be accompanied by great teaching, a warm and positive environment, and lots of patient reminders that a) the student is valued and crucially b) so is everyone else.<br />
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The Punch and Judy pinball he describes is a far cry from how most schools actually try to implement sanctions and rewards. Remember that such things include telling a pupil off for racism, taking away their privileges because they bully others etc. And it includes the most powerful reward of all: sincere and proportionate, targeted praise. Are we to avoid all such common and powerful interventions? If so, then Kohn advocates a naive view of human nature that is so fragile as to be ruined by challenge or compliments.<br />
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We don’t only behave because we get a cookie and avoid the cutter. But one of the fastest and most useful ways we can internalise our expectations of conduct is by attaching a pleasant outcome for the agent. Neither altruism nor egoism is our natural or permanent state. We are social animals, but we are also capable of selfishness. The job of an adult, a teacher and a school culture is to tease out the former and redirect the latter.<br />
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He admits his ideas have had a ‘mixed reception.’ Fancy that! I would love children to respond to nothing but encouragement and reason, but their own aptitudes in this area are still developing. This is maturation, the long walk from infancy to adulthood. It is neither easy nor simple, and it is not automatic. It must be assisted, ushered; we are the midwifes and sculptors of that process. We do not wait for David to carve himself from a block of marble. There is no statue until we help to carve it. Of course all children have ‘potential’, but such aphorisms are meaningless. The question is what potential will they realise? And that depends, on a large part, on their sculptors as they get older, until their agency and independence blossoms to such an extent that we can do no more for them.<br />
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<b>Kohnan the Librarian</b><br />
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There is no room for something as impressibly wrong as Kohn’s hot take fairy tales, because children cannot afford them, and children from disadvantaged circumstances especially. This may sound harsh on someone who obviously cares a great deal, but be Kent unmannerly when Lear is mad. These ideas hurt children. They rob them of education by substituting challenging content with self guided strolls through one’s own interests, guided by one’s own horizons. They substitute calm, safe classrooms where dignity, kindness and endeavour are not merely valued but realised, for classrooms where children are left to their own devices, and misbehaviour flourishes in the name of independence. Where the strong willed thrive at the expense of the mild-mannered. I’ve seen classes in challenging schools run on these principles, and they are universally a disaster. I’ve seen classes where children already possessed of enormous cultural capital and self regulation behave well in these circumstances, but they probably would have anyway.<br />
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The schools that need structure most, the children that need and cry out for structure and safety, need help; the need well-designed systems that maximise the common good of all. They need challenge. They need to experience high expectations. They need boundaries, guided and implemented with compassion and a hunger for the real (not merely the perceived) good of each student and staff member. They don’t need these diaphanous platitudes.<br />
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It’s like a blind man describing a burglar. It’s almost as if a couple of years working in a private school may have been insufficient to form a broad enough perspective. So here we are, in a world where a man with no track record of successfully running challenging classes can tell you you’re doing it wrong; where someone who has enjoyed the benefits of an tertiary education that required competitive grade entry tells you that grades don’t matter; where someone with no need and little experience to motivate a room full of hyper year 10s to study trigonometry, tells you that they should be doing as they please. It takes moxie like Cagney to talk like this. Say something like this in a medical school and they’ll throw you out and lock you up. Try it in a faculty of education and they’ll carry you out in a sedan chair. Next week: Douglas Bader teaches tap dance.<br />
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The only punishment here is reading one of Kohn’s books and following its advice; the only reward is putting it down and reading something more useful, like a Spider-man comic.<br />
<br />Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-7702504518644900012018-03-11T14:28:00.002+00:002018-03-11T14:35:21.100+00:00How is the evidence revolution going? Some reflections on 4 years of researchED<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9xj2mGRfBrBof7tLeuRYI407SpcsHD2nqgGfpg0FNFYbW3uJ8QfYeyEvvxPsX9N7okGN9aej8kEwSt6FYBRe6zAUu_ll6mfvbgwgeCEZVJfr_eMuwaA3w03uxvmTFaiVvUqwNWVCw2M4/s1600/images-5+copy.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9xj2mGRfBrBof7tLeuRYI407SpcsHD2nqgGfpg0FNFYbW3uJ8QfYeyEvvxPsX9N7okGN9aej8kEwSt6FYBRe6zAUu_ll6mfvbgwgeCEZVJfr_eMuwaA3w03uxvmTFaiVvUqwNWVCw2M4/s400/images-5+copy.jpeg" width="400" /></a><br />
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<i>At the recent researchED in Haninge Sweden, I closed the conference with a speech that tried to understand where we had got to in evidence informed education, and what the landscape looked like. The following is a summary of that speech:</i><br />
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<br />
<br />
<a href="about:invalid#zClosurez" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/2d036885-79aa-4179-a77f-242105b087c0" /></a>The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, at least it does in education, where we see teaching full of myths, and poorly evidenced practices and strategies. Why have we succumbed so much to Learning Styles and worse, and why have we found ourselves basing our vital practice on gut feelings, hunches and intuition? I think it’s because misconceptions creep into the spaces where:<br />
<ul>
<li>we don’t know much about the topic, </li>
<li>we like the answers junk science provides, or </li>
<li>we’re too busy to find out the facts.</li>
</ul>
How did we get here? Let’s reframe that question. Where did you acquire your ideas about teaching, learning, pedagogy etc? Chances are your answer revolves around: teacher training; memories of your own school experience; your mentor; your early class experiences.<br />
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Up to a point that’s fine. Teaching is to a great extent a craft. But craft without structured evidence to interrogate its biases and misconceptions can lead to folk teaching, where we reproduce the mistakes of our predecessors as easily as we do their successes.<br />
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So what? Because merely ‘folk teaching’ leaves us at the mercy of snake oil, fads, fashions, ideology, bias. We can think of an ocean of cargo cult voodoo that often dominated educational discourse in the past: Shift Happens; TED talks; the great Interactive Whiteboard con; most links you see shared on Facebook. We recall the training days hosted by inexpert experts; the books by charismatic gurus; the often quoted rentagobs that fill TV, radio and print who seem to know so much about classrooms despite never having worked in one, know nothings, elevated by other know nothings.<br />
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In this landscape, discussions about teaching becomes a battle of prejudices- Pokemon debates where we simply hurl one unprovable claim against another until someone blinks.<br />
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<b>A new hope?</b><br />
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My naive ambition in 2013 when I began researchED was simple: we should lean on evidence where it exists, we should try to become more research literate as a profession, and crucially we should ask for evidence at every turn. That was as far as I had gotten, strategy-wise. But surprisingly, amazingly, researchED took off, despite its lack of blueprint or funding. It was a movement that wanted to happen, and we started to respond to demand by hosting events across the UK and quickly, around the world. Since then we have been to 9 countries, 4 continents, and seen 15,000 unique visitors to our events. researchED has 22,000 followers on twitter, and we have been graced with 1000 speakers, none of whom are paid. It is a humbling testimony to what can be achieved for next to nothing if love and altruism and mutual benefit are all you want to achieve. And it reminds me of the best in people, always.<br />
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<b>The dangers of research</b><br />
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<a href="about:invalid#zClosurez" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/d0fee576-789d-49ce-a15c-2f6cdbb47eea" /></a>But it is important to always retain a sense a caution alongside the enthusiasm. The sleep of reason produces monsters, even with good intentions. There have been some reasonable responses and criticisms of this new age of evidence enquiry:<br />
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<b>I’m busy</b>- Good point. Teachers rarely have the time to read research, practice it, translate it. Which is why I rarely recommend teachers become researchers. Often, in-class research is of little use anyway. Research takes time and training. I want teachers to be bad researchers about as much as I want researchers to pretend they are teachers. So we need to become more evidence facing collectively, in partnership with other institutions.<br />
<b>You don’t need to know anything at all about research to be a good teacher.</b> Also true. But we now live in an ecosystem where we need to be able to respond to people who claim evidence is on their side.<br />
<b>Research can prove anything you want to.</b> No it can’t. Not all research is equal; there is worse evidence and better evidence, and discerning which is which is heart of the task we face.<br />
<b>Teaching is practical, research is abstract/ Teaching isn’t a science:</b> no indeed, not entirely. But it isn’t wholly an art form either. It is amenable to structured investigation. It works in the material as well as the mental world. There are many aspects of it which can, must be analysed<br />
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<b>Less reasonable responses:</b> you must be funded by HYDRA; this is a neoliberal conspiracy; evidence is just another way to deprofessionalise teachers/ make them robots. At these I can only roll my eyes so hard they threaten to detach from their nervous tethers. Customers of tin-foil milliners will believe what they choose despite an absence of any evidence because they want to. No one makes a button from this, and no one funds it with any control. No one gets a say about speakers or content, and we are guided by the desire to seek the truth and fuelled by altruism. Strangely, I see popular snake oil salespeople paid for by Unilever and governments who escape this approbation, often because what they say pleases the conspiracists. Fancy that!<br />
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<b>Evidence in the wild</b><br />
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Bad research- the ‘not even wrong’ categories like Learning Styles- aren’t the only problem. What happens to evidence in the wild is crucial. One thing this has taught me is that high quality research is, by itself not enough. If it doesn’t reach the classroom in a useful state then it may as well not have happened. And often good research gets lost in translation. I call this the Magic Mirror. Sometimes research goes through the mirror and schools turn it into something else. Research translation is as important as research generation. Poor old Assessment for Learning drops into the Black Box and becomes levelled homework and termly tests, weird mutant versions of what it was meant to be. And some research is simply misunderstood: project based learning, homework, collaborative learning all have utility in the right contexts. But how many teachers know the nuance of their evidence bases? Homework , for example, has variable utility depending on circumstances. Grasping the when and the how of ‘what works’ is essential, otherwise we over simplify.<br />
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<b>A brave new world that hath such teachers in it</b><br />
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I think researchED is a symptom of a new age of evidence interest. Perhaps also a catalyst- one of many that now exist, from the Deans for Impact to the Learning Scientists to the Five for Five program and many more. This is indicative of an appetite that was always there. We now host more conferences, visit more countries every year. We have more first timers, both attendees and speakers. Like the can of worms opened, the worms cannot now go back in the can. This car has no reverse gear. Successful innovations, once perceived, cannot be unseen.<br />
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<b>Policy makers</b><br />
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I once asked Tony Blair what research he relied on when making education decisions. He replied that there ‘wasn’t any useful evidence at the time.’ This attitude still dominates the biggest lever-pullers. We still see at a policy level multiple factors driving decisions away from evidence bases:<br />
<ul>
<li>Budgets</li>
<li>Policy/ ministerial churn</li>
<li>Lack of insider representation</li>
<li>Reliance on personal experiences</li>
</ul>
But the more the profession talks the language of evidence, the more they will have to listen to it. And I have always believed that we should reward policy makers when they participate in evidence driven discussions. That’s why I’m proud we try to engage rather than barrack our political representatives. And why every year we invite minsters of every party to our party.<br />
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<b>Schools</b><br />
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Leadership is still the biggest lever in driving evidence adoption. One evidence literate school leader cascades far more than one teacher. Some schools are now embracing the research lead role, and devoting staff resources to this area. There is a moral and a practical duty for leadership to attend to evidence, because an era of dwindling resources demands better, more efficient decisions- less waste, more impact, from training to workload to tech. Let us abandon the days we tried to buy our way out of our problems, as if a chequebook was a magic lamp. And I sometimes wonder if raising budgets isn’t by itself insufficient, because what we do with the money we have is more important than the act of sending it unwisely.<br />
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In the absence of a coherent, evidence informed system it is necessary for teachers to drive their own research articulacy. It is necessary. Teachers should not be pseudo-researchers, but they should become literate; share, disseminate and interpret high quality research, and help us to develop a herd immunity, where enough of us are learned enough to recognise the zombie learning and junk pedagogy when it rises- as it always does- from the grave.<br />
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<b>Embrace ambiguity</b><br />
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We have one more duty to observe. Teachers must become active participants in the research ecosystem rather than massive recipients. But teaching is driven by practice, and the data is more subtle than we suspect. We often seek definite answers where none exist. Research often unpacks ambiguity, and we need to embrace nuance, uncertainty and probability rather than dress high quality research up as eternal and immutable fact. We should avoid universals and certainty- and seek always remember that context is frequently king. Otherwise we perpetuate dogma, and become that which we seek to surpass.<br />
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<b>The Gate Keepers </b><br />
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<a href="about:invalid#zClosurez" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/b28d45a7-a52c-4fdb-b678-5dd22a5423af" /></a>One thing I didn’t expect- but should have- is that the existing system objects to its own reinvention. Whenever power shifts, former custodians of power seek to preserve privilege, and this new age of evidence adoption has frequently been dismissed by some academics, some education faculties, commercial interests, some teaching bodies. But the habit of command dies slowly. Education has relied on arguments from authority for decades. Evidence challenges their dominance like mystics challenge the Church. I have faith that evidence and truth will win, but it will not be because it was easy. Arguments must be made; evidence bases must be made transparent.<br />
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<b>Evidence doesn't obliterate professionalism it liberates it. </b><br />
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We enter a new age of evidence. Once seen it cannot be unseen, and science cannot be uninvented, although ideas can change. Fears that evidence makes us slaves to research are no more rational than the fear that understanding how to cook makes you a worse chef. It empowers. If you object to where evidence takes us, then find better evidence. Otherwise, ask yourself if your opinion is dogma, or something more animates your objections.<br />
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Caveat Emptor. In a complex field we need interpreters and brokers of research, but we must also take care not to create a new priesthood- the neo-Shamans of evidence, who act as irrefutable guardians of divine truth. The OECD, for example, in some ways has become the new international inspectorate, blessing or banishing entire countries on the basis of their data. Is this healthy? I don’t think so. Beware also the New Generation of Consultants selling ‘Snake Oil 2.0’ who have updated their absurdities by simply stapling the phrase ‘evidence based’ onto their bags of magic beans. And don’t think I’m ignoring the danger of researchED succumbing to this, like mortal ring bearers corrupted by Sauron. Which is why we curate events to include challenge and debate, like the grit in the oyster that helps to make the pearl.<br />
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<b>The future</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtebZDAUamDNWKpsd4nIejDyI8A_-knGodXmu8omRbl-AwNP3RjeFZ3x7mBZ4q1zxnU-sJD8AfHTW1LeAClgP_-kqIvLjWpUaPR1Q3FMOg1Zn_-Xv6uJ9_B-FZ-krhhl9qM68MFTvHGEI/s1600/personal-network-online.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtebZDAUamDNWKpsd4nIejDyI8A_-knGodXmu8omRbl-AwNP3RjeFZ3x7mBZ4q1zxnU-sJD8AfHTW1LeAClgP_-kqIvLjWpUaPR1Q3FMOg1Zn_-Xv6uJ9_B-FZ-krhhl9qM68MFTvHGEI/s320/personal-network-online.jpg" width="320" /></a>We begin to see new models of professional groupings emerge- digital collaborations, conference communities that no longer require permission to exist, and precious little capital. Self propelled, self sustaining, self regulating, they exist only as long as people want to go. These fluid, accessible, dynamic, virtual colleges are needed until they are no longer needed because the profession will have reinvented itself. We’re not there yet. Which is why we commit to cheap, accessible events that are democratic, inclusive and most of all, directed at discovering what works- and when, and why, and how.<br />
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My ambition is that we start to drive this voluntary professional development, which then cascades back into schools and starts conversations that starts sparks in classrooms that catch fire and burn down dogma. That initial teacher training makes evidence its foundation (where it does not do so already), platforming the best of what we know rather than perpetuating the best of what we prefer. For new teachers to be given skills to discern good evidence from bad. For that to bleed eventually into leadership and from there into the structures that govern us.<br />
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I’m reminded of the story about the eternal battle between darkness and light in the night sky. A pessimist could look up and think that darkness was nearly everywhere. But the optimist doesn’t see that. The optimist knows that, once there was only darkness.<br />
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If you ask me, the light’s winning.<br />
