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Education Systems and Learners: Knowledge and Knowing PDF

166 Pages·2017·13.128 MB·English
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Education Systems and Learners DavidScott Education Systems and Learners Knowledge and Knowing DavidScott InstituteofEducation UniversityCollegeLondon London,UnitedKingdom ISBN978-1-137-59883-7 ISBN978-1-137-59884-4(eBook) DOI10.1057/978-1-137-59884-4 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016957761 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2017 Theauthor(s)has/haveassertedtheirright(s)tobeidentifiedastheauthor(s)ofthisworkin accordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsof translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare exemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformation in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishernortheauthorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespectto thematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade. Coverillustration:©IuliaShevchenko/AlamyStockPhoto Printedonacid-freepaper ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisMacmillanPublishersLtd. Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:TheCampus,4CrinanStreet,London,N19XW, UnitedKingdom To: Lucas, Robinand Jake Scott A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS Versionsofchapterstwoandfourwereoriginallypublishedrespectivelyin D. Wyse, N. Selwyn, E. Smith & L. Suter (Eds.). (2016). The BERA/ SAGE handbook in educational research, SAGE, and Scott, D. (2017). New perspectives on curriculum, learning and assessment, Springer. In addition, pages 49–52 and 63–69 of Scott, D. (2000). Realism and educational research, Routledge, and pages 49–52 of Scott, D. Learning affordances of language and communication national curricula. The Curriculum Journal, 27, 1 are republished in this book in a significantly abridgedform.Permissionshavebeenreceivedfromthethreepublishers, with thanks. vii C ONTENTS 1 Introduction–EducationSystems andTheir Sub-systems 1 2 Accountsof EducationSystems, Teachers andLearners 21 3 JudgementsAboutEducationSystems,PeopleandPractices 41 4 LearningEnvironments 55 5 LearningandAcademicKnowledge 91 6 GlobalEducation andEducational Reform 101 7 Conclusions–Educational Discourses 109 References 147 Author Index 155 SubjectIndex 159 ix L T IST OF ABLES Table1.1 Overallqualityprofile:definitionsofstarredlevels 3 Table1.2 Gradedescriptorsforoveralleffectiveness 8 xi CHAPTER1 – Introduction Education Systems and Their Sub-systems Thisbookisaboutknowledgeandthewayitisandcanbeformed,thatis, givenshapeandmeaning.Sociohistoricalcasesofknowledgedevelopment that I will be examining in this book are: the Research Excellence Framework (REF) for UK higher education institutions and its proposed complementaryframeworkforteachingandlearninginthesehigheredu- cationinstitutions,theTeachingExcellenceFramework(TEF);classsizes in English schools; teaching and learning practices in schools and higher education institutions; disciplinary knowledge; international comparative assessment systems such as the Programme for International Student Assessment(PISA); andpeer reviewingin academicjournals, forresearch grants and in promotion exercises in higher education institutions. Broadly, the focus will be on how we make educational judgements about educational matters, where the we is understood as not just the author and readers of this book but all those interested in the formation and development of the education system in the UK and its equivalences elsewhere. Knowledgeisnotasaconsequencetreatedunproblematically,asitisby manypoliticianswhoseparateoutfactsfromvaluesinanunreflectiveway; or by journalists who refuse to accept that their carefully managed accounts of events and happenings in the world are always ideologically framed both in relation to their content and to how they are presented (A recent editorial in the Guardian Newspaper (15 August 2016) suggested that: ‘Journalists do not deserve protection because they ©TheAuthor(s)2017 1 D.Scott,EducationSystemsandLearners, DOI10.1057/978-1-137-59884-4_1 2 EDUCATIONSYSTEMSANDLEARNERS constitute a protected group, they need it because they can show the world as it really is and allow the unheard to find a voice’); or of course by many academics, not least in the field of education in which I work, whosebrandofknowledgeisbothdangerouslyreductiveandphilosophi- callynaïve.So,forexample,somearguethattheepistemologicalframefor anyenquiryhastobereducedtoconceptsandtherelationsbetweenthem that can subsequently be measured; or that it is not possible to judge between different andrival theoriesabout the samesocialobject. However, nothing that I have written here proscribes a social dimen- siontothedevelopmentofknowledge,andinturnthishastobecarefully plotted and recorded by those committed to some form of truthful enquiry.Research,whichistheprincipalmechanismforknowledgedevel- opment,isbothdescriptive(understoodinanon-representationalistway) and developmental and prescriptive, that is, it both gives an account of realityandintheprocesschangesthenatureofthatreality,thoughnotin everyinstance.Itredescribesandreformulatestheobjectoftheinvestiga- tion, and in some cases this is quite clearly its intention. (For evidence of thislooknofurtherthantheextraordinaryinfluenceoftheProgrammefor International Student Assessment (PISA) on educational communities and systems round the world.) It is incumbent on us, however, to treat all knowledge development as work in progress, as the philosopher, Karl Popper (2002),wasinclined todo. THE RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK The Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014 is the most recent exercise in a series of national assessments (formerly known as Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs)) of the quality of research in British Universities goingbackto1986. The Higher Education FundingCouncil (HEFCE)andtheirequivalentbodiesinWales(HigherEducationFunding CouncilforWales(HEFCW)),Scotland(ScottishFundingCouncil(SFC)) andNorthernIreland(DepartmentforEducationandLearning(DEL))are responsiblefororganisingtheREFandaccountabletothegovernmentfor doingso.Asaresult,HEFCEandtheotherthreebodiesallocateresearch monies to the UK universities using a formula that is decided after the exercise has been completed (in some of these exercises 2* outputs were fundedgenerously,whereasinotherstheyonlyreceivedacursoryreward). In 2014, universities were required to submit four outputs per member of staff (with some exceptions) (65% of the aggregated score), a series of

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