Education for All

Education for All Evidence from the past, principles for the future Richard Pring, Department of Education, University of Oxford Andrew Pollard, Institute of Education, University of London

www.tlrp.org

Š Richard Pring and Andrew Pollard, February 2011 This document may be reproduced with acknowledgement of the original source. Together with a summarising TLRP Research Briefing, it is available under a Creative Commons licence at www.tlrp.org/educationforall.

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

5

Twelve Challenges and Principles

6

Introduction – Reviews of Education: Genesis and Significance

8

Part I: What is education for?

Section 1 A Bit of History Section 2 Educational Aims and Values Section 3 Social and Economic Context Section 4 Developmental Processes Challenges and Principles

12 15 18 21 24

Part II: What are the consequences of educational aims for learning and teaching?

Section 5 A Wider Vision of Learning Section 6 Learning and Curriculum Section 7 Learning and Pedagogy Section 8 Learning and Assessment Challenges and Principles

26 32 36 39 41

Part III: What sort of system would achieve educational aims?

Section 9 Provision of Education and Training Section 10 Funding and Resources Section 11 Qualifications and Progression Section 12 The role of Government Challenges and Principles

44 47 49 52 55

Conclusion

57

Notes and References

58

Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future 

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4  Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

Preface and Acknowledgements

This publication has its own history.

The idea for a ‘review of reviews’ – an attempt to summarise and distil the policy implications of available sectoral reviews – was formed early in TLRP’s development. The concept was inspired by the National Commission on Education which, under the leadership of Sir Claus Moser and funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, had consulted widely, gathered evidence and produced a report: Learning to Succeed (1993).

As an unusually large, medium-term investment in educational research, TLRP was able to contemplate emulating this precedent – though ultimately the Programme’s funding model could not stretch to a project on that scale. What we have here then, is a more pragmatic harvesting of available sectoral reviews which, together, provide evidence on most major sectors of education in England.

The work is one product from a TLRP Programme Fellowship, held by Andrew Pollard during 2009/10, and we are grateful to ESRC for funding his contribution. This was supplemented by an award from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to the Institute of Education, University of London, which enabled Richard Pring to work on the project. Richard has led in the drafting of this text and much of his voice and experience comes through.

We are grateful to colleagues who led the sectoral reviews and initiatives on which we have drawn. In particular, we acknowledge the advice provided by Robin Alexander (Director, Cambridge Primary Review), Alan Brown, Miriam David and Mary James (Directors’ Team, TLRP), Tom Schuller (Director, Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning) and John Vorhaus (Director, Center for the Wider Benefits of Learning). Their achievements are considerable and their publications speak for

themselves. Hilary Hodgson of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has also been a particular source of support and James O’Toole of TLRP has provided administration at several key points with his admirable efficiency and goodwill.

However, the present report is our responsibility and is not that of the authors of the Review documents on which we have drawn or of colleagues who have provided support. Others should not be held responsible for any errors of interpretation which we may have made, or arguments which we have developed.

Based on evidence from selected sources, our goal has been to highlight enduring issues and challenges which face policy-makers in contemplating education in England and to suggest principles which might inform future decisionmaking. We have had in mind the reality of rapidly changing Ministerial responsibilities, with a typical term of office since 1945 being well under two years. How then, can an incoming Minister ‘get up to speed’ on the issues which he or she will face? Additionally, how can an incoming Minister ensure that the decisions he or she takes will enable authentic and constructive development of educational provision, with an appropriate balance of continuity and change?

The initiative reported here was thus intended to be supportive of policy-makers by distilling a selection of available evidence and re-presenting it in a form which could helpfully inform future decision-making.

A summary research briefing has also been produced and these texts are available on the TLRP website at www.tlrp.org/educationforall.

Andrew Pollard and Richard Pring, February 2011

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Twelve Challenges and Principles

Arising from the evidence of the Reviews are twelve challenges to those who are responsible for policy and who thereby shape practice. To meet those challenges, we suggest, section by section, the following principles for consideration in future policy-formulation.

Part I: What is education for?

1

Challenge: Lessons from history are important. Very often, ‘we have been here before’.

2

Challenge: Aims of education are often spelt out solely in terms of economic utility and relevance.

rinciple: Policy and frameworks of entitlement should reflect the broad aims P of educating persons, such as: • understanding of the physical, social and economic worlds, • practical capabilities, • economic utility, • moral seriousness, • sense of community, collaboration and justice, • sense of fulfilment • motivation to continue learning even to ‘the fourth age’.

Principle: Ministers, political advisers, civil servants and educational professionals should acquaint themselves with recent history of education in order to build cumulatively on worthwhile successes and to avoid repeating mistakes.

3 Challenge: In responding to national priorities and in promoting ‘education for all’, policy must also reflect the diversity of social and economic conditions which affect learning.

rinciple: In pursuing educational aims, the system of education should recognise the significance P of particular economic, social and personal circumstances, and thus enable flexible adaptation of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to meet specific needs.

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hallenge: Too easily the capacities of people to learn are seen, from early years to old age, C to be strictly limited by nature.

rinciple: ‘Biology is not destiny’. Still more and better investment in the early years is crucial, P but the brain remains adaptable from experiences and learning opportunities throughout life.

Part II: What are the consequences of educational aims for learning and teaching?

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hallenge: Formal education is dominated by narrowly conceived forms of academic learning, C thus undermining other capabilities of importance to our society, economy and citizens.

rinciple: A wider vision of education should respect and reward the practical as well P as the academic, informal and experiential as well as formal learning, and should draw upon the wide range of expertise within the community.

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twelve challenges and principles

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Challenge: The school curriculum has become overloaded and dysfunctional, and fails to meet the needs of many young people.

Principle: A curriculum entitlement framework should be designed to introduce young people to subjects and the broad domains of knowledge, to practical capabilities and skills, to a sense of achievement, to the ‘big issues’ which confront society and to the knowledge and dispositions for active citizenship, yet be flexible enough for teachers to adapt appropriately.

7

Challenge: Teachers’ pedagogical expertise and professionalism are essential to educational quality from early years to adult learning, but this is not consistently understood or provided for in our culture, policy and provision.

Principle: Teachers’ expertise in the enhancement of learning should be supported and challenged by provision for continuing professional development in all phases of education and by a single system of qualified teacher status.

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Challenge: The ‘high stakes’ testing regime serves incompatible purposes and narrows what is to be learnt.

Principle: The different purposes of assessment (i.e. supporting different kinds of learning, holding the system accountable and certifying achievements) require different and appropriate modes of assessment, and maintenance of appropriate balance between them.

Part III: What sort of system would achieve educational aims?

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hallenge: Learner circumstances are diverse and wide-ranging, so that no one school or college C has the resources or expertise to meet the needs and aspirations of all young people within it.

Principle: Local collaborative and democratic learning partnerships (embracing schools, further education colleges, universities, employers, independent training providers, and voluntary bodies) should be established to promote continuity in provision for lifelong learning.

10 C hallenge: There are too many different funding streams, often for the same work, creating unfair and often inefficient distribution of resources.

Principle: Funding should be directed to locally developed partnerships, with regional oversight by local authorities which will be in a position to understand the educational and training needs of the different phases and communities.

11 C hallenge: The present system of qualifications is highly complex in terms of progression routes, levels and equivalences, and little understood by employers, young people themselves hand higher education.

Principle: Qualifications should reflect the aims of learning, including the practical, informal and experiential, and should provide a framework which is enabling, clear and stable.

12 Challenge: There has emerged a highly centralised and detrimental control over education and training.

rinciple: The Government should ensure necessary resources, teacher supply, legal frameworks, P curricular entitlement and overall accountability, but place responsibility for detailed provision with institutions, partnerships and authorities in particular localities.

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Introduction – Reviews of Education: Genesis and Significance

So much that is desirable in society depends on the quality of education and training which are provided by schools, colleges, higher education, adult education, employers, independent training providers and ‘third sector’ (voluntary bodies).

For instance, economic success, in a highly competitive world, depends on a skilled, literate and numerate workforce. Furthermore, quality of life depends on the realisation of the wider human capacities to think, to reason, to appreciate and to create – the end-product, one hopes, of a well rounded education. Further still, human wellbeing depends on a healthy democratic society in which all feel able to participate and to which all are enabled to contribute; citizenship requires the enhancement of social attitudes, dispositions and skills.

Such broad aims of education (economic relevance, human well-being and the enrichment of society) should permeate policy and practice at every level.

In the last two years several major reports provided comprehensive and independent Reviews of many aspects of education and training in England and Wales ‘from cradle to grave’. If policy and practice are to be based on evidence, which Ministers often affirm, these Reviews are essential reference points. They review a wide range of research relevant to policy and practice. But each Review recognises that such evidence has to be understood in the light of broader and often controversial questions about educational aims – reaching a balance between economic, personal and social well-being.

That is where each Review starts.

This Report pulls together these Reviews, pointing, first, to the broad agreement on educational aims, and, second, to the consequences of that agreement for teaching, learning and the provision of education and training. Though arising from Reviews within England and Wales, the principles have resonance across the UK.

8 Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

Circumstances and context change; it is impossible to recommend in detail what incoming Ministers should do. But emerging from these Reviews are principles, founded on evidence. We believe these, have enduring value and are offered as a guide to both policy and practice through the inevitable coming and going of Ministers.

The Reviews drawn upon are: Cambridge Primary Review: 2010, edited by Alexander, R. Children, their World, their Education, London: Routledge (referred to in the text as CPR) Since the 1970s, primary schools have been the focus of criticism, whether justified or not, for ‘poor standards and suspect ideology’. Hence, as the CPR points out (p.1), there has been a ‘programme of unprecedented investment and direct government intervention yielding £2 billion initiatives in literacy and numeracy, and much more besides’. The CPR was funded in 2006 by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to evaluate the current state of primary education by combining ‘retrospective evidence with prospective vision’. The final report, based on extensive research, drew together over 30 interim reports. Its website is can be found at: www.primaryreview.org.uk Nuffield Review: 2009, Pring, R., Hayward, G., Hodgson, A., Johnson, J., Keep, E., Oancea, A., Rees, G., Spours, K., Wilde, S., Education for All: the Future of Education and Training for 14-19 Year Olds in England and Wales, London: Routledge (referred to as NR).

Much happens at the age of 14 in our schools: choices are made about pathways to be followed; the run-up to GCSE begins; guidance for future careers kicks in; possibilities of college based education are opened up. More radical choices are necessary at 16. In 2003, the Nuffield Foundation funded a major Review of every aspect of 14-19 provision to be led

by Richard Pring. The final Report was supported by a wide range of research papers, and these remain available on its website (www.nuffieldfoundation.org/ nuffield-review-14-19-education-and-training-0)

introduction – reviews of education: genesis and significance

1 James, M. and Pollard, A. (2006) Improving Teaching and Learning in Schools.

2 Howard-Jones, P., 2006, Neuroscience and Education: Issues and Opportunities 3 Hofkins, D., 2007, Principles into Practice: A Teacher’s Guide to Research Evidence on Teaching and Learning 4 David, M. et al., 2008, Widening Participation in Higher Education 5 Fuller, A. and Unwin, L., 2008, Towards Expansive Apprenticeships 6 Nash, I., Jones, S., Ecclestone, K., Brown, A., 2008, Challenge and Change in Further Education 7 Selwyn, N., 2008, Education 2.0? Designing the Web for Teaching and Learning 8 Brown, A., 2008, Higher Skills Development at Work 9 David, M., 2008, Effective Learning and Teaching in UK Higher Education 10 Brown, P., Lauder, H., Ashton, D., 2008, Education, Globalisation and the Knowledge Economy 11 Mansell, W. and James, M., 2009, Assessment in Schools: Fit for Purpose?

12 Pollard, A., 2010, Professionalism and Pedagogy: a Contemporary Opportunity

Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning: 2009, Schuller, T. and Watson, D., Learning Through Life, London: NIACE (referred to in the text as IFLL) This Inquiry was set up in 2007 by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, and informed by over 250 evidence submissions.

The Report is ‘nested’ in 30 supplementary papers published on www.lifelonglearninginquiry.org.uk.

Although the primary focus is on adult learning, it emphasises crucial continuity with early childhood and schooling.

Mental Capital and Well Being Report, 2008, Feinstein, L., Vorhaus, J., Sabates, R., Learning through Life: Future Challenges: London: Govt.

Office for Science (referred to as MCWB) The Office for Science’s Foresight Programme advises the Government on how to achieve the best possible mental development for everyone.

This Report considered factors which could affect ‘learning through life’ over the next 20 years. The report is on www.foresight.gov.uk National Child Development Study, 2008, Now We are 50: Key findings from the NCDS 2008, Elliott, J. and Vaitilingam, R. (eds) (referred to as NCDS).

This summarises key findings from the longitudinal study of 17,000 people who have been closely tracked since their birth in 1958. The report provides unique insights into the consequences of education in relation to other experiences through life. (See publications section of www.ncds.info.)

Teaching and Learning Research Programme, Commentaries: 2006-10 (referred to as TLRP with a number related to a specific report, e.g. TLRP5).

TLRP has been the UK’s largest recent investment in educational research. Directed by Andrew Pollard, it studied issues which would enable improvements in learning within all educational sectors. Such a programme, therefore, overlaps with the different phases of the above reports and fills gaps which division into phases inevitably creates. For the purpose of this review, TLRP’s Commentary output has been drawn on to represent key messages from the overall research programme. TLRP’s documents can be downloaded from www.tlrp.org/pub/ commentaries. The TLRP Commentaries directly referred to in this report to are:

As will be apparent from the list above, comprehensive, public reviews of early years, of higher education and of workplace learning were not available – and other gaps may also be identified. We have not attempted to fully address provision in sectors lacking a contemporary, integrated review, though we do make some reference to them when appropriate. We believe that many of the challenges and principles which we have identified are likely to recur. When such work has been done, we hope that it may be possible to develop the analysis further.

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10  Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

Part I: What is education for?

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Section 1 A Bit of History

The three main themes of the Reviews (the aims of education, their realisation in teaching and learning, and the institutional provision for teaching and learning) have a history. Some knowledge of that history is essential for understanding the present and shaping the future.

Key points • ‘We’ve been here before’: future policy should learn from the past.

• That ‘past’, following the 1944 Butler Act, saw the value of educational partnerships.

• Subsequent policy changes followed in the light of independent reports of evidence.