<br />Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-74462710782897608992017-12-23T13:55:00.000+00:002017-12-23T14:01:47.211+00:00It's still a wonderful job- because teaching saved me<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It’s <i>still</i> a wonderful job</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Nb: this is an edited version of a previously published post</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO3yRszFFCxVSrYPZdGEWi0ccTdyjigAduaGwLdm33V_9n-qHCmciKPeMnPmDblEwoNR3dFb7PG7tnuz6kvnkzm2CBNHBl3hR3Zk4lAJeiblZ9bOlDmhwYCGoqBMHnLk-KVnOUl09tmzM/s1600/hoooray.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO3yRszFFCxVSrYPZdGEWi0ccTdyjigAduaGwLdm33V_9n-qHCmciKPeMnPmDblEwoNR3dFb7PG7tnuz6kvnkzm2CBNHBl3hR3Zk4lAJeiblZ9bOlDmhwYCGoqBMHnLk-KVnOUl09tmzM/s400/hoooray.png" width="400" /></a>I usually have a Christmas ritual: I republish a post I wrote a few years ago called ‘It’s a wonderful job.’ It was a Winter rumination about why teaching was still one of the best jobs you could do, despite the aggro and the paperwork and rats carrying lasers*. It was a sentimental meditation, me on my rocking chair smoking a pipe and chuckling as I read Christmas cards from cherubic children. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Love, Actually says at Christmas you have to tell the truth. This year it would feel insincere to regurgitate so straightforward a love letter to the profession- mainly because since September last year I’m not teaching. Four years ago I started researchED as a kitchen table project, and I ran it on top of full time teaching for 18 months until the banjo string of my psyche threatened to snap. So I went part time. researchED grew and grew, more and more conferences in more and more countries and continents, but my kitchen table stayed the same size and once again my head started to feel like the Jumanji box. Nikki Morgan asked me to lead a behaviour review. The day stubbornly refused to expand past 24 hours. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I knew something had to give when I returned from researchED Melbourne, stepped off the plane at Heathrow and cabbed it to school for my period one class in Dagenham like Act Three of a Richard Curtis caper. I’m amazed by how much you can achieve when you really boot it, but there comes a point when you’re spreading your jam too thin and all you can taste is toast (which is what I was rapidly becoming- last year, after 3 years of researchEDing, I hit a wall, and a virus robbed me of the use of my hands for a few days- exacerbated, I was told by a specialist, by overwork. Who knew?)<o:p></o:p></div>
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So I made a decision to reign in the breadth and focus on doing less things better. It was undoubtedly the right thing to do, the sensible thing and already I’ve been able to bring in another behaviour report, and rebuild researchED in many ways- out notably by launching researched magazine in March 2018.... I have a lot to be grateful for. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So why do I still miss it? Why is there this phantom limb of a job that I have to remind myself I no longer do? That’s easy to answer. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH94AEv8_fKBn-xU7G4CEyhYlBh_fGVdamNh8sYD49kKaxYEepxF6uTW8rqU8cqGH1bYipwVGYAojjWRmHqsfE9PNDm_fUFDeFVrAvVA9Kma2v0yMhwASHwxiyEzgKN_QzChHRjOiFtlo/s1600/jimmy_stewart_in_its_a_wonderful_life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH94AEv8_fKBn-xU7G4CEyhYlBh_fGVdamNh8sYD49kKaxYEepxF6uTW8rqU8cqGH1bYipwVGYAojjWRmHqsfE9PNDm_fUFDeFVrAvVA9Kma2v0yMhwASHwxiyEzgKN_QzChHRjOiFtlo/s320/jimmy_stewart_in_its_a_wonderful_life.jpg" width="320" /></a>Teaching saved me. I don’t exaggerate. I changed careers late- from running night clubs to student whispering at 30. I had lost my way so comprehensively in my 20s that I no longer even conceived of a straight path through the crooked places in which I worked. Never underestimate the damnably slow dissolution by attrition that desperation and lack of purpose can have on a busy mind. Waking up every day with the feeling that there was something I was supposed to be doing, but undone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As Henry David Thoreau is often misquoted, ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and die with their song still inside them.’ That echoes. So does Chandler with his ‘Somebody get me off this frozen star.’ Through no one’s fault but my own, and squandering my launch pad of good schooling and family, I meandered for so long I ended up barely managing; existing, not living. I do not believe this to be uncommon. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Now I have a purpose HO HO HO</b></div>
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And then came teaching. It was as if, undeserved, Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket had landed on my mat. Suddenly, meaning, purpose, challenge and the chance to serve an end greater than oneself. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs lit up for me like a fairground try-your-strength hit by a giant’s mallet. The job was maddening at first, and so hard it nearly broke me. But giving up was inconceivable, because I was home, doing the thing I knew I should have been doing. The universe is indifferent to our petty melodrama, but if it wasn’t I would say that I was where the universe needed me to be- and when. I claim no expertise or proficiency, just the intuitive certainty of being in the right place at the right time, like John McClane’s luckier cousin.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And I’ve never doubted that. Life’s aim isn’t to be happy- heroin will serve just as well- but to flourish, as the Greeks would put it; to be usefully engaged with integrity, and fulfil your own conception of destiny in a community. Teaching frequently made me unhappy, with its turbulence and drudgery and melodrama, but it fed a hunger that could be sated in no other way. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And it is a hard job. Too many teachers still steer with difficulty past the gnashing, clashing Scylla and Charybdises of difficult behaviour and the Sisyphean problem of workload. Policy churn, syllabuses that strobe past in succession, gimmick-learning, illiteracy…the list of bear traps and pitfalls to the perfect classroom can be summoned in an instant. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4iQhuX_rnHxuK9kTH7VHt2ezf2h7rVvYZH5yvryV7KqBAag4MqTmK4Tw35gadmBeJP-0ukAuDBzXKdKQnpU7_RS4YUTDJzfgkjNIqw5Kbm2pQePYQymfOn3LW-jxugP252NwuZFKQEqM/s1600/love-actually-5_758_426_81_s_c1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4iQhuX_rnHxuK9kTH7VHt2ezf2h7rVvYZH5yvryV7KqBAag4MqTmK4Tw35gadmBeJP-0ukAuDBzXKdKQnpU7_RS4YUTDJzfgkjNIqw5Kbm2pQePYQymfOn3LW-jxugP252NwuZFKQEqM/s320/love-actually-5_758_426_81_s_c1.jpg" width="320" /></a>But it is still a wonderful job. There are few other roles where you can intersect so meaningfully with another’s life; where you can be a small but significant link in a chain that leads to the benefit of others. Where you can give them a gift that really does go on forever, that never runs out, never needs new batteries, and can’t be returned: an education. To some children it can seem like finding a tangerine in their stocking, but it’s not: it’s stardust. Where else can you help children become adults, and students become scholars? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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I said this in my previous blog post:<o:p></o:p></div>
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‘…. It isn't a job where you punch out at five o'clock; this is a vocation, like the priesthood or the circus. You have to love your subject, love working with kids, and love teaching them. If you don't, you won't ever be truly happy doing it. But if you do, then diamonds and rubies. <o:p></o:p></div>
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You might never transform every child's life, but that's not the benchmark of good teaching. You do your best, and you give them the best damn education you can. You provide them with safety, support, and discipline and tough love. You do your best. And mark this: your best will not always be enough and you will fail, and children will pass through your care and fall off the map, seemingly no better for having encountered you. But many of them <i>will </i>be helped, and some of them will be helped a lot. We play the odds. We play a long game.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXSoEKKn9SBqGSVWf_o81cgflN3SbP-U3ElejgM4WIAaVf0gZwm5lJ-jyU6w29j0Q1OmIIsTMhr2wccvMu4CVy5-gB5e18P9ALa49OnDS7Mx5qF2pJqUz2H9RlmR3_buA5e0rm4MHJBp8/s1600/george-1024x535.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXSoEKKn9SBqGSVWf_o81cgflN3SbP-U3ElejgM4WIAaVf0gZwm5lJ-jyU6w29j0Q1OmIIsTMhr2wccvMu4CVy5-gB5e18P9ALa49OnDS7Mx5qF2pJqUz2H9RlmR3_buA5e0rm4MHJBp8/s320/george-1024x535.png" width="320" /></a>…As supporting characters in the melodramas of the lives of others, we are required to ask one simple question: do we want to help, or harm? Everything else follows from that. Like George Bailey after his illumination, I am grateful every day for the chance to play the smallest part in the lives of other humans. That, dear friends, is why… I feel like running down the High Street of Anytown, America, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and laughing in the face of Mr Potter.’<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Come in, and know me better</b></div>
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I don’t know if I’m on a sabbatical or a one way night flight to Venus, never to know staff party and dinner queues again. But education gets in your blood; that’s why you see so many families with three generations or more of teachers. Scientists in the future will probably discover a gene. Right now I think I’m where the Universe needs me to be. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And the universe needs a lot more teachers far better than I to fill the gap and more besides. Retention is in a mess, and it won’t get any better if the only message people hear is how difficult it is. I mean, it is, and these things need to be said often and loudly without restraint. But these violent delights have violent ends. It has become dangerously fashionable to forget that, amongst the struggle and the strife in the classroom, it really, really is a wonderful job too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Merry Christmas, actually. <o:p></o:p></div>
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(*Is that just me?)</div>
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Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-83565517994619297992017-11-23T14:42:00.000+00:002017-11-27T04:36:22.614+00:00Evidence-based education is dead- long live evidence-informed education: Thoughts on Dylan Wiliam<div class="blogHeader clearfix" style="background-color: #efefef; display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 10px; width: 500px;">
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<span style="color: #52515c; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small; font-weight: 400;">The following blog post was first featured</span><span style="color: #52515c; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #52515c; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">on the TES website in April 2015. Unfortunately due to a technical problem, it </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">didn't</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> survive an update. I've tracked and captured it using a site that archives web page snapshots, in response to several requests from </span></span></span><span style="color: #52515c; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">people who wanted to link to it in their own writing. I present it here, exactly as it was, so please bear in mind the context of the time in which it was written.</span></span></h2>
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Evidence-based education is dead — long live evidence-informed education: Thoughts on Dylan Wiliam</h2>
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<span class="threadList-details-author-created-by" style="color: #878691; font-style: italic;">Created by: </span><span class="user-name" style="font-size: 12px; padding-top: 0px !important; position: relative !important;"><a class="internal-link view-user-profile" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150720123628/https://community.tes.co.uk/members/Tom_5F00_Bennett/default.aspx" style="color: #6caa6b; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Tom_Bennett </a></span><span class="threadList-details-author-date" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 11px; padding: 0px 3px;">11-4-2015 </span><span class="threadList-details-bullet" style="font-size: 15px; padding: 1px;">• </span><span class="threadList-details-author-date" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 11px; padding: 0px 3px;">13:59</span></div>
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<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150720123628/http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Education/Pix/pictures/2011/1/13/1294933768480/Dylan-Wiliam-believes-tea-007.jpg" style="color: #6caa6b; max-width: 500px !important; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><img alt=" " border="0" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150720123628im_/http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Education/Pix/pictures/2011/1/13/1294933768480/Dylan-Wiliam-believes-tea-007.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto !important; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;" /></a></div>
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Dylan Wiliam, high priest of black boxes and emeritus professor at the Institute of Education, says in this week’s <em>TES</em> that teaching cannot, will never be a research-based, or research-led profession. And he’s absolutely right.</div>
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Given that he’s the one of the handful of educational researchers that many teachers could name, and I happen to run researchED, education’s grooviest new hipster/nerd movement, this may appear to be the greatest act of turkeys voting for Christmas imaginable. Let me scrape the cranberry off my wings and I’ll describe why Wiliam is spot on, in a way that needs to be repeated often and loudly.</div>
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Education won’t be cured by research alone, nor should we expect it to. BUT HANG ON,TOM I see you type with the caps lock on, ISN’T researchED ALL ABOUT THAT? No, and it never was. Funnily enough, most people forget that my experience of research was initially almost entirely negative; I’d swallowed so much snake oil in VAK and similar that I retched my rage into a book, <em>Teacher Proof,</em> in which I flicked Vs at most of what I’d been told solemnly was gospel.</div>
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It was only through my work with researchED, and reaching into the research ecosystem, that I got a fairer picture of what was really going on: good, bad and ugly research papers flying around in a tornado, like a library with no index. Quality was no guarantee of status. I saw a huge opportunity for teachers, researchers, and every other inhabitant of the research ecosystem to talk and listen to each other. ResearchED was born, and it’s what I’ve tried to do since: raise research literacy in the teaching profession, promote conversations between communities, cast out the bad, encourage the good.</div>
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And Dylan Wiliam has been an important part of that conversation. Here’s my summary of what he said in this week’s TES, and why he was right to say it:</div>
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<strong>1. Research can’t tell you what could be</strong></div>
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Wiliam uses grouping by ability as an example. Research seems to indicate that this "produces gains for high achievers at the expense of losses for low achievers". In other words, it helps one group to the detriment of another. So, for many, this means they should stop setting or streaming. But what this doesn't tell us, Wiliam points out, is why this happens, or ways in which grouping by ability might produce more desirable results. Top sets are often assigned strong teachers, or more senior teachers, which could explain the outcome gap. I remember taking a bottom set through GCSE for two years; normally I was assigned the top sets. At the end of the two years I had (on paper, that most chameleon of awards) value-added scores through the roof. That’s because it’s a lot easier to get a kid from a U to a F than it is to turn an A into an A*. So setting has hidden issues that are only apparent at a classroom and school level. Maybe grouping by ability can work, maybe it can’t. It depends on context.</div>
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One significant issue is that studies of human behaviour such as the Education Endowment Foundation Teaching and Learning Toolkit, requires an enormous amount of contextual nuance in order to appreciate what it is really telling us. Large randomised controlled trials, huge metastudies, are extremely useful ways of finding things out, but they have equally large limitations. They can, if taken at headline value, conceal huge amounts of detail, buried on page 2, 3 and beyond. According to the Toolkit, Teaching Assistants are an expensive intervention to make for children, with low or limited impact. Because of that, may schools have simply dropped TAs from their staff cohort, as if the matter were settled. But we all know TAs who have transformed the learning of children, even if taken as a cohort their impact is averaged out to a low value.</div>
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These studies can tell us the big picture of what is happening, but they often fail to suggest why, or in what conditions and contexts valuable results are obtained. In short, they can’t tell us if this precise TA will have an impact on that class, or child. As Wiliam mentions, this is because such studies frequently fail to take into account the relationship between pupil and educator. Interventions aren’t aspirins; they occur between people, and forgetting that the relationship between people is fundamental to the outcomes of the intervention is as shortsighted as assuming that two people will fall in love because they're available and fertile.</div>
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<strong>2. Research is rarely clear enough by itself to guide action</strong></div>
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Wiliam talks about feedback (maybe you heard of Assessment for Learning? He might have had a hand in that…). Feedback, broadly speaking, has a positive correlation with improved learning outcomes. But any kind of feedback? And how does that feedback land with the student? Telling a child who hates you they’ve done well with their use of metaphor might well discourage them from using it again. Telling a child who hates public praise that they’re the cream in your assessment coffee could lead to unexpected results. How you give feedback, and the relationship between the feeder and the fed is crucial. But most studies of feedback simply look at feedback as a collective entity, a solid and coherent intervention.</div>
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The headline of this piece is correct, but needs unpacking: it’s deluded to expect research to form the basis of teaching; it isn’t deluded to use it to improve the practice of education. For a start Wiliam would be talking himself out of a job. He even closes the third act of his piece with, "So how do we build expertise in teachers? Research on expertise in general indicates that it is the result of at least ten years of deliberate practice…"</div>
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Teachers should be rightly suspicious when they’re told ‘research proves’. In order to do that, it’s necessary for a significant portion of the teaching community to be reasonably research literate <span style="max-width: 500px !important;">— </span>enough to generate a form of herd immunity <span style="max-width: 500px !important;">—</span> both in content and methodology. Then, they can reach out to and engage with research which can assist their decision making. I say ‘assist’ carefully.</div>
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That doesn’t mean make their decisions for them; that doesn’t mean it’s a trump card. Teachers need to interact with what the best evidence is saying and translate it through the lens of their experience. If it concurs, then that itself is significant. If it clashes, then that’s an interesting launch platform for a conversation. Teaching is not, and can never be a research-based, or research-led profession. Research can’t tell us what the right questions to ask are, nor can it authoritatively speak for all circumstances and contexts. That’s what human judgment, nous and professional, collective wisdom is for. But it can act as a commentary to what we do. It can expose flaws in our own biases. It can reveal possible prejudices and dogma in our thinking and methods. It can assist bringing together the shared wisdom of the teaching community. It can act a commentary to what we do. It can and should be nothing less than the attempt to systematically approach what we know about education, and understand it in a structured way.</div>
