Annual Education Lecture 2010
Print version
The lecture in 2010 took place on 10th June and the speaker was Professor Margaret Brown, King's College London.
Are We Getting Better at Educating?
Professor Brown presented evidence from a number of sources to suggest that standards of education in the core subjects in England have scarcely improved and in some areas may well have fallen over the last 30 years. She drew specifically on research in mathematics education at King’s.
Professor Brown then examined different explanations for the trend, including the innate complexity of learning (for both pupils and teachers), and the effects of a succession of national initiatives that have taken place on the quality of teaching, teacher training, and teaching materials. The initiatives, she argued, have often been disorienting, usually superficial and sometimes negative.
Evidence suggests that positive moves to improve standards in education must be long term, she concluded, “I strongly support the proposal, at least for a period, to give teachers considerable freedom – what we need now is a period of informed experimentation and innovation from which the best can be selected.”
Are We Getting Better at Educating?
Professor Brown presented evidence from a number of sources to suggest that standards of education in the core subjects in England have scarcely improved and in some areas may well have fallen over the last 30 years. She drew specifically on research in mathematics education at King’s.
Professor Brown then examined different explanations for the trend, including the innate complexity of learning (for both pupils and teachers), and the effects of a succession of national initiatives that have taken place on the quality of teaching, teacher training, and teaching materials. The initiatives, she argued, have often been disorienting, usually superficial and sometimes negative.
Evidence suggests that positive moves to improve standards in education must be long term, she concluded, “I strongly support the proposal, at least for a period, to give teachers considerable freedom – what we need now is a period of informed experimentation and innovation from which the best can be selected.”
Professor Brown's presentation is available to download below.
Attached files