The most important ‘bit of history’ which makes this Review of Reviews necessary is the constant change, especially in England, of ministerial responsibility for education and training. Since 1975 there have been 16 Secretaries of State, the longest term being that of Keith Joseph (5 years), the shortest that of Estelle Morris (1 year). Under these Secretaries of State there have been over 50 Ministerial appointments with various responsibilities.

to be extended to the age of 16. The Act legislated for provision of nursery schools and classes, special education, and ‘county colleges’ where young people from 15 to 18 could attend part-time.

It is important to note amongst other things: • the absence of central government control over curriculum content and pedagogy; • responsibility of local education authorities (LEAs) for the shape of local provision; • lack of a national system of examinations (left to awarding bodies in universities); • the assumption of professional teacher responsibility for the curriculum.

A tripartite system was implicit in the emphasis on provision according to ‘age, ability and aptitude’, and emerged in most LEAs – selection to grammar schools at 11 for roughly 15%, a few going to technical schools and the majority to secondary modern schools. Comprehensive schools did not emerge until the 1970s.

One thing is certain, therefore, about the governance of education at the highest level, namely, that no one is around for very long. It must be difficult for new ministers to get a clear grasp of their respective briefs, before they move to their next ministerial responsibility in another government department.

Hence, this reminder of ’where we have come from’.

Every so often, problems arose. Therefore, independent reports thought deeply about educational aims and sought research evidence regarding expansion of 15-18 (Crowther Report, 1959); lack of examinations and qualifications for the majority (Beloe Report, 1960); expansion of higher education (Robbins Report, 1963); meeting the needs of ‘half our future’ (Newsom Report, 1963); reform of primary education (Plowden Report, 1967); reform of primary education in Wales (Gittins Report, 1968); Language for Life (Bullock Report, 1975).

The 1944 Education Act shaped a national system of education for England and Wales. Although national, it was to be maintained by democratically elected local education authorities. The Act ensured public support, through central grant and local taxation, for community schools as well as voluntary aided and controlled schools, whose trustees were usually the Churches. The division between primary and secondary (normally at the age of 11) created for the first time secondary education for all, eventually

These reports were taken seriously by Ministers, civil servants and the teaching profession as they developed and implemented policy. Presupposed was the improvement of education through partnership between teachers (with professional expertise), local authorities (with knowledge of local needs and provision), and central government (with legal responsibility to ensure a national framework and adequate resources). That partnership is illustrated in

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section 1: a bit of history

the creation, detailed in the Lockwood Report (1964), of the ‘Schools Council for the Curriculum and Examinations’ – an advisory body, which supported, on the basis of research, curriculum development and professional development of teachers, with a parallel Council in Wales.

This post-war partnership enabled some exemplary provision, but it also produced variability. In the 1970s, public criticism was articulated more strongly and HMI reports challenged the status quo. The Prime Minister, in his Ruskin Speech of 1976, initiated a national debate on educational provision. Increasingly, learner entitlements and national priorities were asserted, and new frameworks and standards were created to which teachers were expected to comply.

With the increasing control over education and training by central government, reflected in the creation by the Education Reform Act of 1988 of a National Curriculum (similarly in Wales), came a decline in, though by no means end to, independent reports. Lord Dearing, for instance, provided three reports addressing perceived problems in the National Curriculum, in post-16 examinations and in higher education1. However, that broad picture, as presented in earlier reports, came increasingly to depend on the initiative of independent foundations.

Following Sir Claus Moser’s presidential address to the British Association in 1990, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation established its own National Commission to carry out an overall review of the education and training scene – in the words of Sir Claus Moser:

However, in education, simple answers are rare. The issues which arise invariably pose dilemmas, and decisions taken in one circumstance may need to be reviewed in another. The wise policy maker and practitioner ‘dig down’ to the underlying issues and seek to understand them. Only in this way, can sound judgements be made.

For example, there is clearly a need for appropriate frameworks to organise national education provision. From our recent history, we know that too little structuring brings problems of quality and entitlement – but we also know that too much central control also compromises improvement and innovation. The pendulum may only stop swinging when a principled balance of responsibilities is established and sustained.

These questions have become more acute with the determination of the Government in England to create more Academies and Free Schools on the Swedish model, thereby affecting the collaboration between providers which had been an important part of previous policy. It was thought, therefore, that further independent scrutiny of the system is needed – in the spirit of the philosopher, Karl Popper:

… a review which would be visionary about the medium and long-term future facing our children and this country; treating the system in all its inter-connected parts; and, last but not least, considering the changes in our working and labour market scenes.2

The piecemeal engineer knows, like Socrates, how little he knows. He knows that we can learn only from our mistakes. Accordingly, he will make his way, step by step, carefully comparing the results expected with the results achieved, and always on the lookout for the unavoidable unwanted consequences of any reform; and he will always avoid undertaking reforms of a complexity and scope which make it impossible to disentangle causes and effects, and to know what he is really doing.3

Much has been achieved since the National Commission. However, new problems have arisen.

Certainly there have been ‘changes in our working and labour market scenes’ not anticipated in 1990.

But questions are raised about: quality of learning; curriculum content; assessment, examinations and qualifications; professional responsibilities of teachers; provision and funding; transition from one phase to another; progression into employment, further training and higher education; and the roles of local and national government.

It is in the light of such a perceived need that the several independent reviews, outlined in the Introduction, were commissioned. These cover the life-span ‘from cradle to grave’ (the phrase used by the IFLL to depict ‘life-long learning’). Despite the independence of these different reviews, there is much overlap especially in the aims and values inherent in their respective visions of education.

Together they provide a coherent vision of ‘the medium and long-term future facing our children and this country’.

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section 1: a bit of history

It is the aim of this synopsis to bring these different reviews together, to reinforce their shared vision educational aims, and to highlight what that vision entails for policy and practice. We hope that incoming Ministers will appreciate the importance of ‘a bit of history’ and consider the challenges and principles highlighted. After all, the future is in their hands.

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Section 2 Educational Aims and Values

Central to the Reviews were deliberations about the values which implicitly or explicitly direct educational policy and practice. What is education for? Only in the light of thoughtful answers to that question can we think about the quality of learning and the institutional arrangements to promote it. This section therefore permeates all that follows.

Key points • Aims of education are too often seen only in terms of economic and academic success.

• There is a need instead to consider the development of the ‘whole person’.

• Those aims frequently neglect lifelong learning.

• Those aims too often focus on individual achievement rather than on the public good.

The need for clear aims It would seem self-evident that policy and practice should be shaped by clear aims and values.

Even so, the Reviews noted how little attention is given to these, despite the unexamined values which often clearly underpin policy and practice.

One danger, pointed out in the Reviews, of neglecting these essentially ethical questions is that education is principally seen in government documents as the promotion of the knowledge and skills deemed necessary for economic success.

That of course is important. But, where such an aim comes to dominate educational discourse, reflected in the language of ‘targets’, ‘audits’ and ‘delivery’, then the intrinsic worth of educational activities tends to take second place. And those learners who cause the targets to be missed may be seen as educational failures.

What the Reviews say For the reasons described above • the Cambridge Primary Review asked

‘What is primary education for?’ (p.174-202), and answered with a list of aims which reflect values and should drive the curriculum. Those values arise from what it means to become ‘an educated person’, namely, developing the capacities in young children: to ‘make sense’ of their experiences and thereby to be empowered through knowledge; to have a sense of personal fulfilment; to be actively engaged in their learning; to have the moral qualities of respect and caring; to participate actively in the wider group in anticipation of becoming active citizens.

• the Nuffield Review (p.12) started with the question ‘What counts as an educated 19 yearold in this day and age?’, and similarly responded to this question by spelling out those qualities and capacities which are distinctive of being and growing as a person: – the knowledge and understanding through which all young people attain a more intelligent grasp of the physical, social and economic worlds which they inhabit; – the practical capabilities through which they are able, not just to think, but also to act, make and create intelligently; – the moral seriousness with which they address and care about the ‘big questions’ which confront them and the wider society – e.g. those concerned with environment, racism, poverty; – community relatedness – both a recognition of their intrinsic attachment to the wider community and a disposition to help shape it as citizens; – a sense of personal fulfilment through the pursuit of worthwhile interests – the opposite of a state of boredom.

• the IFLL Report (p.8) starts with the assertion that learning throughout life, as a human right, should be broadly conceived – to develop the capacities to respond to changing employment patterns and economic needs, certainly, but, more than that, to continue (even into the ‘fourth age’) personal growth, emancipation through knowledge, a sense of solidarity with the community both locally and globally,

Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

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section 2: educational aims and values

and control over one’s own life (e.g. in the spheres of health, finances, civic duties, employment and digital technology).

• TLRP (1, 3, 12), reflecting the values underpinning other TLRP papers, emphasise these broader aims of education. These are intrinsic to the understanding of teachers as educators (no mere trainers) and to the value of ‘widening participation in higher education’ (TLRP 4) which lies in more than greater economic utility.

• the MCWB Report (see p.34-42) underlines this broad purpose of ‘learning through life’ and ‘the wider benefits of learning’ – namely, a concern for the ‘well-being’ of each person. Such wellbeing requires mental good health, dispositions to continue learning, knowledge and skills for an economically useful life, qualities for participating in the social life of family and wider community, and social cohesion. Mental good health is in part an educational matter, too often ignored in the provision of formal learning.

A moral dimension to education These broad educational aims provide a moral dimension to education. They point to what it means to be an educated person and what it means for such a person to contribute to the ‘public good’.

That is important for two related reasons.

• First, the moral dimension has tended to be neglected in many government documents in recent years. But values, even when unexamined, still shape in detail the structure and content of education and training ‘from cradle to grave’.

Consequently, education is frequently seen as but a means to some further non-educational end – as reflected in the dominant reference to ‘skills’ for economic success in a competitive market and in the language of ‘effectiveness’ and of performance management in the achievement of that end (NR p.16; CCPR ch.12).

• The second, connected, reason why constant deliberation of such aims is important is that questionable but unexamined values get embedded in the everyday practices which follow from an over-emphasis on performance alone – as for example, in: – the narrow regime of SATs tests and consequent impoverishment of learning at the primary stage (see CCPR ch.16 and this document, section 8);

– the option to drop the arts and humanities at the age of 14 (NR p.107) or their marginalisation (CCPR p.252); – assessment which neglects practical competence and creativity (CCPR ch.17; NR p.80/2); – lack of room for prior experience in the curriculum (NR p.82) and in HE (TLRP 4); – predominantly economic justifications for widening participation in higher education; – lack of broad educational opportunities for adults and the ageing (IFLL ch.3); – neglect of less measurable aims like personal and social well-being (MCWB, p.35).

The Reviews considered here provide a continuing reminder of the vision of society in which learning plays its full role in ‘personal growth and emancipation, prosperity, solidarity and global responsibility’ (IFLL p.8)

Inequality and discrimination Also emphasised in the respective Reviews was the connection between educating and creating a fairer society (3, 5, 11; NR p.21/2; CCPR ch.12; MCWB ch.4) – what IFLL (p.xvii) refers to as ‘public value’, namely, its impact on the reduction of discrimination, crime, poverty and ill-health. This contrasts with the view of education as essentially a personal and ‘positional’ good.

That ‘public good’ embraces the creation of a society which eliminates prejudice and discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and social class. ‘Fairness’ and social solidarity is seen as a central educational value, more urgent today in the light of increased diversity and lower social mobility (see Section 3 below).

Moreover, the National Child Development Study (NCDS, 30), drawing on its synoptic analysis of 50 year olds, endorsed the words of the Report Born to Fail4, in saying: Educational achievement seems to play a central role in later life outcomes. Much of the relationship between disadvantage, delinquency, lower earnings and unemployment is generated because of the lower educational attainment of disadvantaged young people.

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section 2: educational aims and values

Hence, it is argued that a central role of education lies in addressing problems of a more culturally diverse and economically divided society and in contributing to greater social cohesion and equality. Thus, MCBC (p.17) points to the evidence for greater social cohesion, low prevalence of crime and high prevalence of pro-social behaviour, which can be nurtured through education: ‘education has a potential role to play in the prevention of most, if not all, of these features of personal and social dislocation’ (p.34).

Therefore, everyone who is engaged in education and training needs to think carefully and often about the aims of education and about the values which education should foster in all young people – not just for the privileged or the academically able.

Such essentially ethical deliberations affect all that follows – the vision of learning, the assessment of that learning, the opening up of opportunities through different progression routes and qualifications, and the provision and funding of formal education ‘from cradle to grave’.

However, as IFLL argues (thereby filling a gap in the normal narrative on education ‘from cradle to grave’), the ‘more just society’ includes not only the ‘socially disadvantaged’ but also the ‘adult disadvantaged’, namely • adults over 25 no longer entitled to formal education and training but whose continuing further education and training are crucial for their and society’s economic well-being; • those adults who are disabled and have special needs; • those who are retired but whose lives would be more fulfilling if they too had educational opportunities.

Conclusion Education aims to nurture the personal good of individuals and the public good of the society of which those individuals are part. That ‘good’ is to be spelt out in terms of the knowledge and understanding, the practical capabilities and skills, the moral seriousness and dispositions, the active participation in the wider community and the sense of achievement which are thought to be worthwhile. There will never be universal agreement on exactly what is worthwhile, but that is why educational policy and practice should constantly be subject to open ethical deliberation.

Furthermore, in pursuing such broad educational aims and values for all young people, the Reviews warn against the narrowing of those aims to purely academic achievement or to what is easily measurable. Such narrowness guarantees ‘educational failure’ to many who have achieved much and who demonstrate the benefits of a wider vision of learning.

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Section 3 Social and Economic Context

It is one thing to have a general idea of the aims of education. It is quite another to see how they translate into practice in context which are so diverse socially and economically.

Such diversity and its significance were extensively described by the Reviews.

some years and excess in others. The 14-19 cohort declines about 10%, over the next 15 years, with likely competition between schools and colleges for the declining numbers and between providers and employers in the latter’s demand for skilled labour. At the same time, despite the fluctuating birth rate, there is a constant increase in those who live longer. 16% of the UK population is over 65; by 2020, 25 million will be over age 50.

Key points

Implications • The learning needs of those in ‘the third age’ need to be addressed – and, indeed, of ‘the fourth age’, viz. the growing number over 75; • 14-19 provision should be so organised that there is greater local and regional organisation of resources and collaboration between providers.

• By 2050, 25 million UK citizens will be over age 50 – with implications for life long learning.

• People from ethnic minorities number 5 million – with implications for education.

• 25% of young people grow up in households with one parent; 16% in workless homes.

• The more disadvantaged a child, the lower the level of educational attainment.

• Percentage of 17 year olds in employment has reduced from 60% to 30% in 15 years.