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Teaching can <span style="max-width: 500px !important;">— </span>and needs to be <span style="max-width: 500px !important;">—</span> research informed, possibly research augmented. The craft, the art of it, is at the heart of it. Working out what works also means working out what we mean by ‘works’, and where science, heart and wisdom overlap and where they don’t.</div>
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Evidence-based education is dead. Let us never speak of it again.</div>
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Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-77225772494066941622017-10-02T16:38:00.001+01:002017-10-02T16:38:13.125+01:00Better behaviour benefits everyone. Why inclusion is good for all<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaAnfb6rBObWUuCWGkkrC6Y7oAJqwpTt4TyEQmEWefgnY8leUfN4_60Iu8XRXuhsDl4-pyXHYdkv9pHLXfObxXOeNRU3Ia931gwEM0jYOauJzSsY60IPeZjfQlk9nt2vgA1hJ5TWI9v_Y/s1600/johnson-169hero-effectivelearn-shutterstock_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaAnfb6rBObWUuCWGkkrC6Y7oAJqwpTt4TyEQmEWefgnY8leUfN4_60Iu8XRXuhsDl4-pyXHYdkv9pHLXfObxXOeNRU3Ia931gwEM0jYOauJzSsY60IPeZjfQlk9nt2vgA1hJ5TWI9v_Y/s640/johnson-169hero-effectivelearn-shutterstock_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Last March the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/behaviour-in-schools" target="_blank">DfE published my behaviour report ‘Creating a Culture’ </a>in which I outlined some of the strategies most commonly found to be effective by schools that had managed to achieve fantastic behaviour despite difficult circumstances.<br />
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There were many common themes (because all students are humans, with human capacities, appetites and reactions) many different ways these themes were achieved (because context matters, and few things in human behaviour are universal). Detail matters.<br />
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One of the most commonly encountered strategies was the use of well-described routines, defined, embedded and maintained by an alert and consistent staff, and self-sustained by the community of students. For routines to work, they have to be consistent. There need to be understood exceptions, and exceptions need to be exceptional, rational and coherent with the culture. Laws are laws but without room for wise interpretation they become prisons rather than climbing frames.<br />
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<b>Elitist or Inclusive?</b><br />
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One of the most common worries people have is the fear that such environments aren’t inclusive. That they, by their nature, exclude pupils with special needs, vulnerable pupils, and those facing intrinsic and extrinsic challenges, from trauma to dyslexia.<br />
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It’s a reasonable fear- after all, if a behaviour system aims to high expectations for all, what happens when some can't reach as far? And if a system’s only response to failure to reach those expectations is a process of escalating sanctions leading to a terminal evacuation, don’t such practises inherently lean towards expulsions and the marginalisation of already marginalised children?<br />
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Thankfully, these fears are only realised if these systems are run badly, with no care for detail, context or nuance. I was inspired by a comment made by John d’Abbro, head of New Rush Hall, a special school in Ilford, Essex:<br />
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Good behaviour management is the same in special schools as it is in mainstream- high expectations, routines, consequences, and showing the kids you give a damn.</blockquote>
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And that’s what we found. The fundamentals of a well-run school:<br />
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A) Apply as much to alternative provision as mainstream schools/ students<br />
B) Benefit all students e.g. through structure, routine<br />
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These fundamentals include:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Embedding social norms, such as values of compassion or politeness</li>
<li>High expectations that demonstrate the faith the school has in every pupil</li>
<li>Routines that scaffold useful behaviour aimed at cooperation and mutual collective and individual benefit</li>
<li>Unconditional professional regard for the well being and potential of every student</li>
</ul>
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Structure is perhaps one of the most important aspects that a school can most obviously attend to. Because structure benefits all pupils, those with special needs and those without. But structure also disproportionately benefits the most vulnerable and in need: looked after pupils, in the care of the state; students with learning difficulties, autism; the least able; the socially dislocated; refugees.<br />
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<b>The School as an Ark</b><br />
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Well-structured schools are also an Ark: a safe haven from otherwise turbulent and difficult circumstances. This is because:<br />
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•School can provide structure that may be absent in other aspects of their lives<br />
•It may be the safest, most stable place they know<br />
•Well-structured schools minimise bullying<br />
•Signs of mental health issues can be noticed and tackled more easily in quiet, calm spaces<br />
•Calm environments minimise stress, triggers for poor behaviour or trauma<br />
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<b>Plan for behaviour- get in front of it</b><br />
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Charlie Taylor, a former head teacher of The Willows, a school for children with complex behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, said:<br />
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<br />‘Too often school leaders and teachers don’t think about behaviour when it’s good. They only think about it when it’s bad, which is counter-intuitive. When they have not thought about it and planned effectively they are disabled by the behaviour of just a few students. Planning for each individual child is vital especially when setting behaviour goals. Teachers just react to the child’s misbehaviour rather than having planned strategies in place.’ </blockquote>
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He was talking about special provision, but the lesson applies equally to all pupils. It is vital that a school gets in front of behavioural difficulties before they manifest. Nowhere is this more urgently needed than with children with special needs. By the time we react to <i>their</i> reactions, it is often too late to help; we need to help them before they need it, before their needs exceed their capacity to self-regulate.<br />
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<b>But do high expectations exclude rather than include? </b><br />
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Quite the opposite. Because special circumstances deserve special provision, and the wise school care for such contexts. We think nothing of ramp access for students needing wheelchairs; no one is witless enough to query why a paraplegic isn’t running the 400m in PE. Such remedies and accommodations are easily understood. Pupils and sometimes schools struggle with the same reasoning when impairment, disabilities or difficulties are invisible to the eye.<br />
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High expectations are crucial to the teacher/ pupil relationship. This is because:<br />
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<li>High expectations indicate a regard for the dignity of the student, and shows faith in their potential to improve </li>
<li>However, many pupils with SEN suffer from disadvantages the make meeting absolute social norms more difficult than it would be otherwise. </li>
<li>Reasonable accommodations must be made for such pupils. This is not to be seen as a failure of law and structure, but the realisation of it as a lived, organic aspect of a moral culture. Special circumstances demand special responses. </li>
<li>At the same time as these accommodations are made, we scaffold ways to improve; we demonstrate them clearly; we monitor the progress exactly as we would monitor academic progress.</li>
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<b>Responding to challenging behaviour. </b><br />
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At the same time we need to acknowledge that routines and accommodations are not enough; that we need a mature system of responses ready when behaviour falls below our expectation. All schools need a behaviour feedback mechanism, often called a consequence system. But that is what it is- feedback for pupil behaviour. That feedback can be:<br />
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<li>Designed to encourage towards behaviour we would like to see repeated. This is usually interpreted as rewards. The most valuable and available reward is usually sincere, targeted, proportionate praise. Other feedback in this category would be encouragement, verbal or otherwise. Demonstrating a pupil’s efforts as an exemplar to their peer group is often a valuable experience for a pupil. </li>
<li>Designed to discourage. Deterrence is an essential part of managing behaviour. The knowledge that sanctions (for example) are possible is a subtle yet powerful framing device to many people’s actions. Despite our wishes for it to be otherwise, no community can sustain itself for long without a sense that a) boundaries exist and b) consequences are attached to breaking them. Certainty of sanction is far more important than severity. Diminishing gains are achieved by ignoring either side of this maxim. Inconsistency is corrosive to the trust between teacher and student. Learning to trust and rely on a teacher’s integrity and dependability is key to developing that relationship. Exceptions must be allowed, but exceptions must be rational, explicable, and exceptional. </li>
<li>Supportive. Pupils might need help to overcome literacy difficulties, lack of baseline knowledge, conceptual issues with topics, or broader counselling or formal/ informal support with problems at home or their community. These can range from child protection issues, to medical needs, to issues connected to poverty or neglect, deliberate or otherwise. But support need not be aimed at remedying some lack; it can also be nurturing a talent, designing a program for gifted students; developing an interest or study area parallel to the curriculum. </li>
<li>Neutral: sometimes, doing nothing is what is needed most. A pupil on task, working hard, focused on their endeavours, needs to be left to pursue their task to its conclusion. Not acting is itself an action. </li>
</ul>
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Of course, feedback on pupil behaviour can have several simultaneous aims: a pupil can be reprimanded and given remedial lessons on reading comprehension; rewarded and left alone. Learning where and how to blend these responses, in what proportions and intensity or duration, and in what contexts, is a crucial part of developing a professional teacher’s judgement.<br />
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Zero tolerance, or ‘no excuses’ has little place in an effective behaviour culture, because no law is exempt from exception. However we can say that some behaviours are particularly intolerable and should never be permitted: racism, cruelty or abuse, for example. But many rules and routines will have genuine mitigating circumstances, however infrequent. To pre-empt wisdom with blunt certainty is to ignore the complexity of the human sphere. That said, <i>extremely</i> low levels of tolerance should be characteristic of good behaviour systems, and high expectations. Students of all abilities should be encouraged to, where possible, take responsibility for their actions, and learn strategies that help them to flourish as people and scholars. Accommodations must be made for students who are genuinely unable to meet behavioural expectations, for example due to a diagnosed learning difficulty.<br />
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Simultaneously, it must not be assumed that, in the absence of such a diagnosis, a pupil is helpless. Where possible we should encourage pupils to see themselves as having agency in both their personal identity, their immediate sphere, and their lives more broadly. Developing pupil autonomy is a key aspect of nurturing their emergent adult identities, along with appreciating responsibility, being critical consumers of information, and making decisions that will benefit themselves and others.<br />
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<b>True Inclusion</b><br />
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Inclusion does not mean ‘in the classroom at all costs’. Many needs are best met (temporarily or longer-term) outside of the mainstream classroom, where specialist help and feedback can be more easily addressed. This should always aim towards inclusion and re-integration through, e.g. nurture groups, literacy coaching, counselling, transition programs etc.<br />
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<b>Removal from the classroom</b><br />
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This is often necessary when the behaviour of a pupil exceeds the capacity of classroom staff to manage, or when the lesson becomes impossible to deliver due to the disruption of one or several pupils. In this instance removal is a positive strategy, not a failure. However, the following points must be considered carefully:<br />
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<ul>
<li>When pupils are removed from mainstream classes, their reintegration must involve a transition conversation/ activity that sketches what the pupil must do in order to improve, and an understanding of what went wrong previously</li>
<li>Periods out of the classroom must be characterised by meaningful learning activities that are purposeful and designed to facilitate reintegration</li>
<li>Where possible, no ‘holding pens’. Simply removing and returning is highly ineffective. However where the class’s education is being immediately affected, it can be considered temporarily as a stop gap measure. </li>
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With these, and many other strategies and principles, the good of the many and the few can be simultaneously appreciated and improved. Apart from the effort required to implement consistent routines with high expectations that permit reasonable accommodations (and depending on the cohort and their needs it can be a Herculean effort), this is one of the most rational, rewarding investments a teacher or school leader can make in their community.<br />
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Better behaviour benefits everyone. The most vulnerable most of all.<br />
Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-75208176265100030942017-09-13T12:42:00.000+01:002017-09-13T17:03:13.807+01:00Educating Greater Manchester 2: Schools and other families<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There’s a weird thing I hear sometimes from staff in a school. They say, ‘Oh the School should do x,’ or they’ll say in front of a student, ‘This school is rubbish.’ Students have mentioned to me how odd this sounds- as far as they're concerned the teacher IS the school, or a cell in it at least. When you hear this kind of comment, you know that the school identity is fractured.<br />
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I feel a similar way when schools talk about ‘the community’ as if they were some quarantined island, a geosphere hovering above the neighbourhoods. The school student body is overwhelmingly built from the geography of its postcode. The school is part of the community. It can try to put up a drawbridge, but it gets stormed every minute they’re open.<br />
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It’s easy to make the mistake that a school is like a supermarket where the students visit, pick up a bag of trigonometry, and leave. But it’s also an alternate dimension in their lives, that intersects messily with home and friends. And they overlap in turn, back with the school. Like the Observer Effect, it is impossible to observe a particle without affecting it. Like Osmosis, when two cells sit together, they swap matter between them. It’s not only abysses that gaze back at us when we stare. It’s other people.<br />
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I learned a long time ago that when you work with the public, expect them to drag their entire lives into your short relationships; sometimes the angry customer isn’t upset with you, but at the fact their car broke down on the way. Scratch beneath the surface of any group, and a millimetre beneath the surface lie oceans of tragedy and complexity. And how children behave in schools is enormously governed by what lies beneath.<br />
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This week showed that in technicolour. We meet Mia, a 15 year-old looking forward to both her GCSE exams and the birth of a child in the same trimester; Kodie, a school refuser teetering on the edge of dropping out, despite her obvious brains, and Katelyn, a powder keg of emotion, working out, as we all have to, who she is.<br />
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Here we see how a school is- or can be- much more than the supermarket. Mia’s family were visited at home to support where she needed to be. You could see the strain on her mum’s face, determined to make sure her daughter’s life didn't stop because of the baby. Her faith and hope for better things was touching and universal, as was Mia’s sincere and obvious joy at the prospect of being a mother. An imperfect scenario probably, but when does life grant us that luxury? We are where we are. With the school’s help, where Mia was looked a bit brighter.<br />
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Kodie struggled with other demons; loss, bereavement, anger and frustration, which she took out on herself, and her school career. Her grandfather was a living saint, raising her and being the parent she needed. It became apparent that Kodie was much more than the ‘bother’ she appeared to be; that, with support and the nudge early enough, her trajectory could be pointed at the stars instead of the launch pad. Teaching, you see a lot of girls like Kodie who appear, on the surface, to be primarily a strain. But what lies beneath? Potential is a cheap word- we all have potential. But if we all have potential, then schools need to believe in that potential, and help create it, rather than sculpt it from some imaginary clay.<br />
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<b>What is an ecosystem?</b><br />
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And Katelyn, an avatar of anger, bouncing in and out of lessons like a pinball, raging and wailing in quick succession, host to a legion of emotions that she probably can't name or explain herself. When I started teaching I saw that kind of behaviour as nothing but need; it seemed selfish, a parasite on the host of the class, draining my resources from where they needed to be It took me a while to realise that their need was very much my business- as was everyone else’s. That doesn't mean give everything to one at the expense of the many. We have to perform a utilitarian calculus- what can I afford to give to each one? But that is where the greater school community comes in. Teachers cannot manage these situations all by themselves. Often, even the school cannot. But the school as a whole has a greater chance to do so than any one of us. And that’s at the heart of what communities are for.<br />
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No hospital turns away a patient for being ‘too ill.’ Similarly no school should bin a pupil for being too needy. I’ve been privileged to see a lot of schools; the best of them make every effort they can to include those who need us the most. That attitude bleeds into its attitude to all pupils: everyone matters here.<br />
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<b>Love me tender</b><br />
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Of course, resources are finite, and there are a great many arguments in favour of increasing resources: mental health support, behaviour management, conflict resolution, and many more. But schools do what they can, and this school certainly did. Safeguarding teams, home visits, referrals to CAMHS, endless meetings, mentoring, curriculum adjustments, counselling. Schools are villages inside the communities within which they reside. Messy circumstances don't beget easy solutions, but here we saw some of the fruit of their endeavours, slowly slowly sprouting from the ground. Not answers, but the promise of answers; Katelyn responding to Mr Ince’s lessons, Kodie promising to give school ‘one more try’. If you read the press recently and heard about schools that sweep unwelcome students out to protect their exam results you would boil at this complete degradation of the purpose of schools, and education in general. Compare that ghastly project with what Harrop Fold attempt to do here, with what most schools try to do every day of the year.<br />
