Seven Myths About Education

149 Pages·2014·1.43 MB·English

by  Daisy Christodoulou

Seven Myths About Education
In this controversial new book, Daisy Christodoulou offers a thought-
provoking critique of educational orthodoxy. Drawing on her recent experience
of teaching in challenging schools, through a wide range of examples and case
studies she shows just how much classroom practice contradicts basic scientifi c
principles. She examines seven widely held beliefs which are holding back
pupils and teachers:
• facts prevent understanding
• teacher-led instruction is passive
• the twenty-fi rst century fundamentally changes everything
• you can always just look it up
• we should teach transferable skills
• projects and activities are the best way to learn
• teaching knowledge is indoctrination.
In each accessible and engaging chapter, Christodoulou sets out the theory of
each myth, considers its practical implications and shows the worrying
prevalence of such practice. Then, she explains exactly why it is a myth, with
reference to the principles of modern cognitive science. She builds a powerful
case explaining how governments and educational organisations around the
world have let down teachers and pupils by promoting and even mandating
evidence-less theory and bad practice.
This blisteringly incisive and urgent text is essential reading for all teachers,
teacher training students, policy makers, headteachers, researchers and
academics around the world.
Daisy Christodoulou is Research and Development Manager at ARK
Schools, UK.
‘This splendid, disinfecting book needs to be distributed gratis to every teacher,
administrator, and college professor in the US’ – Professor E.D. Hirsch, eminent
US scholar and former University of Virginia Professor of Education and
Humanities
‘It is clear, from reading this book, that much of what is currently considered as “best
practice” in schools, is in fact close to useless: at best merely a waste of time, and at
worst an impediment to learning. [This book] is extremely controversial in the best
way possible: it is correct’ – Tom Bennett, TES columnist, author and teacher,
UK
Seven Myths
About Education
Daisy Christodoulou
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 D. Christodoulou
The right of D. Christodoulou to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to identify the owners of
copyrights and to obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted
material.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Christodoulou, Daisy.
The seven myths about education / authored by Daisy
Christodoulou. -- First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-415-74681-6 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-0-415-74682-3
(pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-315-79739-7 (e-book) 1. Education--
Research--Case studies. 2. Education--Philosophy--Case studies. I.
Title.
LB1028.C538 2014
370.7--dc23
2013038157
ISBN: 978-0-415-74681-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-74682-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-79739-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
The Curriculum Centre is a charitable organisation, founded to share the
benefi ts of deep curriculum change. Its purpose is to help teachers and schools
give pupils the foundational knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the
21st Century through effective and engaging content.
The Curriculum Centre has worked with national organisations, such as the
Prince’s Teaching Institute and the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust,
and is currently leading a research pilot to improve reading comprehension
skills through the teaching of History and Geography in primary aged pupils.
The Word and World project is supported by the Education Endowment
Foundation and is being evaluated by Durham University.
We welcome interest from teachers, leaders and schools ready to take a fresh
look at their curriculum.
For more information visit: www.thecurriculumcentre.org
First Published June 2013
Published by The Curriculum Centre.
The Curriculum Centre, 11 Belgrave Road, London, SW1V 1RB
[email protected]
http://www.thecurriculumcentre.org
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN 978-0-9575919-0-5
The Curriculum Centre is part of Future Academies, registered
charity number 1123828. Future Academies is sponsored by
Future, registered charity number 1114396.
The views expressed are those of the author, not of The
Curriculum Centre
Contents
Foreword by Professor E.D. Hirsch ix
Foreword by Dylan Wiliam xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
1 Myth 1: facts prevent understanding 11
2 Myth 2: teacher-led instruction is passive 27
3 Myth 3: the twenty-first century fundamentally
changes everything 47
4 Myth 4: you can always just look it up 59
5 Myth 5: we should teach transferable skills 71
6 Myth 6: projects and activities are the best way to learn 89
7 Myth 7: teaching knowledge is indoctrination 109
Conclusion 129
Index 131
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Foreword by
Professor E.D. Hirsch
When this book fi rst came out like a cleansing breeze from across the Atlantic
Ocean to the USA, I wrote on the Huffi ngton Post that it deserved “to be
nominated as the “best book of 2013 on American education.” I observed that
there’s little difference in the dominant educational ideas of the two countries,
and that these ideas are accurately described as myths. The myths that Daisy
Christodoulou identifi es are anti-intellectual and (unwittingly) anti-egalitarian.
By disparaging facts and knowledge they simultaneously lower overall school
achievement and widen the gap between haves and have-nots.
Social science research in the United States has shown a consistent correlation
between income and vocabulary size. Students who have been read to as
toddlers, and who understand the language of the classroom are constantly
building up their knowledge and vocabulary in school. Those who come from
less advantaged homes enter school without the verbal repertoire and knowledge
that enable them to thrive. Instead, they fall further behind more fortunate
children.
This widening of the gap can be reversed by systematic knowledge building
in the school – as 25 years of evidence from Core Knowledge schools has
shown. But no such good result can come from incoherent curricula and
teachers who have been indoctrinated in anti-fact myths.
When this book came out in digital form last year, the educational
establishment on both sides of the Atlantic criticized it vigorously for creating
“straw men.” What good teachers believed was much more subtle, so they
said, which was that facts in isolation worked against “understanding,” and that
teacher-led teaching led to passivity. The slogans which have caused the anti-
fact ideas to persist have been refi ned and fi eld tested for a hundred years.
Subtle rhetorical adjustments have been made in their manner of presentation,
enabling the defenders of the status quo to claim that Ms Christodoulou is
describing “straw men!” No sensible person, they respond, ever actually said
that “Facts prevent understanding.” Now it’s true that no one ever puts it in
just that blunt way. Rather, the idea is implied by persistently repeating the
principle that facts are much less important than “understanding.” This book’s