• 10% of young people suffer from psychiatric disorders; 60,000 are in care, 40,000 are teenage mothers, and 3000 are in penal custody.

• Half the prison population do not have the skills required by 96% of jobs.

• Educational failure can often be related to home contexts and to the need for greater support for parents and the development of parenting skills.

Education and training do not occur in a vacuum.

They are influenced by social and economic contexts in which policies are developed. In this, all the Reviews agreed – an agreement not always shared by policy makers who often hold schools and colleges responsible for the effects of wider social problems. Particular references in the Reviews were made to the following features of the present context which affect educational success and failure.

Demographic changes (IFLL p.83-6; NR p.28/29) Educational provision is bedevilled by changing demography. Birth rates vary historically and such fluctuations move slowly through the system, causing shortages of teachers and resources in

Multi-ethnic society (NR ch.3; MCWB p.8; CCPR p.113/5; IFLL p.70/1) Given changing demography and global trends, the ethnic mix is changing. The number from minority groups in Britain is nearly 5 million, and growing.

Moreover, they are often heavily concentrated in disadvantaged areas. Significant differences are noted between ethnic groups in participation and achievement. Reports have warned of an ethnically segregated Britain and a growing minority feeling isolated from mainstream society5.

Implications • A special task of education is to address issues arising from ethnic diversity (e.g. racism or alienation) through the curriculum and through links with the respective communities.

Relative poverty (NCDS; NR p.30-32; CCPR p.58/9, 75/87, 110/15; IFLL p.35) Increased economic prosperity is counterbalanced by increased poverty for many and growing segregation of the well-off from the disadvantaged.

This further embeds inequality in society, reflected in the differences in attainment between children at an early age – differences which accumulate throughout formal education and affect individuals in later life6.

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section 3: social and economic context

Implications • Policies such as ‘Sure Start’ and those set out in Every Child Matters7, integrating education, social and health services in a holistic approach to young people, are based on strong underlying evidence.

Social mobility (IFLL p.38-42; NR 32/33; MCWB p.26; NCDS p.30.; TLRP 4) The more disadvantaged a child’s background, the lower the level of educational attainment likely to be achieved and the less likelihood the take-up of available job opportunities. The historic data shows that those with O Levels, A Levels and degrees, have had average wage returns of 18%, 24% and 48% respectively compared with those without qualifications. Positive returns are noted with Level 4 craft based qualifications. Social and economic class still affect attainment despite the many educational reforms, though there is mobility where higher level qualifications obtain.

Implications • Educational reform is a key to improving fairness and must go hand in hand with wider social programmes.

• Since economic contexts make upward social mobility impossible for everyone, such social mobility cannot be the major aim of ‘education for all’.

• Further education, widening participation in HE and adult education are crucial in compensating for earlier failure and creating new opportunities.

Family structure (NR 29/30; CCPR p.73/89; MCWB p.8; IFLL p.27; NCDS p.19) Changing family patterns affect educational prospects. 25% grow up in households with one parent (there is a link between one parent families and poverty). Over 16% grow up in ‘workless families’. Achievement is heavily influenced by family background as measured by social and economic status. Parenting skills are a significant factor8.

Implications • Central importance should be given to (i) creating close relations between schools and social services, (ii) support for parents and (iii) resources for schools serving areas of social and economic disadvantage, especially during the early years.

Economic needs (TLRP 5, 8 and 10, NR p.35/37, IFLL p.29; MCWB p.13) Changes in the need for skills and high technical knowledge put pressure on the education system to prepare a more highly skilled workforce, especially with regard to functional literacy and numeracy, but also including, ‘a national transformation of higher education in response to the growth of the global economy’ (TLRP 10). However, arguments for the ‘skills shortage’, stemming from the Leitch Review9, have been questioned by the NR (ch.9).

Implications • Apprenticeships need to be increased, but with greater emphasis on work based training, on employer support and on Level 3 attainment (see TLRP 5) • The significant role of higher education in producing the high level technical knowledge and skills (TLRP 8) must be acknowledged10.

Extended dependence of young people (NR p.26/28; MCWB p.14) The period of financial dependence has been extended. The number of 17 year olds in employment has reduced from 60% to less than 30% in 15 years, making often difficult demands on young people in their adjustment from childhood to adult status. They are bottom of the international league table of the wealthiest nations in terms of physical and social wellbeing – and drank more alcohol, took more drugs and had more under-age sex11. Teenage pregnancy is a major issue.

Implications • Young people, in their interaction with teachers, trainers and others, need more opportunities to develop personal responsibility and independence, and a greater sense of relevance of their studies than often prevails.

Hard to Reach students (NR ch.3; CPR p.87, 119/21) Many are unable to access mainstream education due to caring responsibilities, exclusion, medical problems, school phobia, etc. For example, 10% of young people suffer from psychological disorders, 60,000 are in care, 40,000 are teenage mothers, 3000 are in penal custody. They need to be reached

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section 3: social and economic context

Implications • Alternative educational provision is essential if these young people are to be reached – through home tutoring, communication technology (see pages 24 and 41) and liaison with social and health services.

Those in Custody In a prison population of over 80,000, half do not have the skills required by 96% of jobs; 43% have a reading level at or below that expected of an 11 year old; 82% a writing level at or below that expected of an 11 year old; only 1/5 can complete a job application form. The social and economic costs of such educational failure are enormous.

Implications • Effective learning opportunities, within prison and extending to cover the transition from prison, are an important route for integration (IFLL, p.37).

Evidence suggests that if commitment to fairness is pursued through sustained, practical policies, then some social disadvantages can be mitigated.

In difficult financial circumstances, with education budgets adjusting to new norms, there are significant dangers of deepening inequalities.

20 Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

Section 4 Developmental Processes

Nature or nurture? An old debate, but one which cannot be ignored in exploring the limits and possibilities of what can be learnt.

Key points • The environment of home and family in the early years and development of key skills such as language and sociability are crucial to subsequent development.

• Knowledge and understanding accumulate over time through the interaction of development and experience.

• Expert teachers work with, and extend, the developmental capabilities of learners.

• Neurological development continues through life, and capacities are not biologically fixed.

• Development and learning, particularly in supportive contexts, extends to the fourth age.

The Importance of Development and Learning Having reviewed evidence on the way social and economic contexts affect achievement, we now turn to what the reviews have to say about the influence of learning and development. The 2008 Foresight Report on Learning Through Life (MCWP)12 asserts its significance: Learning through life has a critical role in unlocking a wide range of benefits, both for the individual and for society. Such benefits are diverse in nature, and can provide substantial and lasting outcomes. Examples include its potential to play an important role in engendering wellbeing and good mental health in the individual, and in promoting social cohesion within society...

Older people in particular often require reskilling and professional development, along with nonwork-related learning opportunities that might help delay the onset of neurodegeneration.

Children and adults with special educational needs also benefit from appropriate educational provision... (MCWP, p.8)

Early Years As may have been expected, the reports under review particularly stressed the significance of the early years for later educational outcomes, as reflected by research into physical, emotional and intellectual growth (CPR ch.7; NCDS p.22; WBL p.17, TLRP 2). Hard evidence is available.

For example, the cohort data of NCDS shows categorically the progressive impact of childhood disadvantage and is one of the data-sets that informed Sure Start and other contemporary policies for early childhood provision in England.

The significance of the quality of social interaction within home environments and pre-school settings, and thus on the efficacy of early years enrichment, is also well researched13.

Primary Education In relation to primary education, CPR (ch.7) recalls the work of the Plowden Committee14 and the developmental psychology which influenced it so much. Of particular contemporary consequence is the conceptualisation of the development of psychological schema to enable understanding.

Analysis of such processes has a long history, with Frederick Bartlett and Jean Piaget leaving a lasting legacy for education and popular understanding of such matters. Bartlett15 viewed knowledge as a network of mental structures representing an individual’s understanding of the world. Piaget16 proposed processes through which new experiences lead to the accommodation of pre-existing cognitive structures, whilst assimilation enables people to use such schema to make sense of new experiences.

Through the interaction of accommodation and assimilation, new levels of understanding develop.

However, CPR records (p.90) that the implication of fixed developmental stages with limited recognition of variability and social influence have caused this cognitive theory to be heavily qualified.

The Cambridge Primary Review cites a number of ‘post-Plowden insights’ (p.90/1). These include: • Children are ‘able to think and learn in the same ways to adults, albeit in rudimentary forms’.

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section 4: developmental processes

• The strong influence of heredity on intelligence ‘is now accepted’ but the emphasis in research is on the ‘key role of environment for explaining variability’.

• ‘Social interaction plays a vital role in children’s development and learning’.

• The ‘social environment in which children grow up can explain variation in their achievement in areas such as literacy and numeracy’.

• Schools often ‘neglect the considerable funds of knowledge that children themselves bring to school’.

Teaching, and Learning Such awareness of the social influences on learning particularly reflects the influence of Vygotsky17 and of socio-cultural psychology. This is also manifested in a renewed emphasis on the role of teachers, or more knowledgeable others, in supporting or extending understanding. The crucial role of teaching is thus directly asserted.

The most successful teachers are thus seen to combine awareness of learner development with strong subject knowledge. In parallel, learning is seen as a social process through which meaning and depth of understanding are derived. These aspects are combined in dialogic teaching, groupwork and innovative approaches to interaction and learner engagement (TLRP 2, CPR ch.15).

More broadly, as CPR argued (ch.13, ch.14), the bodies of knowledge which learners experience reflect the history, culture and priorities of their society. They are learned though both formal education and informal experiences. TLRP also reflected this perspective in citing the principle that effective teaching and learning ‘engages with valued forms of knowledge – with the big ideas, facts, processes, language and narratives of subjects’ (TLRP 1, 3).

Language The significance of language in learning and development, particularly of young children, can hardly be exaggerated. Indeed, some have argued that language determines thought and that linguistic categories frame and limit cognitive categories – the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis18, but this is now seen as being too deterministic in its extreme form.

There is no doubt however that the early

development of language, and its continued development through social interaction, is a crucial foundation for educational success.

As the CPR puts it: ‘language development, along with perceptual and spatial development, underpins children’s progress in reading and numeracy’ (p.97).

Physical Development Physical development and health is considered in both the CPR and IFLL. Topics considered include child obesity, nutrition and infectious diseases.

Whilst levels of infection, such as measles, have fallen in recent decades, the quality of nutrition is variable and overall levels of obesity have grown.

Overall, CPR records significant concerns with children’s health.

Neurological development The Reviews also begin to document neurological and biological conditions throughout the life-course. IFLL (p.89) highlights: ‘mounting evidence to show that young people continue to mature for longer than was originally thought, physiologically and otherwise’. Indeed, it is reported that: ‘neuroscience does not reveal a magical age at which the brain becomes adult – the brain develops well into the 20s’. And further IFLL asserts that: ‘neuroscientific research confirms the plasticity of the brain ... the capacity to continue to change across the life course’ (p.32). There is thus potential for continuing learning into the ‘Fourth Age’ of 75 and beyond.

The interest in neuroscience was taken up by TLRP 2 and in CPR (p.96, 106). However, as the former reminds us, these are early days to draw conclusions for teaching strategies – even though ‘90% of teachers thought that knowledge of the brain was important in the design of educational programmes’ (TLRP 2). More understanding of how the brain functions, and of the practical implications of this, is needed.

Conclusion Conclusions can be drawn from the evidence provided to TLRP 2, the Cambridge Primary Review and the National Child Development Study to the effect that:

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section 4: developmental processes

• children, young people, adults and the elderly have particular developmental needs; • the early years are crucial. Support for parents in conditions of disadvantage is likely to be highly cost effective over the long term.

• it is not helpful to view children’s thinking as being limited by stages, for they can learn in as many different ways as adults; • meaningful social interaction and the influence of teachers and peers make crucial contributions to cognitive development and to school learning; • ‘biology is not destiny’ – for the capacities of the brain can be developed and remain adaptable from experiences throughout life.

An appreciation of human development is essential when considering teaching and learning. It thus has implications for the policy frameworks which create the opportunities or constraints though which potential is explored.

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Part I: What is Education for?

Challenges and Principles: a summary

1 Challenge: Lessons from history are important. Very often, ‘we have been here before’.

Principle: Ministers, political advisers, civil servants and educational professionals should acquaint themselves with recent history of education in order to build cumulatively on worthwhile successes and to avoid repeating mistakes.

2

Challenge: Aims of education are often spelt out solely in terms of economic utility and relevance.

rinciple: Policy and frameworks of entitlement should reflect the broad aims P of educating persons, such as: • understanding of the physical, social and economic worlds, • practical capabilities, • economic utility, • moral seriousness, • sense of community, collaboration and justice, • sense of fulfilment • motivation to continue learning even to ‘the fourth age’.

3 Challenge: In responding to national priorities and in promoting ‘education for all’, policy must also reflect the diversity of social and economic conditions which affect learning.

rinciple: In pursuing educational aims, the system of education should recognise the significance P of particular economic, social and personal circumstances, and thus enable flexible adaptation of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to meet specific needs.

4

hallenge: Too easily the capacities of people to learn are seen, from early years to old age, C to be strictly limited by nature.

Principle: ‘Biology is not destiny’. Still more and better investment in the early years is crucial, but the brain remains adaptable from experiences and learning opportunities throughout life.

24 Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

Part II: What are the consequences of educational aims for learning and teaching?

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Section 5 A Wider Vision of Learning

Given the aims of education which are embedded in the Reviews, and given the complexity of the social and personal circumstances from which the learners come, the Reviews argue for a wide vision of learning.

Key points • Learning experiences, focused on targets, are too narrow and disengaging.

• The value of the FE Sector, educating and training 32% of 17 year olds, goes unrecognised.

• Informal, experiential and practical learning is too often neglected.

• Much more can be done to harness the power of new communications technology.

• Learning opportunity, general and vocational, for adults into the ‘fourth age’ need support.

• For too many, learning is restricted by poor health and social disadvantage.

• For many, the work-place is where the quality of learning is most significant.

The narrow vision of learning The Reviews share a common concern for the quality of learning, which should reflect broad educational aims. However, ‘quality’ is too often associated with ‘hitting targets’, rather than with processes of learning or deeper understanding of key ideas or personal development. This concern was emphatically provided to the Nuffield Review by one sixth former: Far too often in education the emphasis is on achieving targets and regurgitating what the exam board wants, as opposed to actually teaching children something. As a sixth form student myself, this frustrates me on a daily basis, especially in history, when we must learn to write to the specifications of the exam board, instead of actually learning about the past (NR p.67).