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Schools do not perform the obvious miracles of the eye surgeon or fire fighter: the blind given sight, the lost soul saved from harm. But we are blessed with the peculiar honour of being a link in the chain of their lives, and sometimes an important one. Often, transformational ones. The catch is that we often never know until years later, which means we often never know. But I know that at the end of this episode at least, Mia gave birth, and eventually went to College. Katelyn went in and out of school, now back, and Kodie got 8 GCSEs. And some of that was down to the school. And that’s not bad.<br />
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<br />Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-39667190004481518822017-09-06T15:46:00.003+01:002017-09-06T15:46:29.553+01:00Educating Manchester 1: Loving the alien<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every successful series has a problem: carry on until everyone hates you (see: <i>24</i>), or leave them panting (see: <i>Mad Men</i>). Remember Happy Days, the once-world-conquering period sitcom that outstayed its welcome, and desperate to keep feeding laxatives to the goose with the golden eggs, wrote the cast into new, odd narratives. Magical midget mojo Love God The Fonz memorably ended up water skiing over a shark, in scenes as far removed from his character's core as Freddy Krueger baking cupcakes in <i>Justin’s House</i>. The phrase ‘jumped the shark’ was born, and has not, as yet, jumped the shark itself. <br />
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So, has the <i>Educating [insert geographical locale]</i> series jumped the shark? Not yet, if this season's opener is anything to go by. Previous series had been entertaining, often moving, but there was a sense that after their spectacular Essex opening act featuring teacher demi gods like the Buddha of empathy Vic Goddard and Stephen Drew, shoeless standards Samurai, subsequent seasons were photocopies of the last one. <i>Yorkshire</i> (when you’ve watched them as closely as I have, you get to dispense with formalities) defined the high tide of the series’ emotional aspirations as it brought us the unforgettable combination of Musharaf, the adorable teenager who could, and his sardonic, witty mentor Mr Burton who helped him start to overcome his stammer. <i>East End </i>and <i>Cardiff</i> were very good teacher telly indeed, but there are only so many times you can watch the Broken Child Healed By Hope (BCHH) without wondering if there were any other stories to tell.<br />
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Thankfully, it feels like- so far- there’s been an attempt to mine more subtle seams. And so they should. There are a thousand pebbles and diamonds in every school, and we need only pick one up and look at it from a new angle. So, what's new?<br />
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<b>Clear off, scumbags</b><br />
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Well, it's geographically accurate this time: Salford is indeed Greater Manchester, although it leads to an lumpy title. Maybe they should have sick with Manchester and just borne the apoplexy of purists on social media.<br />
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But better, this time the series has started to look at something that every school serving pluralistic communities knows too much about: racism. And more: bullying, intolerance, and the often unpleasant views that live a millimetre beneath the skin of many pupils- and sometimes, staff. This was a huge risk for the producers to take, and an even greater one for the school. There is a little to be gained from participating in this fixed-rig circus, and much to lose. Even Goddard, who came out looking like Moses, admitted that there were swings to each roundabout. Add to this gelignite soup the need to safeguard the students, and we have a rhino pogo-sticking blindfolded through a minefield in the DMZ.<br />
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But I think they pulled it off. Migration, integration, and the concomitant possibility of disharmony are the narrative equivalent of playing Operation! drunk. It’s like Eastenders, home to the only East End pub and market where no one uses racist epithets. Maybe understandably. I’ve been to dozens of schools where ethnicity determined community, and worse, defined territory, perceived antagonisms and loyalties. I’ve seen students openly drop racism bombs you hoped had died out with the Doodlebug, and more commonly, heard students unquestioningly trot out the anxieties and callous pieties they could only have learned at their own hearths. I teach Religious Studies and Philosophy so for years I’ve heard pupils express and examine these beliefs, sometimes, openly, sometimes secretly. So I’m not shocked to hear the values and truths pupils often cleave to. I’m just surprised it’s taken so long for TV to get near it.<br />
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We meet Mr Povey, this season’s Head teacher, who looks like a haunted Tom Cruise. Every Educating [x] head has this Cromwellian certainty in their eyes, fathomless ambition and enthusiasm. Which is understandable given how mad you would have to be put your heart’s work under a microscope like this. He drives in (with his bruvvers, no less) to Harrop Fold School which has struggled with debt and achievement issues, but now looks poised to flourish.<br />
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<b>Remember, Vic: you make the weather</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'I feel the need...for GCSEs'</td></tr>
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This week we were introduced to Rani, a boy newly arrived (last term) from Syria with his famly. One can only imagine the desperation that drives a family to leave, possibly forever, from the land of their ancestors. Some kids, when asked what they did last Summer, talk about Thorpe Park and Camber Sands; Rani spoke about seeing guns, violence, explosions every day. And even in his refuge, he had walked into further indignity: bullying, the defining vice of the vicious. We saw Ms Bland, head of student support, trying to mend the brittle shoots of Rani’s embryonic relationships with his aggressors. It’s a delicate, fragile thing to do: over mentor and the boy never grows past his shadow; under support and he's crushed by the combine harvester of cruel circumstance.<br />
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We saw a carousel of talking heads, which I thought was interesting. Some pupils expressed sympathy with their migrant classmates, but it was remarkable how quickly some of their views turned to traditional bogeyman saws like housing, jobs. No kid ever worried immigrants are coming to take their jobs, just grown ups. And of course, every one of those kids had names you could trace back to migration, recent or historical. Not a Pict or Ancient Briton among them.<br />
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One girl even said, kindly, ‘We’re all in the same boat,’ which was sincere and compassionate. But others arrived on entirely different boats, like Murad in year 10, also from Syria. A Kurd from Alleppo, he arrived on a two-hour night raft to Cyrpus. ‘You didn't know if you were going to die,’ he said.<br />
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And the most difficult thing for him that he remembered when he arrived? ‘Bullies’, he said without hesitation. Can you imagine that? After running from Hell and braving a second watery Hell to do so, the thing that stood out the most from his arrival was the ghastly tribalism of people who should have been his neighbours and his hosts. I get a strange feeling of shame when I hear about guests and the newly arrived to these shores encountering random, idiotic cruelties and capriciousness, as if some unspoken law of hospitality had been breached. New additions to our communities deserve better.<br />
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And good schools like Harrop Fold do their best to make that come true. Murad was assigned to Rani as a mentor, and the sincerity of his desire to nurture and protect the wide-eyed new kid was touching. ‘if anyone touch you you tell me, he said, and suddenly Rani had the coolest, tallest bodyguard a boy could with for.<br />
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The school helped even more by putting Rani, not in at the deep end, but through a nurture group for the first few weeks to help him acclimatise. In a scene designed to slay UKIPers everywhere with rage, he even took the class through Salah, the ritual Muslim sequence of prayer. Five years ago that would have been the headline in the tabloids the day after. This time, nothing. Maybe that's progress.<br />
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<b>Meet the Fockers</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jack and Rani: original new crime drama from ITV this autumn</td></tr>
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Then, it was time for him to graduate to mainstream lessons. Would he be ready? Was school ready for him? Happily it was, in no small part due to the superhuman conviviality and congeniality of Jack, an equally tiny avatar of hospitality and welcome. Jack was one of those rare kids who walks towards the lonely, shy, marginalised kid instead of walking away, or worse, walking through him. His persistent, gentle hand of friendship is the stuff Disney films are made of. No wonder the pair of them toured the telly breakfast sofas all last week. And then we saw Rani’s final upgrade: the proof we needed that he was one of the gang and ready for bear: unbidden, he went up to a grimy utility van in the playground and finger painted the word <i>FOCK</i> on the sooty back door panel, like a miniature Stan Boardman. No matter how badly behaved it is, that is never not funny. That broke the dam, and within seconds the van was covered in the ubiquitous cartoon phallus (variant: spurting lava) and every other swear word known to school boy.<br />
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Mr Povey did his nut. Rightly. Life is full of paradoxes. Cartoon knobs and FOCK have a comedy that endures until the stars run cold, <i>and</i> vandalism can’t be tolerated in a civil community. I loved his turmoil spilling out in interview as he acknowledged that he probably did a few like that in his own time, but…That’s the burden of adulthood, alas. You think it’s going to be all staying up late and Christmas Cake for breakfast. Instead you end up telling kids off for writing 'Wash me'.<br />
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And from a behavioural point if view, what he then did was interesting: he shouted for ‘every student who drew on the van’ to turn themselves in. And amazingly about half a dozen did. Now call me an optimist but that's some kind of healthy community he has there if students are so good they’ll 'fess up when they don't have to. Even Rani started to beetle towards the doom of honest boys until his mates- for they were now his mates- stopped him. ‘You didn't even write on it!’ they reasoned, believing themselves as they said it. And Rani learned a lesson about double-think, and getting away with it. He probably deserved it.<br />
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Talking of hositality, Jacks mum seemed as lovely as he was, and in the Salford rain, she invited Rani back for tea at their house. Putting the kettle on might not solve all the world’s problems, but that and a plate of oven chips and pizza appeared to be a good start.<br />
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Hurt is a funny thing; it is oten given without intention through ignorance as much as will. At a support group for EAL students, the calm and kind Murad stormed out when a Polish girl, upon hearing that immigration had taken his fingerprints on arrival, said it was ‘Like a terrorist.' His anger was coming from an angry place- how often had he had to endure insults based on his colour or religion, revolving around such words? Who could blame him for living on a hair trigger? But the girl herself was remorseful, explaining that all she meant was ‘they were treating him like a terrorist.’ Neither of them meant badly, and yet when lives are suffused with mistrust, bullying and victimisation, it is easy for common situations to appear menacing.<br />
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The lesson, I think, from such situations is to acknowledge that meaning well is often not enough; that we need to work hard to consciously avoid walking into such bear traps. But even as adults this is hard. And when worlds collide, as they so frequently do due to war, budget travel, migration, and the goad of survival, it is all we can do to be patient with one another, try to think the best of each other, and to, whenever we can, love our neighbours as ourselves. Even- or especially- when those neighbours are the alien.<br />
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Other Highlights:<br />
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<li>Mr Povey exclaiming 'Sue's Sexy Soup!' in the lunch queue, to no one in particular. </li>
<li>Rani, when asked how long he would be best friends with Jack: 'Until year 11!' he said. So, there you go Jack: binned for A-levels. </li>
<li>Big eyebrows still very much being a thing at the time of filming. Bailey lives, yet. </li>
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A link to my reviews of series 1: Educating Essex can be found at the bottom of this post here: <a href="http://behaviourguru.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/educating-essex-8-parable-of-good.html">http://behaviourguru.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/educating-essex-8-parable-of-good.html</a></div>
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<br />Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-53342830422852319772017-08-19T20:27:00.000+01:002017-08-19T20:31:24.622+01:00False profits, and why representation matters at researchED<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I think it’s important, once in a while, to write about what researchED stands for. It’s important to continually define ourselves, in order not to be misrepresented or misunderstood. Recently some people have asked me where researchED stands on a number of issues, and I am glad to do so.<br />
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One of these is representation at conferences. It shouldn't need saying that conferences should represent the communities they serve; but then, many things that shouldn't need saying do need saying, and if we take them for granted, others will create new, bleaker narratives.<br />
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So, to be carved in the side of the wall:<br />
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<b><i>researchED welcomes submissions from all people regardless of ethnicity, sexuality, or gender. We particularly welcome submissions from under-represented peoples or groups, considering all such submissions equally. In order to redress historical and cultural misrepresentation, I would urge anyone reading this to encourage any members of underrepresented groups who wish to, to send me a session submission. It would help us to improve representation, (and on a personal note I would welcome the expansion of my networks for future conferences). And we will always endeavour to increase our efforts to improve representation as we grow. </i></b></blockquote>
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A shorter versions of this is already to be found on the submission page of the researchED website <a href="https://researched.org.uk/session-proposal/" target="_blank">here</a>, and an expanded update will be added shortly to clarify our position.<br />
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<b>Representation at conferences </b><br />
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I also acknowledge that as a white man working in the education sector, my own immediate networks are overwhelmingly white. This isn't unusual for many; the term sunset segregation was coined to describe the process where people would often learn, work and travel in highly diverse communities, but when it was time to go home, went back to their often very mono-ethnic communities. While this might be a reasonably instinctive phenomenon, I believe it has no place in a formally organised public event, which should be as representative of the communities it serves as possible.<br />
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In the initial year or so of researchED I struggled with breaking past my own immediate networks, and if I’m honest, it probably wasn't as close to the front of my mind as it should have been. In addition there is a problem of representation in the broader educational community (see below). But talking to great educators like Alom Shaha and David McQueen in the UK, and listening to Dr Anthony Dillon and Charlotte Pezaro about this had a significant impact on me, and opened my eyes to the urgency of the matter. At first it was hard to accept that such an obvious thing had been overlooked, however accidentally. Since then it is part of my thinking process for every event, and I’m grateful for the guidance that many people have offered in this matter. I endeavour to do better with each conference as we grow.<br />
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I’m delighted to say that our efforts have borne some fruit. Our national conference has just over 140 speakers and 100 sessions. Over 11% of those sessions are presented by people from BAME communities, which at least begins to approach the <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160106070721/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_407038.pdf" target="_blank">2011 census of 13/14%</a> of the UK population, and higher than BAME <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2016-09-05/shortage-of-black-teachers-data-reveals" target="_blank">representation in teaching posts (7.6%) </a>and far higher than the sadly low <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2016-09-05/shortage-of-black-teachers-data-reveals" target="_blank">3% of BAME representation at leadership level</a>, let alone the terrifying statistic of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/may/27/only-50-black-british-professors" target="_blank">0.4% of UK professor</a> posts. The gender representation is almost exactly 50/50. researchED isn’t entitled to any medals for this- it should be automatic. But importantly, it is something we care deeply about, and every co-organiser I work with will testify that it is a routine agenda item in our every discussion. And I’m delighted that it is.<br />
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<b>Our mission is to break things</b><br />
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researchED delights in debate, changing paradigms, and helping to generate a polite revolution in the classroom. I started it because I believed passionately- and still do- that education needs a revival, if not a reboot. It labours under so many false dogma and uninformed suppositions that in many ways it resembles medicine in the 18th century, when the doctor’s authority was privileged, and his hunch was the final word. Just as medicine finally succumbed to empirical science, so too should education- as an aid to our decisions, not as an authoritarian mosaic tablet. It should intersect with our every action, so that when evidence is available we use it to inform our pedagogy and policy rather than stifle it. Bogus fads like Learning Styles and Brain Gym are the least of it; wild, unchecked pseudoscience abounds, untested, unrestrained. It is still possible for a teacher to be told that group work is the best way for children to learn, without any consideration of when, and where and how it might be applicable. teacher talk is reviled, despite the enormous amount of research that suggests that careful, dialogic teacher talk is one of the most effective ways to convey information that is then retained. There are many more example of such things. None of these matters are settled, but every educator should be entitled to hear the evidence on both sides and make up their minds. on the matter.<br />
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As such, we often provoke strong reactions, particularly from people who might feel their orthodoxies are being challenged. Sometimes this leads to pointless conflict when discussion would be better; to personalised insults rather than ‘let’s talk. researchED is a machine to create change for the better. Change always means knocking a few things over.<br />
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<b>No tolerance for intolerance</b><br />
