News analysis Future teaching to be up close and personalised

11 Jan 07
Pay attention at the back. Teaching methods are changing. No more crowded ranks of children meekly bending their heads over exercise books, slavishly copying down whichever National Curriculum-honed pearls of wisdom teacher has written on the blackboard.

12 January 2007

Pay attention at the back. Teaching methods are changing. No more crowded ranks of children meekly bending their heads over exercise books, slavishly copying down whichever National Curriculum-honed pearls of wisdom teacher has written on the blackboard.

The new dawn of personalised learning is upon us: a bright new future, in which children are active participants in their own education and teachers have the freedom to design lessons and set work that responds more specifically to their pupils' needs.

Several years after the then school standards minister David Miliband coined the phrase, 'personalised learning' has been given some substance. The mantra of redesigning services around the needs of users was never quite enough for educationalists. What exactly were ministers driving at?

To answer the question, Christine Gilbert, then chief executive of Tower Hamlets council, now the head of Ofsted, was asked by former education secretary Ruth Kelly in March last year to lead a panel of experts to put some meat on the concept's bones and suggest ways to deliver personalised learning. The panel's report, 2020 vision, was published on January 4.

It sets out some aspirations and a broad direction of travel for the next decade, recommending a sharper focus on the progress and achievement of each pupil so that no child is left behind.

It is critical of past approaches, which have concentrated too much on average rather than individual attainment levels. While more pupils are passing exams, there is a considerable tail of underachievement, particularly among certain groups. For instance, boys fail to perform as well as girls, particularly in English, and the gap in average attainment at Key Stage Two between pupils eligible and ineligible for free school meals has remained largely unaltered.

Personalisation, the report says, is the answer: a matter of 'moral purpose and social justice'. 'The country cannot accept a situation in which over 20% of children leave primary schools without a solid foundation in literacy or numeracy, or one in which over 10% of 16–18-year-olds are not in education, employment or training,' it states.

'It seems clear to us that the education system will not achieve the next step-change in raising standards by doing more of the same: a new approach is required.'

Derek Wise, head of Cramlington High in Northumberland and a member of the panel, says: 'The education system needs to act now if it is to transform the experiences of children starting school today. We want a system that, as children mature, takes greater account of their views and engages them as partners in learning, shaping what, how and where they learn.'

A less obvious aspect of the report is its focus on continuing professional development for teachers themselves. It includes a call to embed personalised teaching in initial staff training and to offer them more structured opportunities to refresh and extend their skills.

Alan Gotch, a policy adviser with the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, told Public Finance such proposals had potential. 'We feel [teachers'] professional identity has been lost over the past 15 years or so,' he says. 'Following the advent of national strategies, teachers have been reduced to the status of technicians – delivering someone else's model using strategies set by someone else.'

According to Gotch, schools need some control over what they teach, and teachers some control over their professional lives. The government's prescriptive approach has not worked, he says, so the inclusion in the report of a new target on pupil progression is disappointing.

'We've had years of a target-based culture. Some would say that it hasn't raised standards. More kids are passing tests but we are still hearing the same complaints from employers and higher education,' Gotch adds.

John Bangs, assistant secretary at the National Union of Teachers, agrees that the professional development proposals are long overdue. 'Christine Gilbert has put her toe on the first rung of the ladder,' he told PF. 'Teachers constantly and consistently need professional development they can own and update themselves.'

But Bangs warns that attaching teacher training and development to personalisation might confuse matters, adding that the report ignores key evidence on how training is best delivered.

Other suggestions, particularly the proposal to review the National Curriculum and how it is tested, have been welcomed. The curriculum needs to be minimalist and light-touch, Gotch says, 'focusing on the sort of person a pupil is to become rather than just the transfer of knowledge'.

Bangs adds that the plan to introduce more flexibility into the testing regime, allowing children to sit national tests when they are ready, would be a much-needed radical step.

But he also notes that none of the proposals has been costed, and fears that many of the ideas will come to naught without proper cash. The unions are all too aware that government departments are unable to make major spending commitments until after this summer's Comprehensive Spending Review.

But Education Secretary Alan Johnson has already stolen a march on some of 2020's ideas, launching a consultation on January 8 which proposes one-to-one tuition in English and maths for children falling behind, plus the flexibility to allow pupils to sit key stage tests when they are ready.

Johnson's rhetoric suggests he is fully signed up to personalisation. 'I want a relentless focus on the progress of each individual; maximising the chances for every child to learn, achieve and fulfil their potential,' he said this week.

While Johnson has promised that nothing will be introduced until it has been properly road-tested, there is wariness that the new regime could become even more bureaucratic than its predecessor.

'I worry about it,' Gotch reflects. 'A lot of high-flown aspirations once implemented become a different animal.'

2020 vision – a summary

  • A new, aspirational target focused on speeding up progress between Key Stages One and Two
  • Every school to devise a strategy to personalise teaching and promote 'learning to learn'
  • Schools should identify all pupils and groups not making progress in any key stage and put in place progress plans designed to overcome barriers to learning
  • Ofsted should report on the practices of schools that 'buck the trend' in boys' underachievement
  • The government should consider introducing an entitlement for additional support, possibly from external providers, for pupils not progressing in English and maths
  • A pilot to test ways pupils and parents can access this additional support
  • A review of the National Curriculum and its assessment to ensure it develops in ways that support personalised learning, including more flexible testing
  • Personalised learning to become a fundamental part of teacher training
  • A pilot scheme offering term-long sabbaticals to high-performing teachers who commit themselves to challenging schools for five to seven years

    PFjan2007

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