Nuffield Review provides evidence of widespread disillusion (in higher education, amongst employers,

with teachers and even from the Chief Inspector) with formal learning shaped by a system of assessment which is dominated by that which is easily measurable (p.66-67, 81).

The Primary Review (p.291) similarly brought evidence to show that teachers feel excessively constrained and controlled, having to conform to: a state theory of learning … there is little doubt that the machinery of surveillance and accountability makes it difficult for schools to deviate from focusing on test performance (CPR p.291) IFLL (p.49), in speaking of the need for nurturing an appetite to carry on learning, argued ‘too much schooling is focused on heaving students over hurdles and into the next phase of education’.

The purpose of learning should not be ‘simply linked to qualifications’ (p.30).

The need for a wider vision of learning Therefore, the Reports (NR ch.5; CPR ch.15; IFLL ch.1; TLRP 1, 3) emphasised the need for a wider vision of learning in three senses: • the processes of learning are different depending on the kind of thing being learnt (e.g. theories on the one hand and practical skills on the other), on the learning strategies of the young person, on the level at which the learner is at, and on the specific context such as the transition from one job to another (see the story of Roger, p.28).

One size does not fit all.

• the importance of informal learning needs to be recognised whether that be through play (CPR p.65-6), experiences of the ‘lived world’, social learning (NR p.70), or engagement in available cultural activities (IFLL p.54). But, as IFLL says, ‘the balance between allowing informal learning scope to develop and linking it with formal modes is hard to strike, and we have not found it yet’.

One significant kind of informal learning, which impinges for good or ill on the formal, is that arising from the ‘new technology’ (see below).

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Section 5: a wider vision of learning

• focus on the initial phase of education should not lead to a neglect of the subsequent ones, where those who have failed in the initial phase have a chance to succeed later and develop new skills in response to economic change (IFLL pp.8, 12) Hence, the Reviews set out the different kinds of learning and the different ways in which people most effectively learn: • learning facts and formulae – propositional knowledge, if you like; • learning to understand – acquiring that deeper grasp of the key ideas and concepts; • practical learning – knowing how to act intelligently and to address practical problems, which includes, but is not just a matter of, acquiring skills; • experiential and informal learning – usually acquired outside the formal context but affecting the learning within that context and providing a base for • social learning – the acquisition of social and communicative skills, usually through interaction with others in either formal or informal settings.

Such a list does not do justice to the extensive analysis of ‘learning’ in the Reviews (e.g. NR ch.4).

Rather is it indicative of the complexity of the content of that which is learnt and of the processes of learning. It is necessary to get away from any simplistic set of prescriptions. Also it draws attention to the importance of active and practical learning (not to be confused with ‘vocational learning’), which have been much neglected in schools because of the pressure of tests and the coverage of a prescribed curriculum (NR ch.4).

Further, it indicates the need for a deeper grasp of ‘pedagogy’ (see TLRP 1, 3, 12 and Section 7 below).

Lessons from the Further Education (FE) Colleges The FE sector is frequently neglected in many policy decisions to widen learning opportunities.

But colleges are very important in the understanding of the wider vision of learning.

• In 2006/7, 28% of 16-19 year olds were being taught in FE Colleges (full and part-time) – 35% if 6th Form Colleges are included – compared with 19% in maintained schools.

• 50% or thereabouts of post-16 full-time education takes place in these colleges, although policies about post-16 education mainly have schools in mind and the colleges receive 10% less income for doing the equivalent work as that done in schools (NR p.172-7).

• Over 100,000 young people between the ages of 14 and 16 spend a substantial part of their formally organised learning in colleges of FE. The evaluation studies have shown how this has transformed the learning experience and motivation of many19.

• Colleges are often the destination of young people who are deemed to have failed in the school system. Many entering further education have suffered from the damaging effects of their learning experience. As TLRP 6 states n emphasis on target setting and A achievement, regulated through outcomebased assessment and qualification system, has led to an impoverished curriculum for the majority of school-leavers and adults entering higher education.

• Further education has to prepare many young learners for a range of occupational qualifications which require a different kind of learning. TLRP 6, aptly entitled Challenge and Change in FE, speaks of the different ‘learning literacies’, viz. the kind of language required for success in particular learning pathways, whether this be entry to more academic studies or vice versa a shift from the academic to more vocational.

• Colleges are a vital condition for adult education whether general or vocationally related. IFLL refers to them as ‘the institutional backbone of local lifelong learning’.

New Technology and informal learning The Reviews, especially TLRP 7, emphasise the value of new technologies for enhancing learning. Particularly in informal settings, new technologies transform the nature of learning for many, although, as we are reminded by IFLL (p.169-172), they present barriers to learning for those unable to access or master the tools.

Where, in 2008, 93% of those with degrees had access to internet, only 56% of unqualified people had access – creating the ‘digital divide’ which conferred learning disadvantage.

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Section 5: a wider vision of learning

The distinction is drawn, however, between (i) new technologies as useful tools for learning, giving a source of accessible information. In this case, the nature of learning is not radically changed; getting information from the internet is not different in kind from getting it from a book or the teacher. (see Section 9); (ii) new technologies as a transformation of communication (as in the case of on-line social networks, such as Twitter or Facebook). (iii) new technologies as a ‘new literacy’ – a new mode of expression, of making sense of experience and of creativity.

With regard to (ii), the new technologies open up a new way of communication that transcends the face to face interactions of the formal setting. For example, The previous government’s Gifted and Talented Young People’s (GTYP) Programme pioneered e-learning communities through which the learners were able to converse with each other across the country in addressing problems which they were asked to tackle.

In many cases, these young learners were reluctant to show their intellectual interests in their classes and valued the anonymity of an on-line community (NR p.75) With regard to (iii), TLRP 7, in its Education 2.0?

Designing the web for teaching and learning, shows the many newly evolving ways in which web 2.0 technologies support internet based interaction, creating ‘new or virtual realities’ (in which many young learners live out a parallel life and engage in multiplayer games). It points not only to social networking but also to ‘wikis’, ‘folksonomes’ and ‘mash-ups’. It has created a new ‘literacy’ – that is, a new language through which to create a new way of seeing reality. Similarly, MCWB (p.41) emphasises the importance of digital and mathematical/ technical literacies.

Several important implications are indicated.

• ‘Young people are felt to be turning to web 2.0 based forms of learning in spite of, rather than ‘because of’, their educational institution. ‘We are just at the start of exploring how we can be organised without the hierarchy of top-down organisation’ (TLRP 7, p.11).

• Teachers need considerable continuing professional development in order to keep up,

not only with the changing technology, but also with the often greater expertise of the learners in the use of the technology.

• The new technologies make it possible to reach those who, for various reasons, have no access to mainstream education, including the housebound and the elderly.

For example, NISAI, located in Harrow, provides a ‘virtual academy’, serving over 400 young people unable to attend school for a variety of reasons (medical, school phobia, exclusion etc.). It has a virtual classroom, virtual chill-out room, secure social network, daily teaching and supervision for public examinations. (www.nisai.com)

Development and continuity of learning The Reviews stress the way in which learning develops, that is, the way in which the understanding to be acquired builds on prior understandings and experience, thus requiring continuity. That requires planning to ensure growth and continuity and to avoid the difficulties which occur at key transition stages between primary and secondary (CPR p.367-372), between Key Stage 4 and post-16 education (where learners move into a very different learning context, often in a different institution – NR p.101, 117, 121) and into higher education (NR p.156-167).

But, further, IFLL argues for ‘an entitlement to learning’ extended to all, regardless of age, and developed flexibly over time, as part of mainstream conditions but particularly at potentially difficult periods of transition (e.g., on retirement, leaving care or prison, moving between areas, gaining further skills ). Needed are the opportunities for lifelong learning, not just the rhetoric. This is illustrated in the case of Roger (IFLL p.xi)

Roger was a highly successful tunneller working on the then new Victorian Line, making a good living, in the prime of his life. A serious accident to the man working next to him…led Roger to reappraise his circumstances. He recognised that his ability to provide for his family relied entirely on his physical health, since poor reading skills had left him with little formal education. As a result, he signed on to the first adult literacy programme offered at Brighton’s Friends Centre.

He followed this with full-time literacy study...

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Section 5: a wider vision of learning

...followed by the City Lit’s Fresh Horizons access programme, and higher education study.

After a period as a qualified social worker, Roger became landlord for accommodation for single homeless people. Adult learning opportunities played a key role in Roger’s life – helping him negotiate career changes.

Wider context of learning With reference to the social and economic context of education (see Section 3 above), the previous Government sought, through Every Child Matters and Children’s Plan (see CPR p.383/93, NR p.33/4,39), to provide greater integration between educational, social and health services, and parental support.

Educational performance is restricted by poor health and social disadvantage (see also NCDS p.27). As the MCWB (p.34) argued, wider benefits of education include prevention of such things as individual social exclusion and community breakdown encompassing crime, teenage parenthood, anti-social behaviour, intolerance of diversity, mental health problems, social division, disengagement from educational, social and economic activity, drug abuse and social immobility.

This more holistic approach to education is reflected in many developments, for example: • the ‘extended school’, with opportunities to engage in a wide range of activities (CPR p.398 and elsewhere; NR p.82/3); • schools working cooperatively with the police in the introduction of ‘restorative justice’ where the perpetrator of some harm has to confront the victim (NR p.35, 39); • links between education providers and the ‘third sector’ such as youth work (NR p.112) • co-operation between schools and parents, as is reflected, for example, in Family Links Pegasus Primary School in Oxford has transformed learning opportunities through its ‘nurturing programme’, pioneered by Family Links (see www.familylinks.org.uk), in which, through ‘circle time’, children learn how to resolve personal and social conflicts, co-operate with others, understand their own and others’ feelings, and make socially sensible choices. A key feature is the involvement of parents so that they not only develop parenting skills but understand and support the teaching. The success of this approach is reflected in the fact that it operates

in several hundred centres, early years settings and teenage parents in the UK, has trained over 5000 parent group leaders, and sold over 40,000 copies of its learning approach, ‘The Parenting Puzzle’, including one for Muslim parents.

However, particular attention was given by IFLL (p.28/9, though highlighted by NR ch.9) to providing good quality learning opportunities in the workplace – the upgrading of skills in changing economic conditions and the transitions from one employment to another.

Wider vision in practice Despite the narrowness of the target-led learning upon which schools and colleges are assessed, the Reviews found many examples of that ‘wider vision of learning’ which so many parents, teachers and learners hoped for. For example, • Use of ‘Third Sector’ SKIDZ provides motor mechanics and vehicle maintenance courses for young people, sent by their respective schools. So successful have they been in motivating young learners to reengage in learning that generous grants from Porche have enabled SKIDZ centres to spread from High Wycombe to the London Borough of Hillingdon and beyond. (www.skidz.org.uk) • Emphasising personal relations.

Human Scale Education has helped form ‘small schools’ within larger ones, putting personal relations between learners and teachers and other learners, and between schools and parents at the centre of learning. It promotes the belief that education flourishes when built on positive relationships within collaborative and sustainable communities20. (www.hse.org.uk) • Partnership with the Arts The English Ballet Company brought together over 100 young people disengaged from education, employment or training. They were the ‘drop-outs’, but persuaded to take part in the Prokoviev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet. It was tremendous success. As the Chairman of the Arts Council said, ‘it was an inspired choice of story: cross-starred lovers, dysfunctional families, gang warfare, macho games, self-harm, drug abuse and knife crime: it had them all’. Three years later nearly all these young people, once totally disengaged, are occupied in some form in the music, dance and drama world.

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Section 5: a wider vision of learning

• Student Teaching Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Learning Futures, building on its innovative Musical Futures (which is influencing 33% of secondary music departments), approaches learning through active methods which involve co-construction of the curriculum and pedagogy. It is bringing schools together to develop and to test new models of pedagogy which better meet the teachers’ understandings and the learners needs in 21st century schools.

• Disengaged Youth Workers Young people voiced their concerns about local policing and their feelings that they were subject to an implicit ‘move em on’ strategy.

The workers acted as a link to the police and then as facilitators of a workshop in which all took part. A subsequent evaluation showed all parties had developed new insights, sympathies and empathetic behaviours towards each other: tension in the street was less likely to escalate into conflict. Thereafter, young people were much more aware of, and interested in, their capacity to influence local decision-making.

• Employer Involvement The Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence (CEME), Dagenham, brings together employers, public sector partners, colleges, schools and universities as part of the London Thames Gateway Regeneration Scheme. The world class engineering facilities and expertise serve over 20 schools in the locality thereby enriching the Diploma courses in Engineering, providing routes for young people through school, apprenticeship and Foundation Degrees, and facilitating the re-skilling of workers in the several engineering and manufacturing (including Fords) in the region (www.ceme.co.uk).

• Experience in Primary Education ‘This is the only time I have seen a sheep. They feel soft. The host of the show sheared one in front of us’ (Victoria, year 6, from Meadowgate Primary School, Lewisham). Countryside Live organised an event that aims to highlight the benefits of learning outdoors for inner city children. A survey of 2000 children by the Eden Project found that children are becoming out of touch with the natural world.

• Social Enterprises The Young Foundation brings together insights, innovations and entrepreneurship to meet social needs. It supports a range of education focused social enterprises, offering solutions to some of the most pressing needs faced by schools.

• Awarding Skills for Employment and Skills for Life ASDAN is an internationally recognised awarding body whose mission is to create the opportunity for learners to develop skills for learning, for employment and for life. This complements the predominantly knowledge based focus of the National Curriculum.

The emphasis is on using practical activities as the template for personal growth.

What came across clearly to the respective Reviews is that, where teachers and trainers in the workplace have the courage and the vision and where the expertise and resources of the ‘third sector’, youth service, major Foundations and employers are drawn upon, they can innovate and reconcile the narrow demands of the formal curriculum and assessment regime with more active and motivating modes of learning.

What then might we learn from these examples?

• First, the opportunity for more active and practical modes of learning transforms the motivation and the understanding of many young people.

• Second, the learners’ voices need to be listened to in the development of their understanding and practical abilities; • Third, response to the variety of learning needs requires co-operation between different learning providers (see Section 9 below).

Conclusion The evidence is overwhelming that many young people experience a narrow and demotivating experience of education. This was never the intention of any government, but it is the consequence of several decades of government intervention. This is mainly due to the system of assessment which defines what is important to learn and what counts as having learnt successfully. As TLRP 11 declares, it is a matter of ‘achieving more but learning less’.

This is not to say that all schools do narrow the learning experience to fit the assessment system.

There are many examples of innovative approaches to enrich the learning experience despite constrictions.