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But, as Karl Popper wrote in ‘The Open Society and its Enemies, 'As paradoxical as it may seem, defending tolerance requires to not tolerate intolerance.’ It is undesirable for any opinion to be expressed without limitation. This is not to suppress the right to hold unpopular opinions, but to acknowledge that in a pluralistic society, any right can come into conflict with other rights. One things researchED will never tolerate is racism. Specifically (in light of recent discussions) <i>the idea that any ethnicity is in any way inferior to another, morally, genetically or in dignity is both factually false and morally repugnant to the principles of researchED</i>. And I know of no research or evidence that indicates otherwise. As educators, our duty is to remove barriers to achievement, not reinforce them; to liberate rather than collaborate in enslavement,<br />
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There is of course significant evidence of differences in outcomes for different ethnicities: SAT scores, sentence lengths, imprisonment rates, salary outcomes etc. But these raw data point to societal inequity, circumstantial inequalities, and contextual issues, rather than to an intrinsic personal lack. More importantly, it points to areas in which we need to improve; where we need to find the invisible chains that hold certain strata back, and break those chains from here to Kingdom come. That is the duty of the educator, and it is the duty of everyone in education to enable. And it is researchED’s duty. I would not have anyone speak at the conference on the matter if I thought they thought otherwise. Better evidence in these areas can help us to right these wrongs.<br />
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<b>Riches in Heaven</b><br />
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researchED has no staff or significant funding; I started it four years ago on the back of a huge amount of enthusiasm, love and support from many, many people who gave their time freely to help make it happen. Access has always been at the forefront of what we do, and I was determined to make sure that as many people as possible could come. Almost all events are on a Saturday so that employment issues are reduced as a barrier. We run a free creche at the larger events so that parenthood doesn’t prohibit attendance. Most importantly, ticket prices are rock bottom to try to reduce income as a barrier to attendance. Most of our conferences cost around £25 to attend, which includes lunch, coffee and a full program of some of the world’s top voices in education. Most teacher ‘training’ days I see charge upwards of £250-£400 to attend. I wanted to break that mould and make it easy for educators to meet with research generators in useful and symbiotic discussion. I wanted to break down some barriers between those who investigate and those who are investigated.<br />
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To some extent I think we’ve succeeded. In one room you might have a government minister taking questions of the evidence base of their latest policy, and next door there might be a teaching assistant discussing how she launched journal clubs at her school. I love that sense of levelling, of democratic representation that it embodies. It’s just one way that teacher (or educator) voice can be platformed.<br />
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<b>Hail Hydra</b><br />
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One issue we currently face is, ironically, one of too-rapid success. We now run about 15 conferences a year, on three continents in 7 or 8 countries. Our national conference has around 1000 attendees this year. And we still have no staff, no capital. Allegations that we must be secretly funded in some way by shadowy conglomerates and HYDRAs make me sigh, wearily, when I wonder if I can pay my mortgage in three months time. But I love running it too much, and I believe in what researchED stands for too much, to let that be an impediment. As long as I am able I’ll support it. I’m incredibly fortunate to work with a small army of volunteers who give up their spare time to help make it happen, and without them, this wouldn't exist.<br />
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But this incredibly thread-bare model that has somehow, inexplicably worked for the last few years, means that organisationally we lack the capacity to operate in the way that better funded bodies with spare staff do. I work every day of the week, often way after midnight, just to keep up with the admin, and the decision making. I couldn't do it if the reward wasn't immense, but we are still an army of enthusiasts, and while we may look like a large corporation with committees and subcommittees, it is still largely me and a few volunteers stuffing bags on a Friday night. I hope we can be forgiven some of our frailties that we sometimes appear a little rough round the edges.<br />
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<b>False profits of education </b><br />
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There is no profit in researchED, and because I vowed to keep ticket prices low, for the last few years the only way I’ve been able to break even is by accepting sponsorship support from a huge variety of sources. All of our co-sponsors are listed on the website event pages, and they vary from event to event. We’ve been generously supported by a magazine of sources: charities, unions, publishers, research organisations, government institutions…and all with this condition: no one gets a say over who we select to present. We maintain complete editorial and curatorial independence at all of our events. Plus, having so many sponsors means that we experience no financial pressure from any one of them. researchED is driven by moral concerns, not financial ones.<br />
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The great thing about being zero profit is that it means we can keep costs low AND it means that people are far more willing to help out for free, whether by speaking, or running a room, or handing out fliers. It’s been amazing to see what is possible with love, determination, and a sense of achieving a public, common good.<br />
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<b>A tall poppy?</b><br />
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We welcome informed and positive feedback to help us improve, and I'm grateful to many of the people who contacted me recently, most of whom did so in a collegiate and collaborative way. Do other events receive as much scrutiny over this? I don't know. I think if I’m honest I suspect some of the less positive scrutiny is because researchED represents a challenge to the status quo in education. We want to reform education for all children and teachers. We want every child taught in as evidence-informed a manner as possible. That means change from what we do at present; and many do not like change. We also represent an unashamedly empirical attitude in our sessions, and many do not like that either, preferring other approaches. It’s a big world and there are room for lots of kinds of conferences, and I have no objection to any of them existing. But we must allow plurality of viewpoint in the education system.<br />
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And you know who benefits most from working with evidence? Children. And of them, who benefits most? The least advantaged. Those with no second chances, no tutors, no jobs waiting for them in publishing no matter how they do. The children who are poor, marginalised, miles away from the opportunities and privileges of the elite. They are the ones who need this the most. It is our duty to over turn every dogma we have, obtain the best evidence we can, and turn that into rocket fuel for the ones that need it the most. Evidence informed education is the best vehicle for that I can think of.<br />
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And that's what researchED stands for, and continues to stand for, and always will. I hope to see you at a future conference where together we can pull down the moon an inch at a time.<br />
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Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-39852352129217641902017-07-05T00:49:00.001+01:002017-07-05T00:49:38.663+01:00Terra Australis: researchED Melbourne 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Terra Australis</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Australia is an extraordinary place to come, especially if
you’re British. The mixture of instant familiarity (driving on the left as all
civilised peoples do, fried breakfasts, Cockney phonics buried inside carefree New
World idiom) and the novel (dim sum next to baked beans, a menagerie of animals
apparently constructed by God for a dare) creates an uncanny valley. Like you
woke up in an alternate timeline where Britain was at once sunny, healthy and
positive. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Nowhere I this demonstrated more clearly than in that totem
of Terra Australis, the humble Tim Tam. I can summarise it in two words: Aussie
Penguin (the biscuit, not the improbable saviours of zoos’ balance sheets). I
already have orders from three separate people in the UK for boxes of them,
like Antipodean contraband). But it’s a Penguin with an x factor I can’t quite
name. A twist of vanilla perhaps, like someone sent a Penguin through a
teleporter with a 99. And it is very delicious, an Umpty Candy for our age.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Aussie ed reminds me of this. I’ve been fortunate enough to
eke my way across several countries with researchED in my knapsack: Sweden,
Norway, USA, Netherlands, Australia, and next year possibly Ireland, South
Korea, New Zealand- we’re even in talks with schools in the UAE and Spain.
Every time I’m fascinated to discover how education plays out in each
territory. It’s like foreign tongues: the vocabulary and grammar are frequently
alien, but the underlying conventions of language remain. Every country appears
to be wrestling with many of the same devils as every other country.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In some ways, this is unsurprising: the process of educating
children has evolved as a societal necessity, and certain conventions emerge
and converge due to circumstances universal to the human condition: the
classroom, the teacher-expert, the taxonomy of curriculum, testing,
certification, graduation, the lingua franca of instruction. As organisms
evolve circulatory, respiratory, excretory systems in a ticker tape of styles,
education throws up the same issue whether the school bells sounds over Doha or
Dunfermline. Autonomy; selection; instruction and enquiry; whole child or
subject…these and many others are the wrestling rings of debate. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Which is why I’ve found attending researchEDs aboard so
incredibly instructive; the same debates with different accents, angles and
nuance. Educational tourism is of course a dangerous game; often we find that
what propels a perceived outcome (such as literacy or tertiary education
enrolment) can be aligned as much with cultural contextual factors (such as
teacher status, simplicity of language forms, social norms about university) as
with policy levers and school systems. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But if we are careful we can learn from one another. The key
caveat is to remember that correlation is not causation; that constant
conjunction of two factors (such as waking up with a sore head and it being
Saturday morning) may not be causal. So when we visit Singapore, or Finland we
avoid drawing simple inferences about school starting age, bean bags, first
name terms with teachers and wraparound tutoring and classes of 75. Some plants
look beautiful in a jungle, but need imported soil and sunlight to thrive.
British classrooms are not terrariums. Mango trees will not last a winter in
Regent’s Park.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And other flora and fauna will. Look at rabbits, one of many
unwelcome presents the British gifted Australia with. Or Highland cows (Latin:
Heelan’ Coos) that chewed the cud in Mongolia for millennia before they were
kidnapped to Scotland and made to produce toffee for people who couldn’t
otherwise afford tooth extraction. I am fascinated by what we can and cannot
learn from our neighbours, what will and will not take root abroad. There is an
obvious advantage offered here: rather than launch costly (and no doubt
unethical) vast social experiments in different education systems to work out
which ones are most effective, we can just peer over the border and see what
our neighbours are up to. In theory. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I learned a lot (my bar is low, and like a pupil on a G
grade I make fastest progress) from Australia and the two researchEDs we put
together in Melbourne, one at Brighton Grammar School and one in partnership
with the ACE conference. Hundreds of teachers, school leaders, academics,
researchers, and everyone else in between self-assembled to learn from one
another and the fantastic array of speakers who had given their time for free
to talk to their colleagues. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There were too many to mention of thank here, but some
highlights that I managed to get to were:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Professor John Sweller</b>, famous forhis work on Cognitive Load
theory and developing Geary’s idea of Biologically Primary and Secondary Knowledge,
which has proven to be increasingly influential in our understanding of why
some forms of teaching may or may not be more or less effective in different contexts.
His quiet, patient unpacking of his topic contrasted enormously with….<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>John Hattie</b>, who is as close to a rock star in
edu-conferences as you’ll find. I believe he and Dylan Wiliam are opening the Pyramid
stage on Glastonbury next year. His grasp of meta-studies and the energetic,
passionate enthusiasm with which he delivers it, make him one of our best
communicators in education. Inevitably, one so prominent <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>attracts criticism: for the 0.4 hinge effect
size, the nature of meta studies, and so on. But he is undeniably one of our
most important voices in the Great Debate, and rightly feted as a giant in the
canon. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Katie Roberts Hull </b>from Learning First, who talked about Evidence
Based Professional Learning and the implications for effective practice. In many
ways this seemed to echo some of the excellent work done by the Teacher
Development Trust in this field. Her idea that professional learning needs to
be sustained over a long period, and connected to a learning goal, echoed
deeply with me, when I see so much CPD and INSET based on a snapshot model
where teachers spend a day at a Novotel taking away a bag of notes and often
little else. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Tanya Vaughan </b>from Social Ventures Australia, along with
John Bush, was spreading the gospel of the Teaching and Learning Toolkit, and
carefully explaining the significance of the lock, the dollar and the months-progress
ideas. I hope she’s ready for years of people still asking what they mean like
the UK. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Jennifer Buckingham</b> heads up the CIS’s ‘Five for Five
project’, which promotes the five main aspects of reading instruction that
comprise our best evidenced practice. The resistance to this internationally is
extraordinary, and even more extraordinary when you consider the enormous evidence
in its favour. It’s a Sisyphean task at times, but when literacy is at stake, a
vital one, and people like Jennifer are goddamn heroes for batting on their
behalf against the snake oil dingos. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Greg Ashman</b>. Australia’s deadpan knight errant, and for my
money one of the best bloggers writing about education in the game. Prolific,
spiky and usually dead on. He’s one of my must-follows for anyone interested in
the intersection between practice and theory. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Stephen Norton</b> delivered a brilliant keynote on maths
instruction, international comparisons between pedagogy, and the relative
merits of enquiry versus explicit instruction. The results, it had to be said,
were not in enquiry’s favour. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And <b>Stephen Dinham</b>. And <b>Pam Snow</b>, and <b>Ben Evans</b>…and too many
others to mention. A huge thanks to Helen Pike and ACE for making the whole trip
possible, to Brighton Grammar School for giving until it hurt, and to all the
speakers who gave their time so freely. Kindness and generosity frequently
makes the miraculous possible. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-81325593441336991122017-06-30T15:17:00.000+01:002017-06-30T15:20:39.527+01:00Good classroom management isn't violence- A behaviour panel at the Wellington Festival of Education<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykt7hT3wElJ_3R0Sqk_PNmLRLPzKOQMco-ee0nVCg8uveKQR4UHzymrcqAap3Df3hMlq4_Mkj3rTskax97xIwTWF2kR15Fpc0AUsiGQPbWhsnimmWTKVm8QlNYw5JGZpGv98MkfHQpYU/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-06-29+at+20.06.50.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="1099" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykt7hT3wElJ_3R0Sqk_PNmLRLPzKOQMco-ee0nVCg8uveKQR4UHzymrcqAap3Df3hMlq4_Mkj3rTskax97xIwTWF2kR15Fpc0AUsiGQPbWhsnimmWTKVm8QlNYw5JGZpGv98MkfHQpYU/s640/Screen+Shot+2017-06-29+at+20.06.50.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I took part in a fascinating
panel for the Wellington Festival of Education last week. Myself, Laura
McInerney, Maria Arpa and Katherine Birbalsingh were quizzed about behaviour in
schools <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjh7x1NrUYw" target="_blank">(watch it here)</a>. Within about two minutes lines were drawn and it was game on. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Of course any attempt to reduce
anything as complex as human behaviour to a coin toss of possible answers risks
bleeding it dry of the complexity that makes it a conundrum rather than a pop
quiz. Do what you’re told, or do what you want? Compliance or defiance?
Autonomy or lobotomy? A lot of debate about behaviour barrels around these
poles like flies around a lampshade. They make better headlines than strategy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 36pt;">
<b style="text-indent: 36pt;">Never mind the hyperbole</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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The first question was ‘Is there
a behaviour crisis?’ I would say it’s not obvious because the word is problematic. Crisis implies an emerging situation under so much pressure it
cannot bear much more before it collapses or explodes. I think the behaviour
problem is real, deep and tragic precisely <i>because</i> it isn’t that; in fact, it’s endured
for decades and can continue to do so, gasping and grasping from the sick bed.
McInerney mentioned Alasdair Campbell, who only
considered it a crisis if the military had to be called in. (Perhaps we should
be more worried by the Troops to Teachers program than we think?)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Katherine Birbalsingh, who can
normally be counted on to barnstorm like Elijah, was as mild-mannered as someone
with Xanax in their Special K. Turns out she was just stretching out like a Sumo. <span style="text-indent: 36pt;">She broke into a jog when asked
what the main behaviour problem was. “It’s not just TA’s being assaulted’ she
said. ‘It’s the low-level disruption, You see them on the buses, and we’ve just
come to accept the behaviour. '</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">'Children push,’ she said. ‘We push back.’ And I
could hear her angry fan club on social media set their blog-phasers to ‘gnash’.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Maria Arpa said<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"> she
thought children shouldn’t be expected to be just behave. They had to want to
behave. This is certainly a laudable ambition. The obvious bogeyman to contrast
this with is compliance, that pantomime villain of behaviour management. Compliance
connotes so negatively, doesn’t it? Coercion, oppression, subjugation. It’s an
egregious word the instant it tumbles from your lips.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<b>The appliance of compliance</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
But I think we can reform it a
little. For me, compliance is the first step in a ladder that takes children to
extraordinary heights of habit way beyond mere slavish adherence to convention
and into the realms of independently reasoned decisions. But before we can get
there we need children, on those first rungs of maturity, wisdom and social
awareness, to comply with moral rules, set for their benefit and the mutual
benefit of all. I don’t discuss with a three-year-old whether or not to hit a peer
while there’s any chance of it happening. No; at first, I forbid and prohibit,
and explain why elsewhere. These combinations of prohibitions and admonitions
become a set of habits, which become character. If these guidelines are good
and useful, the child acquires useful and good habits of character, which are
portable, and live on in them long after the teachable moments. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
In fact, not to do this, and not
to expect compliance, is a disservice to the child and an abdication of the
precious duty we have to raise our children with every advantage possible.
