Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
Published byChristal Robertson Modified over 9 years ago
1
The importance of (learning and) teaching to the Institute of Education Dylan Wiliam
2
A brief history of HE funding… Integration of funding pre-1992 and post-1992 universities Research Quality based mechanism (RAE) QR supports a maximum of 50% of academic staff salary Teaching Quality-independent mechanism (tolerance bands) Fee caps too low for discrimination between providers Commodification of teaching
3
Future developments Quality-related student contributions to tuition costs Need to achieve, and demonstrate, increased quality The ‘death of distance’ for distance learning students but also for students attending full-time To secure its future, the Institute needs to become as demonstrably excellent for its teaching as it is for its research
4
Enrolment on modules in 2008 20062008 Mean:1518 Median1216 Mode1115 Policy minimum: 23 students per module
5
Teaching: a scarily complex activity (Denvir & Brown, 1986)
6
…and we are largely on our own… Two extremes Teachers doing the learning for the learners Teachers “facilitating learning” Key concept Teachers do not create learning Learners create learning But all teachers can do is teach (learning vs. teaching) Teaching is the engineering of effective learning environments Psychology underdetermines pedagogy Teaching is fundamentally a creative activity Creativity is very widely distributed, but often suppressed
7
The test of successful education is not the amount of knowledge that a pupil takes away from school, but his appetite to know and his capacity to learn. If the school sends out children with the desire for knowledge and some idea how to acquire it, it will have done its work. Too many leave school with the appetite killed and the mind loaded with undigested lumps of information. The good schoolmaster is known by the number of valuable subjects which he declines to teach. (Sir Richard Livingstone, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1941) Curriculum: a selection from culture Balanced Rigorous Vertically integrated Focused Principles of curriculum design
8
Signature pedagogies
9
In Law
10
In Medicine
11
Effective learning environments Create student engagement pedagogies of engagement Well-regulated pedagogies of contingency Develop habits of mind pedagogies of formation
12
Pedagogies of engagement Intelligence is partly inherited So what? Intelligence is partly environmental Environment creates intelligence Intelligence creates environment Dual-pathway theory (Boekaerts) Well-being Growth Learning environments Inclusive Varied Efficient
13
Active learning roles? The TIMSS video studies of middle-school mathematics classrooms looked at the proportion of teacher words to student words in randomly selected examples of classroom practice USA 8 Japan 13 Hong Kong 16
14
Hinge-point question On average, across all the award-bearing teaching at the Institute,how many teacher words are there per student word? A.More student words than teacher words B.About equal numbers of teacher words and student words C.Three times as many teacher words as student words D.Five times as many teacher words as student words E.More than five times as many teacher words as student words
15
Motivation: cause or effect? competence challenge Flow apathy boredom relaxation arousal anxiety worry control high low high (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)
16
Pedagogies of contingency Learning is unpredictable Learners do not learn what we teach It is only through assessment that we can connect what we do as teachers to its outcomes (“like so many bottles thrown out into the sea”; Perrenoud 1998) Assessment is therefore the bridge between teaching and learning, and thus the central process of teaching (as opposed to lecturing) A large, and growing literature providing evidence of the beneficial effects of formative assessment
17
An assessment functions formatively when evidence about student achievement elicited by the assessment is interpreted and used to make decisions about the next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions that would have been made in the absence of that evidence. Formative assessment therefore involves the creation of, and capitalization upon, moments of contingency (short, medium and long cycle) in instruction with a view to regulating learning (proactive, interactive, and retroactive). Formative assessment
18
Dealing with diversity Ignore it (“one-size-fits-all”) Individualize instruction (“made-to-measure”) Personalization Mass customization (rather than mass production or individualization) Diversity becomes a valuable instructional resource
19
Hinge-point question An experimental study of a new method of teaching reading reports that a result was significant (p<0.05). This means that: A.The experimental group out-performed the control group by 5% B.There is a 5% chance that the experimental group did not out-perform the control group C.There is a 5% chance that there is no difference between the experimental group and the treatment group D.There is only a 5% chance that the observed result would have happened if the experimental and control groups had the same achievement
20
Hinge-point question Which of the following is the most important difference between the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky? A.Piaget places greater importance on the role of conservation in cognitive development. B.Vygotsky places greater importance on the role of cultural artifacts in cognitive development. C.Vygotsky did not believe in distinct stages of cognitive development. D.Piaget was a social constructivist while Vygotsky placed greater emphasis on cultural-historical activity theory
21
Other supports for contingency All-student response systems ABCD cards “Exit-pass” questions
22
Hinge-point question Summarize the key principles of the following schools of psychology on the appropriate coloured card Associationism (blue) Information processing (orange) Constructivism (red) Situated approaches (green)
23
Pedagogies of formation Instilling disciplinary habits of mind History Philosophy Statistics Instilling critical perspectives Values
24
Improving our practice
25
The limitations of consciousness (Nørretranders, 1998)
26
Knowledge ‘transfer’ and creation After Nonaka & Tageuchi, 1995
27
Senning Transitional Switch Early death rate Senning12% Transitional25% Bull, et al (2000). BMJ, 320, 1168-1173. Improvements in pediatric cardiac surgery
28
Life expectancy: Senning: 46.6 years Switch:62.6 years Impact on life expectancy
29
No excuse for making the same mistakes over and over again But no excuse for not making mistakes “Make new mistakes” (Esther Dyson)
30
Summary Excellence in teaching is vital to the future success of the Institute Every single one of us needs to improve as a teacher Not because we are not good enough But because we can be better The Institute needs to play a leading role in developing signature pedagogies for Education and related Social Science
31
Closing thoughts “In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and highest responsibility anyone could have.” Lee Iacocca “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.” Marianne Williamson, A return to love
Similar presentations
© 2025 SlidePlayer.com. Inc.
All rights reserved.