"The Assessment Tail is Wagging The Dog" - Reflections on Francis Gilberts LWF2012 Talk

(I cannot believe I haven't posted for a week! My goal of at least 2 posts a week, preferably more, seems to be getting more difficult, especially as my travel schedule picks up.  I will have to be more diligent.  The good thing about the travel though is I am out and about talking with teachers, teaching myself, and so getting some fodder for my posts.  This should get the creative juices going).

I wanted to reflection on another talk from the Learning without Frontiers 2012 because I find them quite thought provoking, especially as I go back and re-listen to them.  (See my previous 2 reflections, "Technology Is Neutral" and Mobile Devices In Education). The talk I want to focus on this post is from Francis Gilbert, a teacher in the UK. Francis gave a great talk called Escaping the Education Matrix, which I have posted below.



I agree with all Francis' points, and, even though he was speaking from a UK perspective, I found what he said about assessment and teacher evaluations creating a 'regulatory' matrix that controls the ways in which teachers and students operate in school and which defines and impacts teacher and student self-esteem to be applicable to the US educational arena as well.

I want to focus on the assessment component he speaks of (standardized testing as well as teacher observation/evaluation) which directly creates  the "regulatory discourses" that control teachers, or create the "matrix" in which they live in and teach in,which is directly related to self-esteem. As Francis puts it "the assessment tail is wagging the dog" and "creates the atmosphere we are creating for our education system".  Meaning that assessment is dominating everything that goes on in education, and as a result, we forget the intrinsic reason for education and why teachers do what they do.

Francis' gives an example of a teacher who had a heart-attack as a result of a low rating on an observation, which immediately made me think of all the horrible things going on currently here with NYC posting the ratings of teachers based on standardized test scores (read these two related stories on "the worst teacher in NYC": The True Story of Pascale Mauclair and Value-Added Evaluation Hurts Teaching). This trend of rating teachers based on the standardized test scores is becoming prevalent (Texas is about to do the same), and it is not going to improve anything, but rather, as Francis' points out, ruin the self-esteem of teachers and make us lose site of the purpose of education.

So, what is the purpose of education?


Certainly, judging quality education and teaching based on an observation at one point in time or a test score given on one day at one point in time (standardized testing) disregards the complexity of our educational system and the complexity of good teaching. I completely agree with Francis' when he says "we need to question discourse that reinforces inequality and creates false-hierarchies", which is very much what these standardized test scores, NCLB, RTTT and publishing teacher ratings are doing.  Francis' talks about education being about experiential learning, where teachers and students are engaged in sharing, promoting, stimulating knowledge and focused on individual identity.  Let's get back to that type of teaching and learning.

Demoralizing teachers is NOT going to make things better - it's going to put the focus on minimal skills needed to pass the test, it's going to drive quality teachers out of the classroom, and it's going to leave us with a shortage of teachers and a more dire situation than we already have.  It's going to create stressful classroom environments, for both teachers and students. Teachers are going to be focused on that single test score or evaluation for which they are being judged. They won't be focused on quality teaching and learning, rather, they will focus making sure their students do well on the test.  It's NOT THE SAME THING!

As an example, my 11th grade daughter came home yesterday complaining to me that for the past week or so, her English teacher has been going over test taking strategies (how to eliminate answers on MC for example) because of the Texas Assessment test coming up tomorrow in English (TAKS).  Quote from my daughter: "It's so stupid and boring - a week learning how to guess correctly and set up a paper for a four hour test that is so stupid and easy to begin with, all because her job depends on the score we get".

If my daughter's class has great scores, does this mean the teacher is a good teacher? What about the rest of the year?  Can my daughter read a story and analyze it?  Can she write a logical argument or research paper? This example simply supports Francis' point that the educational culture we currently work under creates an atmosphere ruled by "anxiety, dependent learners, managers,motivation by fear, depression, closed-off, and obedience".  I don't know about you, but I don't want that to be the culture in which my daughters have to learn.

Mobile Devices In Education - "Let Them Use It" - Reflections on Michael O'hara's LWF12 Talk

UPDATE TO POST 2/19/12:  Michael O'hara's talk can be viewed at http://bit.ly/w7nQcS or via iTunes http://bit.ly/LWFiTunes   Thanks Graham Brown-Martin for the updated links!)

It's been a few weeks since I attended the Learning Without Frontiers conference in Olympia, UK.  I wrote a previous reflection piece on Noam Chomsky's talk right after I returned.  I was revisiting my notes on other speakers and re-watching some of the talks at the LWF website trying to come up with my blog post for the day.  In my notes, the one that stuck out as relevant to me this week was Michael O'hara's talk about the mobile industry and education called "Learning While Mobile".  Imagine my disappointment when I went to re-watch the talk to find that it had been blocked due to potential copyright issues, apparently because of some materials mentioned in his talk.  Sigh.