Sure, it sounds great in theory that we could reason our every ethical dilemma
with children every time, but this misses two key issues. a) We only partially
reason rationally. Much of what we consider to be our wise judgement, is an
emotional response. And b) It just isn’t practical. What if they simply
disagree with us? What if, after all our lovely discussion, children simply
want to pursue their own self-interest? This is called the Free Rider problem,
and is the reason why, even though it might seem in everyone’s interests to be
good, so many people aren’t. If you were perfectly rational you might conclude
that the wisest course would be for everyone else to be moral, and for you to
be wily and wicked, and exploit the poor saps. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
And this is why reason and
patience alone will not make us moral. At some point, we simply need to
instruct children to be so, and expect it, and alongside all the lovely
conversations about kind hands and how do you think Tariq felt when you did
that, there has to be oceans of you just can’t and because I said so. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUSv6eiv44ZeISXN1mWr9VKDp2A_KkOm3MZuEDacsLKNYzafgwvOHeKgLRbnjLhEntW27og6bIWUGIBfaXYUXrUQ5QISc_xUda0n3eSRRsE3TxReYQpoP9TAw2K0ni7t2fxc1Fkfq7anw/s1600/the-matrix-pods.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="560" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUSv6eiv44ZeISXN1mWr9VKDp2A_KkOm3MZuEDacsLKNYzafgwvOHeKgLRbnjLhEntW27og6bIWUGIBfaXYUXrUQ5QISc_xUda0n3eSRRsE3TxReYQpoP9TAw2K0ni7t2fxc1Fkfq7anw/s320/the-matrix-pods.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michaela School, yesterday </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Arpa said she wanted to get rid
of behaviour management from teacher training, and half-jokingly I suggested
that her wish had already been granted. Some providers do a great job, but
there are still too many ITT platforms that de-emphasise behaviour management,
or teach queer platitudes that are at best useless and at worst harmful: things
like ‘try to make them laugh,’ or ‘There’s no such thing as bad behaviour, just
a badly planned lesson,’ or one of my favourites, ‘Every behaviour is a
communication,’ which might be true, but often what’s being communicated is ‘I
fancy a bit of fun at someone else’s expense.’ It’s something I’m working to
change, with the work we did as part of the ITT review into behaviour management
training. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<b>Do it- or I'll tell you to do it again</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
I agree that discussion is a more
lovely way to encourage social behaviour than enforcement. But the simple,
stark and stone-cold truth is that it isn’t an efficient way to run a community
beyond two or three people. We all have very different ideas about right and
wrong; we dispute every term imaginable, from justice to equality to good
manners. If we left it to individuals to work out what each meant every time we
needed to think about it, life would be a series of struggles that would
consume our every instant. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Cultures thrive on shared understandings
of what is meant by good conduct. Watch children howl as you apply one rule for
one person but not for another. You simply can’t get students to all agree what
the right thing to do is, even if you negotiate with them. For a start, some
children will simply disagree about the rules of conduct, or lateness, or
homework, if you let them co-create it. And every time you defer the
responsibility of decision to a pupil you undermine the authority of the
teacher to regulate and monitor the culture of the classroom. And that means
you can’t keep them safe. It means you can’t provide what they need the most; a
calm space where they know they are valued, free from bullying and
interference, and free to learn and flourish. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Because what are consequences if
not a way to show students that their actions matter? That they are not
invisible? That someone cares about what they do? Some decry sanctions. Arpa
calls them ‘Violence.’ My eyeballs almost spun in their sockets and my face made
a very serviceable OMG GIF. This could not be further from the truth. She, and
many who share her view, believe that systems based on rules and consequences
breed violence; endorse violence; multiply violence. I think this stretches the
concept of violence so far it snaps like a banjo string. If rules have no consequences
attached to their infraction, then even the simplest of children realises
quickly there is no rule at all.<br />
<br />
Consequences are like the alarm bell that
stops you reversing into a bollard on your car; an uncomfortable reminder that
a poor choice is being made. There are many other reactions one can have to
good or bad behaviour- sanctions and rewards are only two arrows in a quiver
that quivers with possibility, from conversations, to meetings to education to interventions.
But they are an essential- not optional- part of how we mould and help sculpt
young adults into better versions of themselves. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<b>I've seen things you wouldn't believe</b><br />
<br />
Arpa is a sincere, intelligent and
deeply caring person, committed to the well-being of children and adults. But
these ideas are part of the reason why we have such intemperate and
inconsistent behaviour in schools today. We train teachers not nearly enough in
effective ways to anticipate and resolve challenge at a structural level. We
offer no guaranteed training to school leaders who want guidance in creating
effective school cultures. And far, far too much of the advice on offer where
it does exist, is of this variety: that rules are oppressive, that children
will thrive if only we granted them more and more autonomy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Neither are complex enough to be
true rather than merely pretty and pious platitudes. Children desperately need
us; they need adult guidance. That requires us to be adults; to admit our responsibilities
and take them seriously. Far too often we are advised in these matters by
well-meaning people who have never had to deal with the reality of thirty, not
a few children, in a teaching rather than a therapeutic context.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<b>Teach the children you have, not the ones you want</b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
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There was a sensible question at
the end. Could you run a society on principles of restorative justice? And of
course, the answer is no. No society ever has. You simply can’t expect large
communities to self-regulate through reasoned discussion. It would be lovely,
but it’s a utopian fantasy. And the sad reality of utopias is that when they go
wrong, it’s never the wealthy who suffer most, but the people it was intended
to emancipate. Its why we have prisons and police rather than enormous voucher
reward schemes for M&S. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footer"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of figures"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope return"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="line number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="page number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
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<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Rules optimise justice and
stability. Broken rules need to be mended and reinforced. People are imperfect.
We can strive for a more perfect community, but not on a cloud of enthusiastic
but impractical fantasy. In every teacher movie, broken urchins are healed by
the love of a teacher who never gave up on them. That’s true, but if we don’t
also teach them how to behave, then all we’re doing is hugging them into poverty.<o:p></o:p></div>
Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-81903779675061281102017-05-24T14:04:00.003+01:002017-05-24T14:37:23.072+01:00iPads: game changers or money paperweights? New study tells us little <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLLxrLZMs_qmtI_zU__tDp4rhs15VN-dMyzZJs9E834fQK1EEB_2qe-o5TkFtNT2QU8D-PYOSKyxZuFQmyjwPTCPSyFjGyOIDwjRxHbyzz4sIaFk-3JlUX66fSmx8-kV8QemdWk1fLS8I/s1600/ipad+baby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="480" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLLxrLZMs_qmtI_zU__tDp4rhs15VN-dMyzZJs9E834fQK1EEB_2qe-o5TkFtNT2QU8D-PYOSKyxZuFQmyjwPTCPSyFjGyOIDwjRxHbyzz4sIaFk-3JlUX66fSmx8-kV8QemdWk1fLS8I/s400/ipad+baby.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Computer: activate holo-deck, In the Night Garden sub-routine.'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An interesting and problematic study from Northern Ireland about iPads
in early-years settings hit the interweb today. Interesting because it makes
some extraordinary claims about their efficacy that, if true and replicable,
could revolutionise the way we teach in those settings; and problematic because that ‘if’ has
a lot of heavy lifting to do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The study ‘Mobile Devices in Early Learning’ was carried out
for two years and involved 650 pupils in five Belfast primary schools and five
nursery schools. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>‘Schools which took part were in some of the most deprived
areas of the city.<br />They were each supplied with sets of iPads for nursery,
primary one, primary two and primary three classes.’ (1)</i></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What did they find? Fans of chalk boards and cuneiform look
away now: <o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="square">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><i>The
introduction of digital technology has had a positive impact on the
development of children's literacy and numeracy skills</i></li>
</ul>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="square">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><i>Contrary
to initial expectations, principals and teachers report that the use of iPads
in the classroom has enhanced children's communication skills</i></li>
</ul>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="square">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><i>Children
view learning using handheld devices as play and are more highly
motivated, enthused and engaged</i></li>
</ul>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="square">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><i>Boys
appear to be more enthused when using digital technology, particularly
when producing pieces of written work (2)</i></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Impressive stuff, and these findings represent prizes we all
value: improved gateway skills, engagement, enjoyment, motivation. Game over
for sceptics surely? Alas, one Boss-level obstacle remains. Is it true?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The quotes above are taken from a news website, which
only describes the authors' findings. But in order to understand if
the research findings are robust, and that they flow from the iPad
intervention, we need to be able to access methodology, study design,
attainment measures and so on. We need to hear a critical voice to contract with the claims. Otherwise we could just say anything. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Thrilling sub-heading supported by weak evidence in paragraph 14</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What’s wrong with reporting like this? In my opinion, it's unhelpful. In fact I think taken as a whole it makes the business
of knowing how to educate children harder. Because if we want to make sure that what we do
with children in classrooms is useful rather than frivolous, it’s important
that claims of efficacy are matched by evidence, and extraordinary claims
matched by extraordinary evidence. This project set the Belfast Regeneration
Project back £300K, with change back for a Solero- or a teacher’s salary for a
decade if you prefer. School budgets are finite systems and getting more finite
by the year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsAnvQ-1Th_5XizRqmLpMDQkXYFdsIG8qDMtGeAzTgRoSJ6SkzWpgOL2aOZcE55lgVf5qEie-OacrrjfUj9EuoXQhXWSyYSeE43IAwTBIRX9uHk3uczQYtaTdW-aeXg2kYRfpEYsXDhNI/s1600/wpid-photo-2013-07-03-251-pm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsAnvQ-1Th_5XizRqmLpMDQkXYFdsIG8qDMtGeAzTgRoSJ6SkzWpgOL2aOZcE55lgVf5qEie-OacrrjfUj9EuoXQhXWSyYSeE43IAwTBIRX9uHk3uczQYtaTdW-aeXg2kYRfpEYsXDhNI/s320/wpid-photo-2013-07-03-251-pm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Sir! This intervention appears to based on weak findings.'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we report unconfirmed results like this without
challenge, the intellectual landscape of education discourse is changed subtly.
This news report will be cited somewhere, by someone who wants to bring a cache
of iPads into a school, and someone somewhere will say ‘OK’. That’s great if
they have the effect they claim, but what if they don’t? At best a waste of
money and time. In fact, that’s also the ‘at worst’ scenario, because children-
especially children in deprived areas, don’t have second chances, or time for
expensive substitutes for teaching time. When we report research without
question, it enter the collective psyche as factual: ‘iPads make kids smarter
and happier.’ But what if they don’t? And I don’t have skin in this game. I
love iPads. But I also loved Tom Hardy’s performance in <i>Taboo</i>, and I’m not
using that in any lessons soon because there is no obvious reason for me to do
so. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Show me the money</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ok, so go beyond the slightly breathless news report. Where is the
research itself?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The article doesn’t link to anything we can look at, so a
quick search reveals that this study is: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>‘Gray, C., Dunn, J., Moffett, P., & Mitchell, D. (2017).