Whole Education (www.wholeeducation.org.uk) has brought together a loose federation of foundations and organisations, who maintain a wider vision of learning.

30 Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

Section 5: a wider vision of learning

However, there is an urgent need, argued for in these Reviews, to think deeply about the different kinds of learning, about the different ways in which young people are motivated to continue with their formal learning, about how their prior experience might be utilised, about the most appropriate contexts in which learning might most effectively take place, about the value of work-based experience and about a vision which continues to ‘the fourth age’.

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Section 6 Learning and Curriculum

The curriculum specifies that which is to be learned. It must therefore reflect and embody the educational aims and values which are endorsed by our society and entrusted to teachers to teach.

a ‘citizens curriculum’ built around four capabilities (digital, health, financial and civic, together with employability). The learning embodied within that curriculum would desirably build on what had been learnt previously – in terms, for example, of literacy, numeracy, digital literacy, and civics.

Key points

What is a curriculum?

• The lack of continuity from early years into adult education needs to be addressed within a broad curriculum framework.

• That framework is often too shaped by a large number of specific targets to be attained.

• Within that framework, teachers should be curriculum creators, not curriculum deliverers.

This question was posed explicitly in the Nuffield and Primary Reviews (NR p.98/99; CPR ch.14).

The reason is that ‘curriculum’ is used in two different senses, each reflecting a different understanding of learning and the role of the teacher in promoting it.

From learning to curriculum Learning, in formal settings, has to be achieved through the curriculum and it is vital that the curriculum facilitates learning, rather than constrains it. The different Reviews emphasised the desirability of lifelong learning, supported by curriculum progression. There is a particular need to improve curriculum continuity at the key transition points – that is, how the learning of each stage might provide the basis of learning at subsequent stages. For example, the transition • from primary to secondary is seen as a key problem by the Primary Review (p.371/2).

• at 14 into different pathways and at 16 into different courses and providers (e.g. FE Colleges) is seen as a key problem by the Nuffield Review (NR p.101, 117, 121).

• at 18: evidence was presented to the Nuffield Review of the poor preparation of young people for the kind of learning which would be expected of them in higher education – yet another problem of curriculum continuity (NR p.156-167).

One reason why these reports should be seen together lies in IFLL’s (p.4) advocacy of a ‘curriculum offer’ for the learning in later life, a ‘citizens curriculum’ – with a four stage model of continuity: up to 25, 25-50, 50-75, 75+ (that is, the ‘fourth age’), and

On the one hand, the curriculum is a list of learning outcomes and the means by which those outcomes are to be reached. There is a long tradition of this understanding of curriculum as the Nuffield Review explains (p.99). It provides a detailed prescription of a learning programme – targets, content and methods for attaining those targets, assessment of whether they have been reached, and evaluation of the whole process (what has been called ‘rational curriculum development’21). The development of the National Curriculum to date has reflected that understanding, and subsequently there has been a range of prescriptions from Government or its agencies (e.g. the QCA) as to what should be taught and how (see CPR ch.13 on the literacy strategies). Typical of this way of understanding the curriculum is that teachers are seen as ‘deliverer of the curriculum’ (see Section 7 below).

An alternative view of the curriculum, urged in the Primary and Nuffield Reviews, and under consideration by the Coalition Government, is based on much lower level of prescription. A framework of entitlement is to specified, but, within that, teachers are to encouraged to exercise professional judgement in their teaching. This approach is reflected in the TLRP 12’s Professionalism and Pedagogy: a contemporary opportunity. It anticipates that the teacher develops and tests out teaching approaches, adapts them to different circumstances, reformulates them in the light of experience.

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section 6: learning and curriculum

The teacher is no longer one who delivers a curriculum, but one who, in the light of an agreed framework broadly conceived, exercises professional judgement about the best way of attaining the educational aims.

seen to be need for flexibility within a national framework. Such a framework should have recognisable ‘domains’, generally called ‘subjects’, corresponding to the domains outlined in the Primary Review. There is considerable unity of thinking between these two Reviews.

A National Entitlement Framework

However, referring back to the wider vision of learning, such a framework should include skill based and practical activities, which, as argued in Section 5, have tended to be neglected in the secondary school curriculum and more recently resurrected, mistakenly, under the title of ‘vocational studies’ for those not deemed academic. Though the curriculum should be, as argued above, strongly influenced by teachers in their specific school and community contexts, such development needs to be within a properly worked out national framework which ensures both depth and breadth and that embodies the educational aims outlined in Section 2.

Section I above referred to the several times when the National Curriculum, established by the Education Act of 1988, had to be adapted or slimmed down because it did not measure up to the much more complex world of young people’s learning. None the less, there is a need for a national entitlement framework within which there can be the continuity and development of knowledge and practical capabilities. Otherwise, as is argued in all the Reviews (CPR ch.14; NR p.101, 117, 121, 156 sq; TLRP 6 and 11; and IFLL ch.6), people will be disadvantaged, not able to progress at key transition stages to the next stage of education or skill training.

The Primary Review set out a curriculum framework (ch.14), rather than a detailed curriculum in the first sense outlined above. That framework explicitly embodies the educational aims (see Section 2) that the Review has argued for, but divides the learning areas into eight domains within which the aims should be embedded – namely, those of the arts and creativity; citizenship and ethics; faith and belief; language, oracy and literacy; mathematics; physical and emotional health; place and time; and science and technology. Work in this domains would comprise, it is proposed, 70% of teaching time.

Flexibility within the framework

Such a curriculum framework guarantees entitlement to breadth, depth and high standards in all domains. Language and literacy are paramount, but integrated into the overall curriculum framework.

The Primary Review recommended that eight ‘expert panels’ be convened to ‘propose in broad terms the content, process and progression’ within each domain. Additionally, there would be a community component determined within each locality, on which 30% of teaching time would be focused.

The framework is exactly that and, within it, teachers, working together locally, devise their own curriculum. It is not for Government to tell teachers what and how to teach.

For example, Bruner’s Man: A Course of Study aimed at 8 to 13 year-olds:

Similarly at the secondary level, and with particular reference to post-14 (see NR ch.7), there is

Where, then, is the flexibility and the teacherled curriculum development if the entitlement framework specifies the domains or the subjects to be taught? The answer in both Reviews is that the domains or subjects are the inherited ways of understanding human nature, the physical universe, the social context and the belief systems. As such they are the resources upon which the good teacher draws in order to help young people make sense of their experiences and their lives, and are enabled to act practically and intelligently.

MACOS focused on three questions: what makes us human? How did we become so?

How might we become more so? The course was structured around five distinguishing features of being human – prolonged childrearing, use of tools, language, social organisation and myth-making. But the learners’ enquiry into the three questions, shaped by these key characteristics, drew upon resources from major subjects of enquiry – anthropology, sociology, psychology, literature, and so on. Subjects were the resources from which the teacher and the learners drew in order to make sense of the question.22

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section 6: learning and curriculum

In essence, the same principles apply beyond the age of 16. Then, of course, the formal learning experience narrows. There is greater specialisation either in three or four chosen subjects for A Level or in occupation-related courses in either colleges or work-based training. There the teachers in university or college or workplace, from their own base of expertise and knowledge, enable learners, young or old, to be initiated more deeply and expertly into a world of ideas and of practice.

That requires ‘curriculum making’, not ‘curriculum delivery’. TLRP 6, Challenge and Change in FE, shows the variations in young people who enter courses from different backgrounds and learning experiences, and with different aspirations.

Specific curriculum issues The Primary and Nuffield Reviews pay particular attention to certain issues which affect the content of the curriculum. The Nuffield Review points to: • Science and technology: There has been widespread concern (reflected in the Royal Society Reports23) about the number of young people either qualified for higher education studies in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) or aspiring to do so. That concern sits alongside two others in the Reviews for ensuring science be part of everyone’s curriculum up to 16: – scientific knowledge is an essential tool for the intelligent management of life (referred to as scientific literacy – NR p.105); – science at school provides the basis on which the learners can proceed to higher level science – and the country needs them; – science is a mode of thinking which is worthwhile learning in its own right.

The problem post-14 is two-fold: (a) catering for diversity of understanding and of aspiration, with the need to differentiate the content of science education and the mode of teaching; and (b) ensuring continuity from the different pathways into higher level science.

The Nuffield Review draws attention to curriculum developments which have tackled this problem, with special reference to ‘21st Century Science’ and to one element within it, namely, GCSE Applied Science (NR p.105-7). This, seen as ‘less academic’, involves scientific understanding and methods of enquiry employed practically in different occupations.

• Humanities and Arts: It was a matter of concern to both Primary and Nuffield Reviews (CPR p.226-9; NR p.1056) that the balanced and broad curriculum was endangered at primary level by the required emphasis on literacy and numeracy strategies, and, at secondary level, by the opportunity to opt out of the arts and humanities in order to pursue a more vocational curriculum. There is evidence that subjects such as History, Geography and Music enrich learner experience as well as being important in their own right.

• Modern Languages: These were now no longer a compulsory part of the Key Stage 4 curriculum after the age of 14, and this (it was pointed out, NR p.109) had led to a sharp decline in the numbers taking foreign languages, with the implication that fewer would enter higher education to study a foreign language, and fewer therefore would qualify to teach it – a downward spiral.

• Literacy and Numeracy: Clearly these were seen by all reports to be essential to the balanced curriculum. MBWB (p.x) saw them as crucial to subsequent wellbeing and employability and IFLL, too, to the continuing lifelong learning. NCDS reminded the reader of the analysis of the lack of such functional skills given by the Moser Report in 199824. However, the Cambridge Primary Review (p.208/9) was critical of the solution, imposed by the Government of the time, of separate literacy and numeracy strategies, arguing on the basis of evidence that they are more effectively taught if integrated with the rest of the curriculum.

Conclusion Curriculum development should be pursued with regard to the overarching educational aims and to the wide vision of learning within the national entitlement framework, and also with regard to that continuity of learning at key transition points We need, however, to get away from the dominant managerial approach to curriculum development, and to treat teachers once again at the centre as curriculum thinkers. The curriculum provides an enabling framework of knowledge and a set of principles indicating how to proceed in order

34 Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

section 6: learning and curriculum

for educational aims to be realised in practice.

It requires practical application in the classroom and is thereby constantly refined as a result of reflection and experience to meet the specific needs of learners.

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Section 7 Learning and Pedagogy

Curriculum and the quality of teaching are intrinsically related.

‘No curriculum development without teacher development’ – a piece of wisdom forgotten by those who impose curriculum from above. Hence, the Reviews said much about ‘pedagogy’ – the informed art of teaching.

Key points • The pedagogical expertise required of good teaching too often goes unrecognised both in Government interventions and in the need for continuing professional development.

• The wider vision of learning, especially 14-19, requires a more widely trained teaching force and an abolition of separate qualifications for school, FE and adult education.

Professional status The professional status of the teachers and trainers is emphasised in the Reviews as • custodians of cultural traditions, embedded in subject and craft knowledge; • experts in pedagogy; • experts in curriculum development.

Consequences are drawn for the training, qualification and continuing professional development of teachers.

Custodians of cultural traditions With regard to ‘custodians of cultural traditions’, the teacher is trained and educated to teach what society regards as a valuable cultural resources: • first, for understanding the physical, economic and social worlds which the learners inhabit (what the Primary Review, p.408, drawing upon TLRP research, refers to as ‘the big ideas, facts, processes, language and narratives of valued forms of knowledge’ ) • second, for being able to act intelligently within it (what the Nuffield Review refers to as ‘practical capabilities’ – NR p.87; CPR p.406/7).

Experts in pedagogy With regard to expertise in pedagogy, TLRP 12 (p.2) defines pedagogy thus: the practice of teaching framed and informed by a shared and structured body of knowledge.

This knowledge comprises experience, evidence, understanding moral purpose and shared transparent values. It is by virtue of progressive acquiring such knowledge and mastering the expertise – through initial training, continuing development, reflection and classroom enquiry and regulated practice – that teachers are entitled to be treated as professionals.

That professional expertise is embodied by the TLRP in ten principles of pedagogy which underpinned its research papers (see p.6) and is embodied in the MCWB’s Learning through Life.

TLRP proposes that effective pedagogy: 1 equips learners for life in its broadest sense – enabling individuals and groups to develop the intellectual, personal and social resources that will enable them to participate as active citizens, contribute to economic development and flourish as individuals in a diverse and changing society.

2 engages with valued forms of knowledge – that is, engaging learners with the big ideas of subjects, key skills and processes, ways of thinking and practising, attitudes and relationships. They need to understand what constitutes quality, standards and expertise in different disciplines.

3 recognises the importance of prior experience and learning – in order for learners and those who support their learning, to plan their next steps. This builds on prior learning but also takes account of the personal and cultural experiences of different groups of learners.

4 requires learning to be ‘scaffolded’ – to provide structures of intellectual, social and emotional support to help learners move forward in their learning, such that the learning which has taken place survives the removal of such support.

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section 7: learning and pedagogy

5 needs assessment to be congruent with learning – such that it achieves maximum validity in terms of both learning outcomes and learning processes, and supports learning as well as recording what learning has been achieved.

6 promotes the active engagement of the learner – thereby achieving greater independence and autonomy through the development of a repertoire of learning strategies and practices, positive learning dispositions, and the will and confidence to become agents in their own learning.

7 fosters both individual and social processes and outcomes – enabling learners to build relationships and communication with others for learning purposes, in order to assist the mutual development of knowledge and to enhance the achievements of individuals and groups.

8 recognises the significance of informal learning – such as learning out of school or away from the workplace – and thereby valued and appropriately utilised in formal processes.

9 depends on the learning of all those who support the learning of others and thereby recognises the need for teachers to learn continuously in order to develop their knowledge and skill, and adapt and develop their roles, especially through practice-based inquiry.

10 demands consistent policy frameworks for learning – so institutional, local and national policies need to reinforce and support the creation of effective learning environments for learners.

TLRP has applied these principles through publications for school (1, 3), further (6) and higher education (9). In its 2010 publication, Professionalism and Pedagogy (12), it extended the analysis to propose a framework of concepts representing teacher expertise in relation to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Such concepts, it is argued, enable teachers to analyse provision and practice as a foundation for improvement.

Expertise in curriculum development Both Nuffield and the Primary Reviews criticise the impoverished view of teaching and of curriculum development (embodied in a language of performance management), which fails to realise that there is no curriculum development without teacher involvement and teacher development.