I have decided to still focus on O'hara's talk, even though I can't share the video with you, because I think some of the comments he made regarding the use of mobile devices in education are important to the current debates on what should and should not be allowed in educational arenas.  O'hara's emphasis was on the pervasive use of mobile devices throughout the world, and how mobile disruption is only just beginning. He pointed out that in the next 10 years, there will be over 24 billion mobile connections throughout the world. Mobile is used to communicate and access the internet and is a tool for inclusion - distance is irrelevant in life because of the capabilities of mobile.

Mobile connects the worlds' people, and rather than banning it's use in education, we should be embracing the use of mobile devices because of their ability to be a tool for inclusion.  O'hara mentioned that today's current apps are interesting, but are missing the big trends of the devices, which is their ability to connect and teach globally, in the real world, with others. Mobile devices should be used to coach creativity and coding.  We should be letting students use it socially and be teaching across the social environment. Communication and creativity are skills students will need for the future because these are critical to business and connecting to the world and mobile devices are instrumental it helping develop those skills.

I agree with all of O'hara's comments.  I think of my own children and how connected they are through their various mobile devices to the rest of the world. From Facebook, Twitter, the Internet, to texting on their phones, my children are in constant contact with someone and to information at all times. And the things they do with this connectivity are amazingly creative and inventive because they are not limited....except at school. Which brings me to O'hara's ending question: "how do we fight the bans on mobile devices" that are pervasive in schools today?

Developing frameworks was one suggestion brought forth by him, as well as the need for all of us to continue to educate on the capabilities of mobile.  I would add myself that those of us in education or education related fields should continue to develop quality applications, relevant resources that support effective integration of mobile learning, and continue to support and inform the arguments for mobile learning.

I end with O'hara's overall message about mobile devices -"Let Them Use It!"

Financial Literacy - Finally Some Notice from Arne Duncan and Government

Well, I am feeling slightly vindicated now that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is agreeing with my opinion that we need to be teaching financial literacy in our schools. Could the government actually be making a connection to the current world-wide financial crisis and what is being taught (or not taught I should say) in schools? Here is a posting by Kennith Corbin entitled "Education Secretary Appeals for Financial Literacy, Planning Instruction in Schools" that sums up the comments of Mr. Duncan.

And, in case you want to 'revisit' some of my previous postings on the topic, here are some quick links to them: 1) Math Curriculum - What Should We Be Teaching 2) Financial Literacy - Bring It Back to School! and  3) Financial Literacy - Real-World Math, Really!

Playing at School - A Recipe for Creativity

Clearly, the loss of Steve Jobs has many people wondering where are the next innovative technology ideas going to come from, what's going to happen to Apple, who is the NEXT Steve Jobs?  There are articles galore on Jobs impact, so I was not surprised to run across one connecting Steve Jobs to education entitled "If we don't let our children play, who will be the next Steve Jobs?" by Darell Hammond.

I really loved the idea of this article - that schools need to let kids PLAY in order to foster their creativity, curiosity, and imagination.  It's something we have lost with the emphasis on standardized testing and assessment.  Time is short in schools, so the play (i.e. recess, music, art, etc.) is being eliminated for more time spent on practicing, testing, reviewing, and memorizing.  Check out the article - there are some great anecdotes  from Steve Jobs about the value of playing and creating.  The message here - let kids get out there, play, tinker, create, explore, imagine, discover....school should NOT be about regurgitation.

Atrophied Educational Progress

Listening to NPR again on the way home from the gym this morning and another story related to education.  John Ydstie's report, Why Some Men Earn Less Than They Did 40 Years Ago, basically talks about how blue collar working men earn less now than in 1973, in part because they have the same level of education as they had back then - no college, just high school diploma. 

What startled me was the statistic that just over 30% of men attend college.  Really? That's pretty low, and surprising to me with all the push you hear for college readiness.  I may have to find actual research and data related to this...

Anyway, interesting story - yet more evidence we need to change something about WHAT we teach in our educational system.

Maybe we are on to something - signs everywhere!

My blog yesterday regarding math curriculum being too abstract got a comment from Milo's Mama, who passed along an article on the racial wealth gap.  Her point was that there were more practical things we could be teaching in math, such as finance, taxes, etc. that might address this problem.  So we are back to the relevancy of what we teach.  And as I drove home from the gym this morning, I hear yet another story on NPR about the racial wealth gap (turns out it's a two parter!).  I took this as a sign that I should perhaps do a follow up!

This second part of the story talked about breaking the cycle of poverty, and mentions several programs designed to help low-income families save money, invest and basically teach them about using money wisely.  One of these programs starts with kindergarten because, as the City Treasure Jose Cisnero's says  '"It's all about building aspirations in that child's mind."

I am not going to go into details about the programs - you can read the article yourself.  You will notice, a lot of the programs focus on financial skills - something I think is sorely missing in our math curriculum, and this just provides a bit of evidence. I think, as Milo's Mama said and as I suggested yesterday, we need to provide more practical options for students to support their reality. We need to look at things like our wealth gap and realize that we aren't helping the situation if our sights are always set towards achieving some arbitrary score on a standardized test rather than providing practical skills that can provide some understanding of reality and some hope.  With that hope comes aspirations to achieve and learn more and get that passing score on the standardized test.  I see it as all connected.