Mobile devices in early learning. Developing the use of portable devices to
support young children's learning. Stranmillis University College: A College of
The Queen's University of Belfast, 24.05.2017’</i></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To the website, Robin. Over at Stranmillis University
College, we find a link to a press release, where one of the report’s author’s
makes these claims:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“The study’s findings showed that, in the five participating
schools, all of which were located in catchment areas of high social
deprivation and academic under-achievement, the introduction of digital
technology has had a positive impact on the development of pupil literacy and
numeracy skills. And, contrary to initial expectations, principals and teachers
also reported that their use had enhanced children’s communication skills,
acting as a stimulus for peer to peer and pupil to teacher discussion.” (3)</i></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s a link at the bottom of this breathless
review, but it doesn’t work- happily the study is elsewhere on the website (4).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Surely here at last we'll find evidence that robustly stands the claim up? Well, in my opinion, it's a bit disappointing. Why?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>1. Completely subjective self-reporting:</b> If you were hoping to find some evidence that children's literacy or numeracy had been demonstrably improved in an objective way, you will go home with empty pockets. All the evidence collected in this areas was in the form of semi-structured interviews with teachers, school principals, student focus groups and parental questionnaires. So the teachers (small focus groups from each of the 5 schools and pre-schools) said things like 'I think they've improved their literacy.' How do we know this? How can we separate any gains from normal progress, or progress attributable to other interventions or processes? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2. Questionnaire response rate:</b> 27% (after a second push- the first response was 8%), which seems to my mind to be a poor response. We have no way of knowing how representative this is (although I'll suggest 'not very')</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>3. Possible design biases:</b> schools were selected to participate in this project based on their commitment to the project, their pre-existing use of ICT and iPads in the school, and their commitment to use iPads in the future, as well as a troubling commitment to 'The benefits of developing literacy and numeracy skills to be gained from the use of iPads.' So, to summarise: schools that were enthusiastic about iPads, already used them and believed they had big educational benefits, participated. 'Person who likes x, thinks x is good' isn't so much a research finding as a disappointing maxim in a fortune cookie. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>4. Variable usage: </b>schools used them at different times, with different apps, in different ways, with different children. In some schools they were used more than others. It seems very hard to discern if like is being compared with like. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>5. Funding. </b>This whole program came about because the Belfast Educational & Library Board was awarded a grant from the Belfast Regeneration Office to 'develop an ICT program.' Was there sufficient critical examination of the need to do so in the first place? Every study needs to suspend disbelief in its own utility, and question its own existence.<br />
<br />
<b>6. No control group.</b> What is this intervention better <i>than</i>?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9LHgq1m-AfMZDYGdjT4ALRDOwtEkfH1f20KE3jaTP3QECGZ8DwHMSh8Gjp3NvWHyweEQdZwiO-kfuE-E29_F3u7dmCMe6bwX_aIsNch15mm1KEDG2GqLqWhJl4cyguJ1JWo-UqlaEidI/s1600/article-1342152-0C9791B2000005DC-396_634x408.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="634" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9LHgq1m-AfMZDYGdjT4ALRDOwtEkfH1f20KE3jaTP3QECGZ8DwHMSh8Gjp3NvWHyweEQdZwiO-kfuE-E29_F3u7dmCMe6bwX_aIsNch15mm1KEDG2GqLqWhJl4cyguJ1JWo-UqlaEidI/s320/article-1342152-0C9791B2000005DC-396_634x408.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Duvet days: no longer a get-out from teaching.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This study' findings may well be found to be correct, and I’m
sure that the authors and everyone involved has the best of intentions and
conducted themselves with scruples and integrity. That’s not in question. But questions
are all we have at this stage. All we are holding in our hands is a fog of
grand claims and optimism. Do iPads turn frowns upside down? Do they turn light
bulbs on above confused heads? Are they just a novelty or a distraction? We can’t
tell, not from this. A day of terrific press is great for
the University, but doesn’t help the debate.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Never mind the quality, feel the tech</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve looked at a lot of research that often gets used to
support positive claims for the utility of tech in the classroom, and often
they don’t stand up in court. Some of the most duplicitous research I have read
in this area uses proxies of success that are entirely subjective or impossible
to substantiate. ‘tech has the potential to do x’ is the same as ‘tech has not
done x yet.’ And ‘boys appear to be more enthused when using digital technology’
could be uncharitably responded to with a ‘so what?’ and a ‘oh really?’ and a 'did it take a £500 iPad to do that?'<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And that’s important, because schools are poor and kids don’t
often get second chances when they come from deprived areas. Universal, free education
is one of humanity’s greatest inventions. Wasting that is a sin, and a theft
from people with nearly nothing. Who would rob a child, from a family with nothing
but debt? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footer"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of figures"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope return"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="line number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="page number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
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<b>Other people's children</b></div>
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Public money needs to be spent as carefully as if it were
our own. Other people’s children need to be taught as carefully as if they belonged
to us. No child should endure the loss of their right to an education, no
matter how digitally it is dressed. If iPads and their ilk can bring benefit
to the table, then let them demonstrate it in public. Let everyone see how well
they work, and if they do, the truth will be unmistakeable. But when claims are
made without data that substantiates it appropriately then we have a right to ask if our money is being spent wisely. This matters. Ominously, the report suggest that:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'These findings should inform the future rollout of similar initiatives and will be of interest to practitioners, policy-makers and parents.'</blockquote>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Ireland, I love you. My family migrated from Ireland. I wish you and your beautiful island nothing but fortune and love. For the good of your children, and the wealth of your nation, and the prospect of better things to come, I suggest that you use these findings wisely. Keep your hands away from the cheque books for now and wait until better data supports swapping out precious resources for digital magic beans.</div>
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I'll end with a lovely quote from Piaget, which starts the report:</div>
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<i>'The principal goal of education is to create men and women who are capable of doing few things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done—men and women who are creative, inventive, and discoverers, who have minds which can be critical, can verify, and not accept everything they are offered (Piaget,1973).'</i></blockquote>
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Be critical? Verify? Not accept everything we're offered? I couldn't agree more. </div>
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(1) <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-40021187">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-40021187</a></div>
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(2) Ibid</div>
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(3) <a href="http://www.stran.ac.uk/informationabout/theuniversitycollege/newsevents/title,756164,en.html">http://www.stran.ac.uk/informationabout/theuniversitycollege/newsevents/title,756164,en.html</a></div>
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(4) <a href="http://www.stran.ac.uk/media/media,756133,en.pdf">http://www.stran.ac.uk/media/media,756133,en.pdf</a></div>
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Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-75651343937523109342017-04-11T16:04:00.000+01:002017-04-11T16:08:45.186+01:00Money buys luck. Everyone else needs to work hard<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPDIQt9RjflknX0rQta5rU9OalYJ2u_8eCsxxh2kcD4a6hVi0moAgXwMVijyd_yW7rLmsl1LvPIXY2iybowMOD0gF86bWImncVKIDRgqFcIU3H3P1WRzxNPSCgpHVmKs60z35oDXjM5ww/s1600/12FLORENCE-master768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPDIQt9RjflknX0rQta5rU9OalYJ2u_8eCsxxh2kcD4a6hVi0moAgXwMVijyd_yW7rLmsl1LvPIXY2iybowMOD0gF86bWImncVKIDRgqFcIU3H3P1WRzxNPSCgpHVmKs60z35oDXjM5ww/s640/12FLORENCE-master768.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Look darling- straight A*s again.'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In <i>Florence Foster Jenkins</i> (2016), Meryl Streep plays the eponymous New York heiress socialite who was determined to succeed in her chosen profession of opera singer despite the cruel blow fate had dealt her by making her both tone deaf and a terrible singer. Hugh Grant plays Hugh Grant playing her husband, who simultaneously supports her ambitions while deflecting any of the obvious and natural checks and balances that the world typically offers hubris, such as criticism or anything resembling sincere feedback.<br />
<br />
It’s an odd film in some ways, but surprisingly engaging. Despite Streep’s world-class ability to inhabit, humanise and broadcast the lightest of frailties (the irony, of course being that her superhuman ability is here deployed to convey the talent vacuum that is Jenkins) the moral narrative of the film appears to ask us to accompany its ambitions in an eccentric direction. We are asked to sympathise with her great fall from self delusion when she finally realises her ambitions of releasing a record and performing at Carnegie hall, with the concomitant mockery public exposure entails. No one could enjoy to see someone flayed alive by critics, but it hard to conclude that she deserves our sympathy for this acrobat's tumble into just desserts.<br />
<br />
<b>She's so lucky</b><br />
<br />
Successful men and women frequently claim to be self made. If they are sensible, cautious and humble they will acknowledge the debt they owe to the people and circumstances that allowed them to blossom. And if they are wiser still, they will acknowledge the debt they owe to sheer, dumb luck. That isn’t to deny their often Olympian efforts from within their own reservoirs, but to account for the reality that success and failure exist within an often unforgiving ecosystem. How many Mozarts died of smallpox? How many Hawkings or Bransons or Bolts never got to a blackboard, a board room or running track? And how many Paris Hiltons or Kardashians watch us from the opera boxes of privilege because their talent was the good fortune to be born in House Lannister?<br />
<br />
Jenkins survived and thrived in an arena that would normally have devoured and digested her because she possessed that adamantine shield that saves us from all but the most inevitable of life’s indignities: pots and pots of lovely money. Unearned status and a room full of coin are the ultimate edge in the great game of life. When Jenkins finally, finally saw her very first bad review, she keeled over and fainted, and the film’s plot beats tapped out a tragic tattoo on her behalf. Meanwhile I’m thinking, ‘Boy, I read two worse reviews for my last book before breakfast. Where’s my biopic?’ If you’re going to ask us to care for a character’s sine wave of fortune, then it’s probably best if what’s at stake matters to those of us looking up at Heaven.<br />
<br />
If you teach, you’ll find Jenkin’s professional woes unremarkable or even intelligible. When you teach children who come from backgrounds where there are no golden tickets, no second chances, no parachutes or safety nets, where there are no trust funds to cushion you from a cruel world, then perhaps you’ll sympathise kore with the queue of unsuccessful pianists whom Jenkins dismisses before they even had a chance to audition, because the one she chooses was fortunate enough to play a melody that flattered her sentimental memories. Their hard work, their presumed virtues meant nothing to the whim of a woman who could afford to pay New York’s finest vocal coaches to bootlick and lie to her.<br />
<br />
<b>Everyone has potential- so what?</b><br />
<br />
The children we teach mustn’t be lied to. When they stumble it is our duty to tell them where they tripped, not to congratulate them on how well they fell. When what they do is not wonderful, they need to know how unwonderful it was, and crucially, what the next step to wonder might be. Because they will be competing in a world where others will begin the race with a head start, one of the worst things we can do is to accept work below a pupil’s capabilities without comment. Effort is important, and its perpetual invocation is to be encouraged and imbedded as the fuel that makes everything else possible. But not just effort: achievement. We speak glibly about wanting to help pupils to achieve their potential, but potential is a weasel term unless you grasp exactly what it means. Most of us have extraordinary potential in so many fields. Almost any one of your children could climb Everest or graduate from Cambridge if they wanted to sufficiently, and are shown the way. But potential is nothing but a ghost. Being, doing, these are the things to which we rightly aspire.<br />
<br />
I was once at a school where the head teacher wanted- rightly- to inspire and motivate pupils to believe in their dreams, by showing them short musical clips from Youtube that repeated simple aspirational messages about struggling and striving while music rose and surged in the background. If you have ever seen 500 bored faces watching yet another of these seemingly endless videos, you’ll understand why ambition, effort and inspiration can’t be taught as easily as a parcel is delivered. One of my omni-late sixth formers summed it up. ‘Sir, missing assembly isn’t being late. They'll just be showing another inspirational video.’<br />
<br />
<b>Money beats paper, scissors, rock</b><br />
<br />
Florence Foster Jenkins is a perfect example of ‘when you win they call you a winner.’ Never ask someone with a trust fund how to get rich. The children we teach will, for the most part, be unencumbered by the golden armour of invincible privilege. When they leave school they will not be given jobs because they believed in their dreams, followed their heart songs or stayed true to who they are. This is not a Disney film, unless Disney have branched out into dystopian real-life dramas where evil frequently conquers good. Life is only a box of chocolates if you imagine that the strawberry creams have been replaced by gelignite and may blow your teeth out, and some of the caramels contain arsenic.<br />
<br />
In the great Scissors, Rock, Paper game of life, the best we can do is teach them how to make each hand and what to do when fortune inevitably marks their card. They will succeed because we have believed in them enough to raise them as they need to be raised, not how they would like to be. Because we taught them that luck is beyond their control, but effort, applied and focussed like a laser on the unglamorous minutia of education was the most magical thing that was still within their power to obtain, and ours to nurture.<br />
<br />Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-76963446400317994492017-03-16T17:41:00.002+00:002017-03-16T23:05:05.858+00:00I just countersued- Prince Ea: the same old arguments in a shiny new video<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkBkazOd8OwLx9y5G0IOgKwFrV05rjIn6kPuVAfLbRxXOUmjZqWCt7b196__OndBTf91t8bE2_Vr5GAgQ1LwI5izi_o6l7ETyg0Rn-QU2qQUxrUU8dHPUFWHK_ZiFXF5onHlKiTlqXtJo/s1600/main-qimg-b98d152beefb60cbd0cc74ab21e30e0e-c.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkBkazOd8OwLx9y5G0IOgKwFrV05rjIn6kPuVAfLbRxXOUmjZqWCt7b196__OndBTf91t8bE2_Vr5GAgQ1LwI5izi_o6l7ETyg0Rn-QU2qQUxrUU8dHPUFWHK_ZiFXF5onHlKiTlqXtJo/s640/main-qimg-b98d152beefb60cbd0cc74ab21e30e0e-c.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree and it’ll spend
a lifetime thinking it’s stupid</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Albert Einstein</i></blockquote>
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<i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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You’ll see this quote everywhere. Its memorable and tidy and superficially convincing. It’s often accompanied by the cartoon at the top of this post (in which the goldfish is <i>in a bowl
on top of a tree stump</i>, which makes me think damn that goldfish is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really good</i> climber already).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Except Einstein never said it. It’s a perfect example of
how the Internet has resurrected the principle that a lie can get half way around
the world before the truth can get its boots on. A glib, seductive claim untroubled by veracity or evidence. This is how the video ‘I just sued
the school’ starts. It’s also very much how it continues.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Fans of 19<sup>th</sup> century educational clichés dressed
as slick, radical innovation are in for a treat, in a short film/ advert/
performance by hip-hop inspirational speaker
Prince Ea called 'I just sued the School System' released in 2016. (It’s already had over 5 million views. I can only
imagine how many staff meetings and assemblies have already pored over it.) <o:p></o:p></div>
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To be honest fans of these ideas are rarely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> in for a treat, as such proclamations are common as pigeons and
as old as coal. Did you see Ken Robinson’s magnum opus in this area? I’d be
more surprised if you didn’t. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY&list=PL70DEC2B0568B5469" target="_blank">His TED talk 'Do schools kill creativity?' </a>(12 million views) is
currently the industry standard in this territory. And a few years ago a keen young
rapper called <i>Boyinaband</i> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xe6nLVXEC0" target="_blank">took up the torch with his viral ‘Don’t stay in school.’</a> (14 million views) As you might gather, they think schools are rubbish. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve made hay out of both of these before. <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/blog/tom-bennett-reviews-%E2%80%98creative-schools-grassroots-revolution-thats-changing-education%E2%80%99-ken" target="_blank">See here for my review of Ken Robinson's oeuvre</a> and here <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/blog/dont-stay-school-inspirational-teacher-bashing" target="_blank">for my thoughts on Boyinaband</a>. They position themselves as radicals, innovators and disruptors of ancient paradigms. But their arguments are straight out of the 19th century and the first wave of romanticism and progressive education. Their arguments
are thin at best, and rely more on an appeal to the emotions than fact. But the
problem with ghosts and wraiths is that you can’t knock them out with the biggest haymaker. It's hard to put gas in a box. 'What is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence', as the
clever Hitchens brother once said. But what if they won’t be dismissed? What if people still
believe? What if they prefer the ghost? <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<b>The People vs The School System</b></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dqTTojTija8/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dqTTojTija8?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s look at the video. For a start you notice the
production values. This is well designed, scored, cast and performed. Prince Ea is sincere, convincing and convinced. The rhetorical dimension is beautifully
executed. Set in that Neverland trope, a mythical court of truth and goodness, he plays a young
Atticus Finch/ Torquemada, holding the school system to account for its many crimes- here gamely represented by a sneering,
old white man. Righteous vigour versus infirmity and privilege. Which is great
because for a minute I thought he was going to play the obvious rhetorical
tropes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over 6 minutes we’re treated to a shopping list of every educational
cliché: schools are no longer fit for purpose; schools haven’t changed in 150
years whereas cars and telephones are unrecognisable, and so on. Some of the
charges laid are quite remarkable. Apparently schools:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Kill creativity</li>
<li>Kill individuality</li>
<li>Are intellectually abusive</li>
<li>Turn millions of people into robots</li>
<li>Are guilty of malpractice</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These kinds of allegations stagger me with their casual vilification of educators. Millions of
people work in the systems he describes, grafting and straining and giving
every damn they can, only to be told by an incredibly successful product of
that system (Magna Cum Laude in anthropology, University of Missouri) that they
are 'abusive'. It pretends to make a distinction between attacking ‘the system’
and the people who inhabit it. ‘They’re not the problem. They work in a system.’