The teacher’s professional judgement bridges the gap between the knowledge to be drawn upon and the interests and needs of the learners, whether young or adult. And those professional judgements are enhanced by their attachment to what ideally might be seen as a ‘community of practice’, often to be found in professional bodies such as the Historical, Geographical or Mathematical Associations.

However, both Reviews noted the expansion of Teacher Assistants and Higher Level Teacher Assistants, creating a more diversified workforce.

And IFLL points to the initial and professional needs of the diverse workforce in adult education, frequently without professional training or professional development (IFLL p.184 sq)

Extension of pedagogy – using new technology New technologies give both learners and teachers ready access to a wide range of knowledge and information. This should increase the autonomy of the teacher in terms of gaining subject knowledge.

But it can make the learner more independent of the teacher, suggesting a different relationship.

Learning within the formal setting becomes more of a transaction than a transmission of knowledge (see NR p.86-7; CPR p.281-3). After all, as TLRP 7 points out, Wikipedia is an open document created, updated, edited and refereed by readers, deriving accuracy and authority from ongoing group discussion and consensus rather than from one expert, whether or not that be a teacher.

Furthermore, such is the speed of change in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that the young people may be more adept in using it than the teachers. Hence, the increasing use of the students as mentors – one school in Hertfordshire employs 35 students as e-mentors.

As pointed out by the Nuffield Review p.74/5, the Government, recognising the power of ICT to improve the quality of teaching, learning and management in schools, put ICT at the heart of its commitment to improve learning for all young people. Similarly the Primary Review points to its

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section 7: learning and pedagogy

place in the improvement of pedagogy and the greater ‘personalisation of learning’. That is why the previous Government established the British Educational Communications and Technologies Agency (BECTA) to lead research into the effective use of ICT – how the learning process is transformed and learning outcomes improved.

Connected with BECTA has been Futurelab, an independent organisation demonstrating the power of technology in supporting change (see NR p.79).

Through its project, Enquiring Minds, for instance, in which over 100 schools were involved directly or indirectly, it explored the new sense of ‘learning spaces’ and the understanding of ‘digital literacy’.

teaching in FE is needed for the more practical courses in schools. The duality of qualifications becomes a barrier. The Review argues for: • a move towards a single Qualified Teaching Status (as proposed too by the Select Committee for Education25); • routes to that QTS from qualifications and experience seen, for teaching purposes, as equivalent to a degree (e.g. technician level with relevant experience); • opportunities for progression from Teacher Assistant to qualified teaching status.

Conclusion 1

Implications for continuing professional development (CPD) The Reviews put the teachers at the centre of the provision of learning opportunities – not as ‘deliverers’ of someone else’s curriculum. Teachers, responding to very different learning needs, must be the experts, though within a national framework.

Initial teacher education alone cannot prepare adequately for such professional expertise. This requires continuing professional development – in subject knowledge, pedagogy, critical reflection on practice and classroom based research.

Implications for teacher training (CPR p.422 sq; NR p.91 sq) The Primary and Nuffield Reviews, in the light of this three-fold role, make certain demands on the initial training and early professional work of teachers.

• need for deep understanding of subject matter or practice (NR ch.6; CPR p.424); • understanding, through critical reflection, of the learning needs, the motivation and aspirations of the learners (CPR p.423 sq); • close partnership between training institutions in higher education and ‘training schools’ to ensure integration between practice, research and theory.

• need to put adult education on the same footing as school and college education in a requirement for qualified teaching status and the opportunity for continuing professional development (IFLL p.191/2).

As IFLL points out (p.184 sq), ‘we need a welltrained workforce [in adult education] to deliver high quality learning’, though that is not easy to regulate, given the wide range of contributors

Conclusion 2

Conclusion 3

At the same time, such CPD needs to strike a balance between support for inexperienced teachers and greater freedom for those with experience (CPR ch.21) in determining the particular kind of professional development needed.

Such teacher led professional development should be conducted, in the view of the Nuffield Review, in Teachers’ Centres run by teachers (NR p.93-95) – harking back to those established country-wide as a result of the Schools Council (see page 8 above) – or through professional organisations such as the Historical or Geographical Associations, which remain actively involved in teacher development.

Implications for teacher qualifications The Nuffield Review (p.90/1) highlighted the difficulty of dual qualifications – one for those teaching in schools and another for further education (FE). A more integrated phase 14-19 required collaboration between different kinds of provider. The expertise associated with

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Section 8 Learning and Assessment

Concern about the quality of learning and of the learners’ progress points inevitably to the importance of assessment. But, as the Reviews argue, an assessment system, which is unguided by the aims of education impoverishes that learning.

• the stressful pressure of the SATs (Standard Attainment Tests), • the narrowing of the curriculum because public testing gains dominance, • the creation of a sense of failure early in a child’s educational journey.

TLRP 6, which examines Challenge and Change in Further Education, points to the damaging effect students have suffered from the assessment regime.

Key points • The extent and the nature of the ‘high stakes’ assessment diminishes the quality of learning.

• There is confusion between Assessment for Learning and Assessment for Accountability.

An emphasis on target setting and achievement, regulated through outcomebased assessment and qualification system, has led to an impoverished curriculum for the majority of school-leavers and adults entering further education.

The Problem with assessment A major concern of both the Primary Review (ch.16) and the Nuffield Review (ch.5) was that of the influence of assessment upon the quality of learning. The TLRP for its part felt it necessary to ask the question: ‘Assessment in Schools: Fit for Purpose?’ (TLRP 11)

Therefore, how to assess learning without the quality of that learning being impoverished by the methods adopted was a concern common to TLRP and the Nuffield and Primary Reviews. However, further words of caution are required. As is shown by TLRP 11, national tests need to be treated with extreme caution in terms both of their validity and reliability – in some tests some 30% of pupils could be misclassified.

In addressing this question, the Reviews returned to the ‘Aims of Education’ and to the consequent argument for a ‘Wide Vision of Learning’. Certain kinds of assessment are appropriate for one kind of learning, but not for another. One would not assess the ability to ride a bicycle by asking for an essay on the skill of riding. As the Nuffield Review pointed out (p.81), quoting Stanton in reference to the difficulties in several recent curriculum reforms,

The purposes of assessment

In each case there was an over engineered assessment regime that was unmanageable, hindered rather than supported learning and, by focusing on the measurement of outcomes, implied that the enabling of learning would be relatively unproblematic.26 The Primary Review (p.314 sq) brings evidence to bear upon the deleterious effect of the assessment regime on teaching and learning, namely

Despite these problems, the importance of assessment was in no way doubted, but it needs to be clear about the very different purposes which assessment is meant to serve and which are spelt out in the different Reports and Reviews (see TLRP 11, NR p.80-82; CPR ch.16): • young people’s progress in learning – what they know and can do; • knowledge of their capacities to pursue further study at the university, say; • diagnosis of learning difficulties; • teacher effectiveness; • school accountability – and position in league tables; • young people’s performance and achievements relative to other young people; • selection for further study, training or employment

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section 8: learning and assessment

Hence, assessment serves different purposes and is directed at different audiences – teachers, learners, parents, employers, higher education admissions, those in the next phase of education and training. But, in addressing these different audiences and purposes, the Reviews (drawing on the work of the Assessment Reform Group27) distinguished between ‘assessment for learning’, ‘assessment for accountability’ and ‘assessment for selection’.

• Assessment for learning (AfL) aims at supporting both teacher and learner to progress by recognising what has been achieved, what more needs to be achieved, the learning difficulties to be overcome, and the key ideas to be focused on. A range of instruments and tests help, but crucial is the judgement of the teacher. Hence, the Reviews argued for greater weight to be attached to ‘teacher assessment’ both in the everyday improvement of learning and in the final summative account of a learner’s attainment and ability.

• Assessment for accountability aims at providing ‘quality assurance’ to a wider audience.

Parents, school or college governors, the wider community and Government need re-assurance that the teachers and their schools and colleges are doing a good job.

• Assessment for selection aims at deciding which learners should progress to particular institutions or courses in those institutions – whether they be degrees or apprenticeships or employment. The difficulties here are pointed out by TLRP 11 and

by Nuffield Review (p.80-82). Often what such selection needs is an assessment of personal qualities less easily measurable – sometimes referred to as ‘soft skills’ or ‘wider key skills’.

Conclusions First, problems arise where the different purposes of assessment are conflated – e.g. where assessment for learning is used for assessment for accountability (or where assessment for accountability determines the nature of the assessment for learning). Both the Nuffield and Primary Reviews point out (NR p.73 and 81, CPR p.335) how that need not be the case, and how the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) in the 1980s developed a system of randomised light sampling of performance whereby information about the health of education across the curriculum could be obtained without interfering with the process of teaching and learning28.

Second, greater emphasis should be given to teacher assessment, to the provision of feedback to learners and to their own participation in assessment. ‘Assessment for learning’ should be seen as more than just a neat phrase – it is a crucial contribution to the improvement of standards.

Third, more emphasis should be placed upon the profile of learners’ achievement which match the broader aims of education outlined in Section 2 and the wider vision of learning in Section 5. Many young people are judged educational failures because pursuits in which they shine (or could shine if given the opportunity) do not get recognised in the system of assessment.

The following is an example of AfL where the educational aims are not easily measurable.

Reading and Central Berkshire Consortiums work with the awarding body, ASDAN, to introduce new ways of developing and assessing personal, learning and transferable skills in a range of Diplomas that involve activity based, work related tasks. These are designed to develop, reinforce and rehearse employability skills. Learners demonstrate to themselves and others that they are developing important work related skills

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Part II: What are the consequences of educational aims for learning and teaching?

Challenges and Principles: a summary

5

hallenge: Formal education is dominated by narrowly conceived forms of academic learning, C thus undermining other capabilities of importance to our society, economy and citizens.

rinciple: A wider vision of education should respect and reward the practical as well P as the academic, informal and experiential as well as formal learning, and should draw upon the wide range of expertise within the community.

6

hallenge: The school curriculum has become overloaded and dysfunctional, C and fails to meet the needs of many young people.

Principle: A curriculum entitlement framework should be designed to introduce young people to subjects and the broad domains of knowledge, to practical capabilities and skills, to a sense of achievement, to the ‘big issues’ which confront society and to the knowledge and dispositions for active citizenship, yet be flexible enough for teachers to adapt appropriately.

7

hallenge: Teachers’ pedagogical expertise and professionalism are essential to educational C quality from early years to adult learning, but this is not consistently understood or provided for in our culture, policy and provision.

Principle: Teachers’ expertise in the enhancement of learning should be supported and challenged by provision for continuing professional development in all phases of education and by a single system of qualified teacher status.

8

hallenge: The ‘high stakes’ testing regime serves incompatible purposes and narrows C what is to be learnt.

Principle: The different purposes of assessment (i.e. supporting different kinds of learning, holding the system accountable and certifying achievements) require different and appropriate modes of assessment, and maintenance of appropriate balance between them.

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42  Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

Part III: What sort of system would achieve educational aims?

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Section 9 The Provision of Education and Training

Though recognising the often neglected importance of informal learning, the Reviews argued for a coherent system of provision of formal learning, and expressed concern at the increasingly fragmented system of provision and funding.

Key points • Fragmentation of education and training provision prevents sharing of expertise and resources.

• The ‘third sector’ has expertise which needs to be incorporated into mainstream education.

• The weakness of local authorities has left a serious gap in the regional and local organisation of provision and the strategic distribution of resources.

• The importance and quality of work-based learning (whether through apprenticeships, school curriculum or retraining) needs more attention and support.

re the present structures and A provision for education and training fit for the 21st century?

Here, as through all the Reviews, we start with the aims of education and thus with the learners – rather than, as so often happens, with the structures and what suits the providers. Given all that has been argued so far, how ought the provision of education and training be organised?

The social, economic and demographic context has changed radically in the last 20 years (Section 3 above). Society is more diverse, and education aims to be more inclusive. New technologies are radically changing processes of communication and forms of knowledge. Greater employer participation in education has evolved. Global economic and cultural factors penetrate every locality. The Reviews, in their separate ways, recognise these changes.

They analyse how context has in fact already affected provision and funding. However, they argue for a more radical reformation of the system.

The system as it is Compulsory schooling is from 5 to 16, and the required participation age in some form of education and training was (at the time of these Reviews) being extended to 18. Prior to that there has been increased provision of, and statutory rights to, various forms of pre-school education (CPR p.78 sq).

Post-16, education might continue in the 6th forms of schools, in 6th form colleges or in colleges of further education (NR ch.11). On the other hand, at 16, young people might embark on apprenticeships or enter employment with or without a training which would lead to vocational qualifications. For those who stick to the general education route, there is a wide range of higher education courses to move into – some highly selective.

Adult education provides further opportunities for continuing with education, upgrading of skills, and second chances for those who failed at the initial stages. But as IFLL such provision suffers from the inequitable distribution of resources within the system as a whole.

Finally, the significance of work-based learning: ‘Delivery of the work-based route [is] a major (and supposedly growing) stream of provision’ (NR p.135), emphasised by TLRP 8, Higher Skills Development at Work. It is central to the increasing apprenticeships and to the range of in-house retraining in places of employment and through Independent Training Providers. The work-based learning environment is seen by IFLL (p.53) to need much more attention.

This is a simplified account as Nuffield Review (ch.11) shows. One needs also to be aware of: • the mosaic of different types of school in the state system: grammar and comprehensive, academies, specialist, voluntary aided and controlled, technology colleges, federated schools – as well as the impact of the independent sector; • the large number of young people 14-16 (over 100,000) who pursue a substantial part of the curriculum at colleges of F.E.;

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section 9: the provision of education and training

• very significant contributions of the Youth Service and Detached Youth Workers; • the work of the ‘Third Sector’ – the many voluntary bodies, such as Rathbone, Barnados, Skidz, UKSkills, UKYouth; • different opportunities for part-time education and training; • contribution of Foundations, such as the RSA, Gulbenkian, Young, Paul Hamlyn, Edge, Esmée Fairbairn; • different funding arrangements, often for the same work; • different admissions arrangements.

Once upon a time the Local Education Authorities had a co-ordinating control of the system, but they lost control of Colleges of FE and 6th Form Colleges in 1992, and the new academies are contracted directly to the Secretary of State.

Consequences for system development It was clear to the Reviews that it is necessary to bring greater cohesion to, and collaboration within, this complicated and fragmented system if we are to achieve what IFLL (p.9) referred to as ‘a learning society’. Indeed, as that Review argued, subsequent learning depends on the quality of learning in the initial phases, since much adult education compensates for failure at earlier stages.

To achieve such a ‘learning society’, the following were recommended: • ‘a genuine and vibrant localism, in which partnerships between schools, colleges, their communities, and local authorities can respond to children’s needs and circumstances’ (CPR p.255, IFLL p.195 sq).

• ‘strongly collaborative local learning systems’ (NR ch.11) – bringing together schools, FE colleges, adult education centres, third sector organisations, youth service, local employers and independent training providers with links to local primary schools, to local university, and (IFLL p.4) to cultural institutions such as museums and theatres. Given the demands to provide education for all, meeting diverse needs aspirations), no one school can go it alone; • ‘learning infrastructures’ (IFLL p.55) which look ‘beyond buildings’ and formal systems to social

networks and virtual learning environs made possible by technology. Examples: the People’s Networks in public libraries and UK On-line and its 500 learning centres; • involvement of parents more systematically in learning (NIACE p.27), as exemplified in Family Links (p.21).

Such ‘learning systems’ would have • in some areas, clustering of primary schools in a common management structure; • collaborative links between primary and secondary schools to ensure a smooth transition; • a shared Information, Advice and Guidance (NR p.165-7); • timetable framework, sufficiently common for enabling all students to participate in different specialist courses. (The resources for these are not available in every provider); • a sharing of teachers in subjects where there is a national shortage of qualified teachers (e.g. in physics and foreign languages); • transport policy where needed; • funding to go partly to the partnership; • shared professional development, responding to needs identified in the partnership; Example: The Kingswood Partnership near Bristol consists of six secondary schools and one FE College which has an overall coordinator, agreed common funding taken from their separate budgets, a common curriculum framework which enables participation across institutions, and shared administrative posts (e.g. work placement co-ordinator and IAG) that increase efficiency and decrease costs.

For instance, the shared and state of the art engineering workshop, made possible through partnership, has 200 young people studying for the engineering diploma, and supported by many engineering employers in the Bristol area.

Such local collaborative learning systems, the key agencies for which would be an appropriate form of Local Authorities (IFLL p.4), would be democratic, accountable to their local communities including the voices from both the learners and different providers.

Using new technology It was surprising to the Reviews how little use was made of new technology in the creation

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section 9: the provision of education and training

and development of educational provision and partnerships. But there are very good examples reported by the Reviews, surely something to be built upon in future. For example Smartlab Digital Media Institute provides hi-tech after-school clubs for children in run-down neighbourhoods: ‘It gives them a computer game that requires them to learn some maths and science in order to play’. (NR p.75) Section 7 referred to the use of technology in the national project for Gifted and Talented Youth (NGATY) through which young people formed a community of learners sharing teacher mentors and tackling common problems. However, the mode of communication, illustrated above and made possible through interactive e-learning technology, provides a model for personalising learning in mainstream education.

Conclusion The Nuffield Review argued for ‘strongly collaborative learning systems’ – partnerships between school, colleges, higher education, training providers, youth service, employers and third sector (voluntary bodies).

But such partnerships should be continuous, first, with the primary sector to avoid the difficulties at the key transition point between primary and secondary, and, second, with further and adult education to ensure progression through life. After all, as IFLL (p.197) points out, colleges of FE should be treated as ‘an institutional backbone for lifelong learning’, at the same time as being partners in the ‘collaborative learning systems’ from 14 to 19.

All this requires ‘a new local landscape’ with new forms of local control, reflecting local communities and democratic accountability to those communities.

46 Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

Section 10 Funding and Resources

Just as the provision of education and training is fragmented, so also is the mode of funding it. The Reviews argue for a fairer system of funding.

employer and voluntary sector expenditure (about £20 billion) and individual expenditure (about £10 billion). The public expenditure includes about £2 billion on maintenance loans and grants, of which only 10% was directed to FE student support.

Key points • The distribution of funding between different kinds of provider is inequitable – to those with the greater learning needs less is given.

• ‘A good deal of money spent on older children will be wasted if more is not spent on them during their primary school years’ (CPR, p.468).

• The distribution of funding between the different age phases needs to be re-adjusted so that more goes to the neglected areas of adult education and adult retraining.

• Local authorities, despite being the only organisations with the potential capacity for overseeing the educational needs of their respective communities and for equitable distribution of provision and resources, have had that capacity weakened.

At present Schools maintained by Local Authorities receive their recurrent costs from the LA which in turn receives the grant from the Government. However, a growing number of Academies are funded directly from Government, and early adopters received a substantial capital and starting grant not available to mainstream schools. Schools designated Specialist have received extra income in order to specialise. Sixth form students attract a premium.

Colleges of Further Education until recently received funding from the Learning and Skills Council and now from the Skills Funding Agency, but at a 10% reduction of funds from that received by schools for doing the same work.

IFLL (p.72 sq) estimates that about £55 billion is spent on post-compulsory learning. This sum includes money spent on higher education.

It comes from public expenditure (about £25 billion),

A wise and fair system Vital to collaboration and continuity is a system which is funded wisely and fairly. It should be wise in the sense that, especially at a time of financial constraints, money is not wasted and costly operations not duplicated. It should be fair in the sense that the same provision gets equal funding across providers and that the different needs of different phases of education – from early years to ‘the fourth stage’ of adult education – are met.

At the moment, funding arrangements are far from fair. Indeed, Nuffield Review (p.57), quoting the Webb Report, draws an analogy with the working of health care over 30 years ago when Tudor Hall argued that an Inverse Care Law was in operation: those who were most in need receive less care than the less needy.

There is a distinct danger that this is happening in education29.

For instance, • Level 3 work in FE is funded at a much lower level in FE than in schools, despite lower levels of educational attainment and the greater need of teaching (NR p.57).

• Funding across phases is inequitably distributed (IFLL ch.4).

• In 2006/7, the average school-based expenditure per pupil was £3,360 for primary and £4,320 for secondary – a disparity in funding criticised in major reports30 (CPR, p.467).

• Maintenance support for those in further education and training is much lower than for those in universities.

But also, it is a matter of not only of inequity but also of financial effectiveness. For instance,

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section 10: funding and resources

• There is extra cost in maintaining small sixth forms – at the same time as depressed achievements (referred to as ‘sixth form presumption’) (NR p.52-56).

• Provision by small employers of learning opportunities for school and college students on work experience or on apprenticeships is undermined by lack of financial support.

Solutions?

The Reviews do offer possible ways forward.

• Partnerships, especially for post-16, should be directly funded (NR p.170/5).

• There should be a proportional shift to the later phases (as defined by IFLL, p.1) in recognition of the importance of adult education for re-skilling the workforce, giving • Second chances to those who have failed and providing the personal and social benefits of continuing education (MCWB p.33).

• There should be a financial entitlement to achieving a minimum level of qualification (L.2) regardless of age, with no discrimination against part-time provision (IFLL, p.2).

• The funding of those entitlements should be channelled through a national system of learning accounts available to all over 25 and giving individuals maximum control over their use (IFLL, p.3).

The organisation of funding The responsibility for distributing funding in a more joined up education and training would, on the surface, seem to be that of Local Authorities, but difficulties have been pointed out (NR p.57; IFLL ch.9). For example, LAs no longer have responsibility for FE and Sixth Form Colleges, but have much more extensive responsibilities than the collaborative learning centres envisaged in the Reviews.

We suggest nonetheless, if funding is to be directed to locally developed consortia or partnerships, that some form of locally organised system is needed to retain a more regional oversight of the needs of different communities and of the distribution, in the light of their assessments, of the resources to them.

48 Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

Section 11 Qualifications and Progression

Educational aims (Part I) and a vision of learning (Part II) require ‘a system’ which serves their pursuit: schools, colleges, funding. But also they need qualifications which recognise achievement and provide routes into higher education, further training and adult life.

Similarly TLRP (5, 6) questioned the ‘standardised’ levels (and thus the hierarchy) of skills built into the framework of qualifications (and thus the funding strategy based on them). It is impossible to equate skills across quite different contexts. Greater flexibility is required in relation to the needs of different occupations. A more authentic model for individual development is needed than a hierarchy of undifferentiated skills.

Key points • The dominance of qualification-led learning narrows and impoverishes learning.

• There are severe weaknesses in the standardised framework of qualifications.

• Progression requires a more independent and well informed IAG service.

Qualifications led The previous Government accepted the Leitch Report’s ‘upgrading of skills, denominated rigorously in terms of qualified targets at different levels’ by 2020 (IFLL p.32), namely: • 90% of the workforce to be qualified to Level 2 (from 69% in 2005) • 95% of adults to attain basic skills of literacy and numeracy (from 85% and 79% respectively in 2005); • 1.9 million additional Level 3 attainments; • 40% of adults qualified to Level 4 (up from 29% in 2005)

14-19 phase This pursuit of qualifications shapes education from age 14 onwards, as that is outlined at length in the Nuffield Review (ch.8).

At that age, a two year programme is followed for most young people leading to the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). A ‘good’ GCSE result is a grade C or above in five subjects, including maths and English. At 16, a large proportion of young people then embarks on courses leading to the GCE Advanced Level.

Moreover, A Level is divided into two parts: AS (Part I) generally taken at 17 and A Level Part II generally taken at 18. Furthermore, both Parts 1 and II are split for most learners into modules, which modules can be repeated in order to obtain better grades.

Therefore, GCSE and GCE A Level shape learning in several ways (NR p.115): • they constitute the standards by which educational success is judged both for the individual and for the institutional provider; • league tables of schools are determined by them; • they are the main progression route into higher education – the better the results, the more prestigious the university accessed.

Indeed, such upgrading of qualifications would seem, according to TLRP3, to be highly desirable in terms of wage returns on different levels of qualifications – except (see NR p.52) where those qualifications are at Level 2.

However, IFLL (p.31-33) warns against the linking of educational advancement to acquisition of qualifications. This, of course, was written with adult education in mind, but it echoes the messages coming from the Nuffield Review. Indeed, the latter (p.115) looks critically at the fact that ‘qualifications are the main driver of learning in the 14-19 phase’.

Dissatisfaction with A Level has led to the increased advocacy of the International Bac, the development of the Cambridge Pre-U, and university entrance tests.

Alongside this progression through ‘general education’ there is a wide range of other qualifications

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section 11: qualifications and progression

usually referred to as ‘vocational’, although this, for some, is a misnomer as they provide assessment for more general and practical achievements which are not geared to a particular occupation (see NR ch.8). There is a long history of the attempt to provide alternative qualifications at 16 (NR p.116/7), but they normally have a short life span.

Post-16, there are of course many more, often directed at specific occupational competencies.

These accredited qualifications are offered by over 120 private ‘awarding bodies’, some well established such as City and Guilds of London Institute, BTEC and ASDAN.

Reforms The Nuffield Review summarised the attempts

by Government to reform a national framework of qualifications with (i) clearly defined levels, (ii) equivalences between different awards at the same level, and (iii) progression routes through the qualifications and levels. (see NR ch.8 for detailed account of the system and the reforms).

This resulted in four pathways: • general education (GCSE and A Level) • applied learning (the new Diplomas of which there were to be 17 lines but which could be taken along side GCSEs and A Levels) • apprenticeships leading to a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ); • Foundation Learning Tier for those not yet ready for embarking on the above pathways.

The Nuffield Review outlined the problems inherent within these reforms, much like those suggested by TLRP 6 (see above): • the definition of ‘level’, and hence • the meaning of ‘equivalence’ between qualifications at the same level; • the detailed specification of criteria for success in a qualification at each level such that there was ‘teaching to the test’ rather than to improved quality of learning; • the omission of learning experiences not easily measurable; • the problems of progression from some of the qualification routes.

Post 19 As the IFLL report constantly asserts,

disproportionate amounts of ‘reform’ and funding go to the education and training system up to 19, neglecting the qualification needs in subsequent phases of education which it outlines.

Three reasons are given for addressing this neglect: • the need to improve the skills and knowledge of the workforce if economic performance is to be maintained or indeed improved; • the changing job market requiring employees to acquire new skills (‘the system does not recognise the increasingly diverse transitions into and from employment’, p.51); • the opportunity for adults to compensate for failure earlier in education (see e.g., p.16).

However, as TLRP 8 argued, there is a need post-16, and well into the later stages of adult education, for constant development of skills from those required in earlier stages of a career to a level which requires, first, application of combinations of skills, second, knowledge across a range of non-routine activities, and, third, the assumption of more responsibility.

Apprenticeships These are seen as one of the ‘four pathways’, as set out in the Nuffield Review (ch.8). They can be taken at three levels, though only at Level 3 would the apprentice be seen (informally) as having a ‘licence to practise’ (NR p.143/5). The Government aims to boost the number of apprentices to 500,000 per year.

TLRP 5, however, issues a warning, namely, the need to focus on the quality of learning rather than on just another scheme to realise target numbers or target qualifications. This requires: • need for ‘apprentice’ to be contracted to an employer (not enough to be college-based); • need for more employers to provide apprenticeships and good quality work-based learning in communities of practice inside and outside the workplace; • access to qualifications with planned time for study, opening up further progression; • a good Information, Advice and Guidance service.

Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) The need for an impartial and shared IAG service, well-informed by research and data driven, is seen

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section 11: qualifications and progression

as essential by both the Nuffield Review (p.165/6) and IFLL (p.125). As IFLL points out the phrase ‘the qualification jungle’ is a cliché, but this does not rob it of its force. We have a mass of courses and qualifications whose status, meaning and validity are often obscure, even to those who have them. Progression routes are too often hard to identify, if they exist at all. (p.54) Or again (p.51) ‘for those not on established routes of successful schools and college, the map is confusing and discouraging’. Hence the need for a much improves IAG which embraces adult progression and learning, not just those under 19.

Such IAG needs to begin at 14 when decisions are now made about courses which affect subsequent choices and career paths. That IAG needs to have the following features: • impartial – giving advice for the benefit of the learner, not for the benefit of the provider; • knowledgeable and data-driven about the local and regional employment prospects, and the apprenticeships, courses and qualifications which lead to such employments; • detailed knowledge of different higher education courses and matriculation requirements.

Conclusion Government policy has emphasised the creation of progression routes through schools into further and higher education, into employment related training and eventually into employment. The chief instrument for achieving this has been a qualifications framework, showing the possible progression routes through different levels of attainment in particular academic and vocational pathways. But the framework is ‘a jungle’, difficult to grasp. Decisions have to be made at 14 if the best route through to further or higher education or apprenticeships and work based learning is to be recognised. Hence, the Nuffield and IFLL Reviews ask for a clearer set of pathways and a shared, powerful and well researched centre for employment related guidance.

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Section 12 The Role of Government

Finally, considerations were given to role of government, central and local, in orchestrating educational provision – its duties and its limitations in ensuring adequate provision, equitable funding, high standards, progression routes and accountability of the system.