This is the rhetorical equivalent of someone in a pub saying ‘No offence, but’ before
telling you your kids are ugly. ‘The system’ isn’t just some administrative miasma
or dystopian fantasy bureaucracy like <i>HYDRA</i> or <i>SMERSH</i>. It’s composed of the
people within it, many of whom may disagree with this policy or that, but who
for the most part give far more of a damn about making it work than…well, someone
who has time to make inspirational videos for a living. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No corpse of an idea is too ripe to have lipstick applied
and paraded: ‘I did a background check. You were made to train people for
factories. Straight rows. Short breaks.’ No, no it wasn’t. <a href="http://hackeducation.com/2015/04/25/factory-model" target="_blank">For a thorough deboning of this myth, see here.</a> This
misunderstanding of how and why public schooling was created is indicative of
the quality of analysis throughout. And besides, does anyone really think that contemporary
schooling is designed to create factory workers? How many factories have
counsellors, art and drama, Glee and chess clubs? You didn’t do a background check. You just read Ken Robinson with a highlighter pen.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You might as well claim that
redcurrants and White Christmases were the same thing because they were both
colours. Could it be that rows are an efficient way to seat students to see
what the teacher is doing? Could it be periods of work followed by brief spells
of rest are a pretty sound way to get things done? No, obviously they are instruments
of tyranny. ‘We all have a past,’ he tells us. ‘I myself am no Gandhi.’ You got
that right. Gandhi was informed.<br />
<br />
<b>Fashionable in the 80s</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The video is peppered with unintentional hilarious goofball
moments. ‘Scientists tell us no two brains are the same.’ Cue a scientist in the
stand holding a plastic brain. Conceivably this alludes to the theories of
multiple intelligences or perhaps even learning styles like VAK <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIv9rz2NTUk" target="_blank">which have been so comprehensively blown up by contemporary neuroscience and cognitive psychology</a>. Such ideas are common tropes in pseudo science, and used to justify
multiple sins in classrooms. Of course our brains aren’t identical- otherwise we’d
be the same person- but they work pretty much the same way, aberrations
notwithstanding.<br />
<br />
The process by which we all learn is remarkably similar in function
and execution. The drive for entirely personalised learning, like so much of
this video, was hip about ten years ago, but has been challenged repeatedly since. Teachers
are actually pretty good at spotting where students are with their baseline
knowledge, and working out what to teach them next. Neuroscience doesn’t teach
us that- classroom experience and solid subject familiarity does. I don’t fret about what kind of brain
little Jessica or Jasmine has; I ask myself what do they need to learn next. While
the narrator is fretting about cookie-cutter education and ‘one size doesn’t fit
all’ (does it ever?) paradigms, teachers are getting on with the job. He seems to think we
stand there and lecture for an hours to our students and the devil take the hindmost. Which ignores all of the questioning, feedback, and discussions that take place. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To the narrator, it’s 'educational malpractice' for one
teacher to stand in front of twenty children . Meanwhile I’m thinking ‘Man,
that's a pretty good ratio, I wish all my classes were that small.’ He calls
it ‘horrific.’ He says it’s ‘the worst criminal offence ever.’ Perspective,
reason, evidence, propriety all self-immolate in a gas station conflagration of
hyperbole. I can only guess how he describes murder.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Teachers are underpaid, he claims, apparently walking back the charge that we are worse than carpet bombers, which is nice of him. ‘Doctors
can perform heart surgery,’ he says. ‘But teachers can reach the heart of
children.’ And I’m reminded of Owen Wilson’s con artist in <i>Wedding Crashers</i>. ‘You
know how they say we only use 10 percent of our brains? I think we only use 10
percent of our hearts.’ It makes a decent inspirational coaster, but as an
argument it lacks something. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And ‘Curriuclums are created by policy makers who have never
taught a day in their lives.’ For a man who sells inspirational mugs, this is pretty brave stuff. And ignores the obvious
mechanisms that curriculums usually go through before they ever see a
classroom, which involves substantial input or design by teachers. But, y'know, <i>facts</i>. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<b>Bullsh*t Bingo</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you had ‘Uses Finland as an argument’ in the sweep stake
then prepare to collect your winnings, as he does indeed, go there like the SAS. ‘They have
shorter school days, good wages, and focus on collaboration instead of
competition.’ They also have a population of five and a half million and a
winter 100 days long. Plus they’ve started to fall down the international
league tables despite still having all of these things. And many have
argued that their prior dominance was founded on existing cultural factors. Education tourism is a sin, or as Prince Ea might put it ‘the greatest tragedy known
to humanity ever including the great flood.’ Probably. And besides, Singapore does
pretty well too, despite it representing a system closer to the human power cells of the
Matrix than the antediluvian Eden of Scandinavia. Oddly, he does mention Singapore
but doesn’t develop this apparently argument-shredding counter example. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By now he’s going full pelt and the clichés are like
buckshot. He mentions Montessori schools as a shining example of what he sees as a solution,
despite the fact that nobody can seem to get that child centred model
to work on anything apart from very tiny children- probably for the very good reason
that child-led enquiry is perfectly natural and useful in the infant stage, but
pretty terrible as a way to accrue second-order propositional knowledge, ie
academic subjects. He name checks<br />
the Khan Academy, because it’s
apparently against the law to be a groovy thought leader in education without advocating
flipped learning, despite the enormous chasm of any substantial evidence that
teaching yourself academic subjects is of any use to any but the most motivated,
mature, and crucially, already able. Try getting that to scale up to ‘most kids
in general.’ <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<b>Summing up</b><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The framing device here is a courtroom, so allow me the same
conceit: J’accuse. His solutions aren’t real world solutions. The children he
talks about aren’t your average kid from your average home. His solutions suit
the wealthy, the middle class, the children of supportive and culturally
literate homes. His crepuscular arguments are delivered with passion and
intensity, so allow me an equivalent intensity: the solutions he proposes are
divisive, unrealistic, costly, and promote social immobility, illiteracy and
the disenfranchisement of children- particularly those from backgrounds of social and economic
disadvantage. They signal boost the already privileged at the expense of those children
who happened to be born in the wrong neighbourhood, the wrong family, the wrong
ethnicity, the wrong tax bracket. They are well-meant, no doubt. But so are people
who promote the boycott of vaccines.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This kind of muddled, goofy optimism, these charming and harmful nod-along singsong aphorisms should be resisted at every opportunity.
Education is far from perfect. In fact, it’s in a bit of a pickle. But that doesn’t
mean chaos is preferable to the hot mess we’re in. There are solutions. But they won’t be found in this Hallmark Card, Silicon Valley,
cartoon fantasy where schools are villains and every child is a butterfly. We
cannot Eat, Pray, Love our way out of our problems. It’s going to take a lot
more than reheated leftovers from a brainstorming session out of an advertising agency. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Why do you hate children?</b><br />
<br />
You want children to be creative? Great; so do I, and just
about every other teaching professional. The way to make that happen is to stop
pretending that creativity is some kind of magic, mysterious thing that happens
when you put children on bean bags and get them to design a poster, and realise that humans are naturally creative and the way to encourage the expression of
that faculty in a developed and mature way is by teaching them. Teaching them bags of
beautiful, fascinating domain specific knowledge and skills, the scales and
arpeggios of creation. Mozart and Shakespeare mastered their classics and
chords long before they wrote operas and sonnets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury I put it to you that education
is unwell, but it needs medicine, not homoeopathy and voodoo magic. But as Abraham Lincoln once said, ’Don’t believe everything
you see on Youtube.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Case dismissed. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-3872031641283728792017-02-06T00:12:00.001+00:002017-02-06T12:58:04.294+00:00Known unknowns: what I discovered in Stockholm<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">I was the worst kind of tourist today: an ignorant one. I was in Stockholm to host researchED Haninge and chew bubblegum, and I was all out of bubblegum. But unlike our ancestors, for whom international travel was an </span>arduous<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> pilgrimage, we skip across borders like children. Even so, normally on any visit you'd guide-book up; I knew zip. So when I found a few hours free on Sunday to poke around the city before I flew back I found myself a stranger in a strange land, a wise fool.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">It was frustrating to pad around the beautiful Old Town, ignorant of every brick and cobble, every institute and palace and promenade. I bumped into the Royal Palace like I'd fallen from the Moon, and watched soldiers march up and down, </span>uncomprehendingly.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> Of course, I wasn't a tabula rasa; I could piece together some of what I was saw: I knew a little Swedish history, a bit of ABBA, how to build a Billy bookcase, all the </span>Larsson novels, Pippi Longstockings.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> So I wandered around, uncomprehending, dislocated from my circumstances by ignorance. Knowledge was the lack; misunderstanding the effect. No amount of puzzling it out by myself would make up for the it. The facts were not buried in me, </span>waiting to be winkled out. I could no more have discovered what was what than I could have played written a book with no letters.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">I could have found out; I could have quizzed everyone I met. I could have asked the shop assistants, and waitresses, and policeman what I was looking at, and built up a picture that way. But a) I would have no idea if I had discovered the most important things to know and b) I would miss my plane and possibly starve to death. But half an hour with a guide book would have opened it up like a treasure chest. I saw a billboard advert that said, 'For the travellers who go by instinct, not by must-dos.' I understand that. There is a special pleasure in wandering, driven by chance and circumstance and luck. There are Stockholms and Parises and </span>Tenochtitlans<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> wild and hidden and mysterious, waiting to be found. But imagine if you did that and missed the Louvre? Imagine if you went to Venice and wandered past St Mark's Square?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>I know nothing</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wild learning, self guided, unpredictable and new, has many things to recommend it; surprise, novelty, personal investment. Everyone who likes to be a traveller rather than a tourist would prefer to say they had discovered <i>their</i> Tuscany, <i>their</i> Tromso. But doing do requires that you already have a hundred pegs on which to hang the new, unprocessed data: I know a little Polish history, so I can reverse engineer some of Swedish history from their wars; I live in a constitutional monarchy/ parliamentary democracy so I know that I'm not in immediate danger of being press-ganged into the King's militia without a warrant from John Company. I've seen enough charming ancient labyrinths to know a tourist duck shoot when I see one. Knowledge begets knowledge. To those that hath, shall be given. I missed almost everything, and how different it could have been. Stockholm, I apologise for walking through you as witless as Pinocchio was inside a whale's bowels.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Visit Auschwitz to see a contrast. </span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Oświęcim l</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ocals will remind you: it's not a </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Polish</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> concentration camp; it was a German camp, hence the retention of the Germanic form. And it's not a camp; it's a museum, a memorial. Visitors are required to take the tour, and lean on headphones to unpack the horror. It's easy to understand why. Without background, Auschwitz is rubble and grass and cattle sheds and mean, meaningless brick one-storey terraces. <i>With</i> explanation, it burns and hums with history and Hell and horror: the spot where Maximilian Kobe was martyred and murdered; walking though the gas chambers and trembling; shaking with sorrow at the bogs where the ashes of thousands were buried. What is a room full of spectacles but an odd jumble of garbage until someone points out their savage provenance? Rags, hair, suitcases are detritus until each one has a line drawn to a lost soul.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You could find out for yourself. You could. You could- and should- talk to people there, ponder a little, work out why an oven needed to be so inordinately large in a prison camp. Or you could be told by an expert, and then do that anyway, broadening your understanding, imbedding that understanding with personal experience, and fixing it in your comprehension with depth and gravity. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Why not just tell them?</b></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5BRSJb69a15gYKbVuoge7Ezaf3poXk69E4a8O14hDqv6Q12n95ADrwCxyru_P5tB4aNj2HuFDYigNjk98uf9QQKNJimi_Il0z-AEQTJLlVE2K330x1RSflVa1LBiV61MaOe43TDCaXaM/s1600/images-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5BRSJb69a15gYKbVuoge7Ezaf3poXk69E4a8O14hDqv6Q12n95ADrwCxyru_P5tB4aNj2HuFDYigNjk98uf9QQKNJimi_Il0z-AEQTJLlVE2K330x1RSflVa1LBiV61MaOe43TDCaXaM/s1600/images-2.jpeg" /></a><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Discovery is a fine thing; a necessary thing. some say it is the natural power of the human mind</span></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. It is the intuitive, animal legacy of our apprehension and it is a wonderful thing. But it was designed to construct knowledge of a world at a very human level: how not to tumble over, when to shield one's eyes from the sun, how far an apple will travel if thrown just so. But Newton spoke truly when he said he saw further because he stood on the shoulders of giants; propositional claims ('Stockholm is in Sweden'; 'Carl XVI Gustaf is King') can be imparted in the time it takes to say it. In this way we not only stand on giants' shoulders, we rapidly form a pyramid of giants and humans, and see for miles. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">When we teach students, there may well be times we want them to figure out the world for </span>themselves. But when we do, we should ask, 'Why not....just tell them? What is to be gained by the game?' If we can't answer this, then we have a duty to inform, clearly, and with as much an impression as we can make. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">The unexamined life is famously not worth living. But the informed life is worth much more. </span></span></span></div>
Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3019828684971971203.post-2957322445304792792017-01-30T14:02:00.001+00:002017-01-30T14:02:22.024+00:00Sharing is caring: why centralised detentions might just save your sanity<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsT3HVLwNScuHfF_ABLpegGW6urXZVSR3uLhglxU5UTGLBaJmFh7lC5udjg2O8PHMJ0QPLkJvTLMwI24UFYqFB5xj9T19Vg6ntXDt8-UCdT4bOcp6cH2R9qKlQzXnRWwF4b6R68eonbDE/s1600/ZZ212D1E1D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsT3HVLwNScuHfF_ABLpegGW6urXZVSR3uLhglxU5UTGLBaJmFh7lC5udjg2O8PHMJ0QPLkJvTLMwI24UFYqFB5xj9T19Vg6ntXDt8-UCdT4bOcp6cH2R9qKlQzXnRWwF4b6R68eonbDE/s400/ZZ212D1E1D.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Train spotters have their niche, I have mine. Over the last ten
years I must have been in over 150 schools to look at their behaviour systems.
What started off as a few consults became a habit. I get asked to work with
schools that want to tighten up, reboot or buff their policies and practices.
Sometimes it’s a check-up, and sometimes it’s an autopsy. It’s always a
privilege. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve found that some strategies are highly contextual, and
some graft nicely on to a wide set of circumstances. It’s not often you can recommend
a strategy blind to a school, because as Dylan Wiliam says ‘Everything works
somewhere and nothing works everywhere.’ But if we’re smart we can try to
establish as many best-bets, highly-probables and ‘this works a lot’ as we can.
Like an aspirin, most people feel better, and a few feel worse. But we still
prescribe aspirin.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And one of the most successful strategies I’ve seen used by
schools, and especially by schools that have very effective school behaviour
systems, is centralised detentions (CD). Instead of setting and attending a
detention individually, a class room teacher sets the detention which is then
carried out by someone else, who may have several pupils in theor care from several
sources.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Often the monitor is a senior member of the team. What they
do there varies, but at the moment I want to talk about centralising detentions
rather than justifying them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>The benefits:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<li>Workload: The teacher does not have to attend part- or all-
of the detention. This frees up a potentially huge amount of time, one of the
most precious commodities in the teacher’s utility belt. I know some teachers
whose every spare moment is guaranteed to be blocked out by someone in
detention, all week. And just one detainee has the same effect on your
schedule. </li>
<li>Data efficiency: Because the detentions are centralised,
there is better tracking of who does and does not attend. All data flows
through one point, rather than being monitored by a web of people who may not
share their data. </li>
<li>Flagging up concerns: Multiple, repeat offenders, or ‘doubles/
triples’ (students set more than one detention at a time) can be identified immediately,
and their issues addressed. </li>
<li>Better skilled practitioners: easier to train staff appropriately
rather than leaving it to dozens of teachers with variable skill bases.</li>
<li>Consistency of standard: School cultural norms can be more
consistently conveyed at centralised detentions. Different teachers (even in
the same school), have different standards of what pupils may or may not do in
detention, from silent vigils, to playing on their phones. Pupils need to know what
to expect.</li>
</ul>
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<b>The drawbacks:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<ul>
<li>Dislocation of response: It depersonalises the consequences.
The pupils are often dealt with by someone who has no close connection to the
relationship in the classroom. However, this can sometimes be a benefit too.</li>
<li>Exploitation: Teachers may take advantage of the
opportunity. Running your own sanctions can be exhausting. If all they have to
do is tap a button on SIMS, then a lot of teachers will be tempted to get
trigger happy. Sad to say I’ve seen this. Rather than attempt to resolve
matters in the classroom, the weaker teacher will simply hammer away at the
detention bazooka. Because when someone gives you a magic hammer all your
problems start to look like nails. The solution to this is for leadership to
monitor the data, and support- not sanction- teachers who have patterns of high
usage. After all they may simply be dealing with a more challenging intake, or
carrying out the school policy to the letter. They might need support, or they
might deserve a damn medal.</li>
</ul>
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<b>CD work best when<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<li>Multiple teachers set frequent detentions</li>
<li>In large schools or faculties</li>
<li>Teachers already have substantial workload issues (so: most
places)</li>
<li>Problems occur due to inconsistency of teacher detention
practices</li>
<li>Pupils frequently dodge detentions</li>
</ul>
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<b>CD works less well when<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<li>Schools are smaller</li>
<li>Schools already have personal detentions as a system and
teachers and students feel that it works better that way</li>
<li>Detentions are very rare</li>
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So this is still no panacea; centralised detentions can be done
badly, or worse can be done so badly they make things worse. But so what? That
could be said of any system, from tax credits to dress down Friday. They can
give staff back whole weeks of their years; they can free up substantial chunks
of time on an almost dally basis. They can make the whole school detention
system rock solid and air tight, which improves the whole efficacy of
detentions as a system. Remember, the severity is far less important than the
certainty. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Mention"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Smart Hyperlink"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would encourage any school to try this. Try it for two
terms. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Review it after the first term to
see where the snags are. Improve it for the second. Then bin or beatify as you
see fit. I bet some schools will never look back. <o:p></o:p></div>
Tom Bennetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03211959016018081924noreply@blogger.com2