• making funding ‘from cradle to grave’ depend on achieving government set targets; • selecting performance indicators; • specifying what is and what is not necessary to learn at different ages; • even dictating the way in which reading should be taught in primary schools (CPR p.35/6); • the tight controls from the centre through detailed regulation (CPR p.462)

Key points

The centralisation is often exercised, as the Reviews point out, through arms length steering mechanisms such as targets and performance tables which are the hall-marks of the ‘New Public Management’ (NR p.38) – for schools the QCA then QCDA (now abolished), and for post-16 further education and apprenticeships the Learning and Skills Council (now abolished).

• The current system in England has become over-centralised, is insufficiently linked to local and regional needs, and does not trust its professionals enough.

• A single Government department is needed for a coherent lifelong learning system.

• All phases of education are burdened by increasing levels of accountability.

As it once was The 1944 Education Act did not specify the content of the curriculum or the mode of teaching (except for the statutory requirement to teach religious education). Those were professional matters. As the Nuffield Review (p.24) points out, when Mr Callaghan, as Prime Minister, made a major speech on education in 1976, he was reprimanded through his political adviser for having spoken without prior approval of the Chief Inspector of Schools.

However, such hands-off approach could not be sustained given the public investment in education.

As it now is We have come a long way since then as successive governments have seen the need for ever more interventions in a system which, at every level, they were funding. The most significant development was the creation of a National Curriculum from 5 to 16 in the 1988 Education Reform Act. But that increased intervention was intensified in many ways – for example: • enabling schools to opt out of local authority control;

It is the shared view of the Reviews that this increased centralisation has gone too far and has to be challenged. As IFLL insists, ‘the current system in England has become over-centralised and insufficiently linked to local and regional needs and (p.54) does not trust its professionals enough (It is not helped by a ‘whirligig’ of government ministers)’.

As it should be The Reviews, despite their independence from each other, reach similar conclusions about how a more decentralised system should work.

First, there must be a broad national framework within which there is assured adequate resources, equity in funding and continuity and progression in learning ‘from cradle to grave’.

To that end, IFLL (p.215) argues strongly for ‘a single government department in promoting lifelong learning, targeting support and ensuring coherence and collaboration’.

Second, however, within that national framework there is a need to develop:

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section 12: the role of government

• what Nuffield Review calls ‘devolved social partnerships’ where there is a ‘new balance between national, regional and local governance’; or • what IFLL (p.4) refers to as a revival of local responsibility … with (p.196) ‘new forms of local control’.

That ‘devolved social partnership’ would encompass local employer networks, clusters of schools and colleges, youth service, voluntary bodies, parent representatives, and an IAG service which embraces schools, colleges and adult education. Regional representation is clearly essential since educational aims and provision cannot be disconnected from the wider regional needs and opportunities.

However, the examples of ‘devolved social partnerships’ which are available do not generally include primary schools at one end and adult education at the other.

All this requires more local democratic agencies, providing infrastructures with links, say, between education, health and social services. At the same time, as the Nuffield Report argues, though the LAs may be crucial in bringing such partnerships into being, they themselves might not be centres of the partnerships themselves. They are often too large to provide that local democratic involvement and responsibility.

Accountability of the system At every level or phase, there are contentious arguments about the ‘effectiveness’ of educational provision and about standards. There is much to learn from the different ways in which this question was tackled in the respective Reviews.

The Nuffield Review (p.51) regarding 14-19 concluded ‘poor rates of participation, high rates of attrition and low levels of attainment compared with our European neighbours’, reflected in the rather large number in the NEET category.

Furthermore, the Review points to continuing divide in attainment between socially advantaged and disadvantaged groups.

The Primary Review (p.334 sq) noted the rise in ‘standards’ as these have been measured in tests of mathematics and science, but less so in

reading. It pointed out, however, both the ambiguity in the word ‘standard’ and the narrowness of the curriculum measured.

IFLL (ch.2), though warning against accountability in terms of measured learning outcomes (adult learning is particularly difficult to measure), argues that conclusions can be reached on • the imbalance of opportunity and support for learning across the life course, • the failure to recognise the increasingly diverse transitions into and from employment, • the accumulation of inequalities over a lifetime, • the poor preparation for a highly skilled economy, and • the sheer difficulty in understanding the very complex system.

Inevitably, at the heart of arguments about the effectiveness of the system is the concept of ‘standard’. Are standards going up or down? How does the system compare with other national systems in terms of standards reached?

However, as Nuffield and Primary Reviews note, standards cannot be identified with ‘targets’ set by Government. Deeper questions need to be asked about the aims of education, reflected in a wider vision of learning. Otherwise, standards are defined much too narrowly, and the system is judged on targets which ill reflect the values which the Reviews argue for.

The limits of Accountability It is clear that all phases of education are burdened by increasing levels of accountability.

That accountability is determined by Government agenda, not by educational aims which local providers – schools, colleges, adult education and parents – see to be important. All Reviews point to the limits of Government in shaping what should be learnt and how it should be learnt.

The Primary and Nuffield Reviews (ch.16 and p.81 respectively) are critical of the use of tests (especially SATs) as instruments for holding the system or individual providers accountable. As argued in Section 8, assessment for accountability should be separated from assessment for learning.

Less interference in the minutiae is necessary.

Thus, IFLL (p.55) argues that accountability, if it takes the wrong form

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section 12: the role of government

stifles innovation, destroys trust and increases costs. We need a better balance between accountability and earned autonomy.

Professionals in all walks of lifelong learning need their trust in the system raised, along with the system’s trust in them’.

What would seem to be necessary is the collection of evidence which enables government, parents, employers and the community to make a judgement about the extent to which the different parts of the system enable the aims of education (e.g. as set out in Section 2) to be realised.

That requires the posing of the right questions, concerning, for example: • participation trends in post 16 and in adult education (e.g. by age, gender, ethnicity); • the degree of inclusiveness within the system; • sense of ‘well-being’ (NR p.59/60; MCWB) • meeting the skills required by the economy; • meeting needs of the disadvantaged in society (IFLL, p.52, asks how the system perform when seen from the perspective of a disabled adult, a cared-for child or an ex-prisoner); • raising the levels of core and functional skills in numeracy and literacy; • enabling progression through the system to further education, training and employment; • creating a more cohesive and responsible citizenry.

Conclusion An over centralised system at every level, greater devolvement of responsibility to local ‘social partnerships’, the role of local authorities in bringing this about – all that is agreed. But the shape of such partnerships – their funding, organisation, local accountability, and limitations within a national framework – is a question bequeathed by the Reviews for others to answer.

At the same time, the system should be accountable at the different levels of local authority, regional planning, partnership (or consortium) and individual provider – accountable both to national needs and to the aims and values endorsed by the local learning systems or consortia.

National data is, of course, important – in this all Reviews are agreed. But, as both Primary and Nuffield Reviews point out (p.332 sq. and p.63 respectively), such data about the system as a whole can be obtained on a light sampling basis along the lines pioneered by the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) without that interfering with the day-to-day learning programmes of schools.

The system of accountability should not have the direct impact on teaching and learning (‘teaching to the test’) which currently the system has (CPR p.313 sq.; NR p.62, 67).

54 Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

Part III: What sort of system would achieve educational aims?

Challenges and Principles: a summary

9

hallenge: Learner circumstances are diverse and wide-ranging, so that no one school or college C has the resources or expertise to meet the needs and aspirations of all young people within it.

rinciple: Local collaborative and democratic learning partnerships (embracing schools, further P education colleges, universities, employers, independent training providers, and voluntary bodies) should be established to promote continuity in provision for lifelong learning.

10 C hallenge: There are too many different funding streams, often for the same work, creating unfair and often inefficient distribution of resources.

Principle: Funding should be directed to locally developed partnerships, with regional oversight by local authorities which will be in a position to understand the educational and training needs of the different phases and communities.

11 C hallenge: The present system of qualifications is highly complex in terms of progression routes, levels and equivalences, and little understood by employers, young people themselves hand higher education.

Principle: Qualifications should reflect the aims of learning, including the practical, informal and experiential, and should provide a framework which is enabling, clear and stable.

12 C hallenge: There has emerged a highly centralised and detrimental control over education and training.

Principle: The Government should ensure necessary resources, teacher supply, legal frameworks, curricular entitlement and overall accountability, but place responsibility for detailed provision with institutions, partnerships and authorities in particular localities.

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56  Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

Conclusions

Government Ministers have often said that they are committed to evidence-based policy. Here we have presented evidence from the recent past, based on comprehensive and independent Reviews covering education and training ‘from cradle to grave’’. From that evidence we emphasise the following broad recommendations.

1 Start with (and continue to ask): ‘What counts as an educated person in this day and age?’

This may seem an obvious question. Yet it is rarely asked in a systematic way. There may not be total consensus in the answers which are given. But the constant asking of this question reminds of the profoundly moral nature of educational policy in terms of the values of personal well-being and of public good.

2 In the light of the no doubt rich answers we get from asking about the development of ‘the whole person’ (regardless of class, ethnicity or gender) and their contribution to an ever better society, we should maintain a wide vision of worthwhile learning. This should be practical and vocational as well as academic. It needs to draw on the ‘different voices in the conversation between the generations of mankind’ within the sciences, arts and humanities. It must build upon the experiences and informal learning acquired in home and community. It should provide the motivation for lifelong learning. It should be flexible enough to provide for very different personal, social and economic needs.

3 Recognition must be given to the central role that teachers play in any educational and training system. No policy, howsoever well thought out, has merit unless it is thoughtfully implemented by those who teach. They alone have the

pedagogical expertise for communicating the knowledge, values and skills, which we have inherited, to the developing minds, interests and aspirations of the learners. But that expertise needs to be nurtured through rigorous initial training and then through high quality continuing professional development.

4 We should make sure that the provision of educational opportunities begins with the needs of learners, not with the interests of providers.

No school or other institution can alone provide continuity of learning experiences. Local collaborative partnerships need to be created and funded. These bring together schools and colleges, employers and independent training providers, higher education and youth workers, third sector organisations and members of the local community. All bring to the partnership their respective and much needed expertise, opportunities and resources for realising that wide vision of worthwhile learning.

5 Finally, Government needs to be modest about what it can achieve – for two reasons. First, there are limits to how interventions can change a complex system; that requires the daily difficult and professional work of teachers. Second, governments and their ministers change, often at frequent intervals. Policies come and go. Too much power gained by one Minister may be used for the opposite purposes by the next.

In conclusion, we invite everyone (Ministers, civil servants, advisers, head teachers, college principles, teachers and many more) to review the twelve challenges which arise from the evidence of these Reviews, and to seriously consider the principles which we have proposed.

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Notes and References

Dearing Reports: 1994, National Curriculum and its Assessment, London: SCAA; 1996, Review of Qualifications for 16-19 Year Olds, London: SCAA; 1997, Higher Education in the Learning Society, Leeds: NCIHE 2 Moser, C., 1990, Presidential Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

3 Popper, K., quoted in a letter to the Guardian from R.C.Mountain, 24.11.2010 4 Wedge, P. and Prosser, H., 1973, Born to Fail, London: Arrow Books, in association with the National Child Development Bureau.

5 See in particular Swann Report, 1995, Education for All, London: HMSO 6 See the report on child poverty, Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2010, How Fair is Britain?

7 DfES, 2003, Every Child Matters, London: Stationery Office.

8 See Field, F., 3.12.2010, Commissioned Report to the Prime Minister on Poverty 9 Leitch Review, 2003, Prosperity for All in the Global Economy: World Class Skills, London: H.M. Treasury.

10 Roberts Report, 2002, SET for Success: the Supply of People with Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths Skills 11 UNICEF Report, 2007, Child Poverty in Perspective: an Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries, Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre.

12 This Foresight Report is an outcome of the Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project from the Government Office for Science. It was written by Feinstein, L., Vorhaus, J., and Sabates, R., Centre for the Wider Benefits of Learning, Institute of Education, University of London.

13 Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Siraj-Blatchford, I., and Taggart, B., 2004, The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project. Final Report. London: DfES. 14 Plowden Report, 1967, Children and their Primary Schools, London: Central Advisory Council for Education (England).

15 Bartlett, F.C. (1932), Remembering: An Experimental and Social Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

16 For example, Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. 1973. Memory and intelligence. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

17 For example: Vygotsky, L. S., 1962, Thought and Language. Cambridge, MIT Press. And 1978, Mind in Society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

18 Whorf, B. (1956), John B. Carroll (ed.), ed., Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, MIT Press.

19 Higham, J. and Yeoman, D., 2006, Emerging Provision and Practice in 14-19 Education and Training, DfES Research Report 737, Nottingham: DfES. 20 Tasker, M., 2003, Smaller Structures in Secondary Education: A Research Digest, Bristol: Human Scale Education.

21 See Tyler, R., 1947, Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Chicago Press.

Also. Jessop, G., 1991, Outcomes: NVQs and the Emerging Model of Education and Training, London: Falmer Press.

22 Bruner, J., 1964, Towards a Theory of Instruction, Harvard University Press.

23 The Royal Society – A State of the Nation Report, 2008, Science and Mathematics Education, 14-19, London: The Royal Society 24 Moser Report, 1999, A Fresh Start – Improving Literacy and Numeracy, London: DfEE 25 Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, Feb. 2010, Report into Teacher Training, London: DfE. 26 Stanton, G., 2008, Learning Matters: Making the 14-19 Reforms Work for Learners, London: CfBT Education Trust.

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58 Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future

notes and references

see Harlen, W., The Role of Teachers in Assessment for Learning, London: Assessment Reform Group, Nuffield Foundation 28 The Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) was the major research arm of the Department for Education and Science (DES) during the 1970s and 1980s. Its purpose was to survey school populations to identify levels of national capability. Surveys of English, Mathematics, Science and Modern Foreign Languages were undertaken on a rolling basis.

29 Webb Report, 2007, Promise and Performance, Cardiff: Welsh Assembly Government.

30 Hadow Report, 1931, The Primary School: Report of the Consultative Committee, London: HMSO; Plowden Report, 1967, Children and their Primary Schools, London: Central Advisory Council for Education (England).

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Education for All: Evidence from the past, principles for the future 

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Education for All Evidence from the Past, Principles for the Future A synopsis of findings and challenges from recent major reviews of education and training from early years, through school, college, employment, training, and higher and adult education, and the implications for the principles which should guide policy and practice.

TLRP Institute of Education University of London 20 Bedford Way London WC1H 0AL Tel: +44 (0)20 7763 2189 www.tlrp.org