July Education Forum

Does every child need a classical education?

Professor Denis Hayes will lead a discussion on classics this month.

Films, TV programmes and popular books about Greek and Roman history are undergoing a revival. A book about Socrates is a best seller. Almost 16,000 pupils studied GCSE Classical Civilisation last year. Latin is in the EBacc and Toby Young will ensure that all children in his West London Free School take Latin. Government is backing the revival and schools minister Nick Gibb answers the critics with a glib: “Are you saying working class children can’t do Latin?” Does all this mean that we are on the verge of a second renaissance? Or has the true spirit of a classical education gone? And is there more to a classical education than learning Latin?

Monday Monday July 18th 2011 at 7pm at the Art Workers Guild, 6 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, London, WC1N 3AT. Contact marktaylor@instituteofideas.com for further details.

EF Podcast No. 21: Do we need a ‘nappy’ curriculum?

The latest extended format Education Forum podcast is available for download now. Josephine Hussey, child development researcher, introduces a discussion on the Dame Tickell’s review of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum.

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June Education Forum

Do we really need a 'nappy' curriculum?

Researcher Josephine Hussey will lead a discussion on the early years curriculum this month.

Dame Tickell's review of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum has been welcomed by many, particularly her calls for a reduction in bureaucracy. Sadly, few have asked the most obvious question: do we really need a 'nappy' curriculum? And if we don't, what are the alternatives?

Monday June 13th 2011 at 7pm at the Art Workers Guild, 6 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, London, WC1N 3AT. Contact marktaylor@instituteofideas.com for further details.

Education Forum Podcast No. 20

Reflections on The Importance of Teaching:

The Case for Knowledge About Education

The latest EF podcast is available for download now. Toby Marshall, Education Forum member and Programme Development Secretary for SCETT argues that all teachers need to know their subjects and to have a knowledge of education.

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May Education Forum

Reflections on The Importance of Teaching: is teacher-training at a turning point?

Far-reaching changes to initial teacher education and training have been proposed in the Coalition’s Education white paper The Importance of Teaching. Trainees will now have to have a 2.2 in their first degree if they wish to receive state funding and psychometric tests have even been proposed to see if trainees have ‘resilience’. Significant changes have also been proposed to the content of teacher training. The white paper seeks to develop this approach and suggests a focus on ‘key teaching skills’ - such as maintaining classroom discipline. Education Secretary Michael Gove has argued that teaching should be understood as a ‘craft’, which is ‘best learnt as an apprentice observing a master craftsman or woman.’ However, sitting uneasily with these developments, the EBacc proposals imply a greater focus on subject knowledge, which would have different implications for training.

At the same time, institutional changes are also proposed. The number of training places allocated to Teach First - which seeks to recruit academic high achievers - is to be expanded, whilst a new network of practically oriented 'Training Schools' will be developed as an alternative to university-based training pathways.

So should teacher training and education become more practically focused? Will teaching be improved by a closer focus on subject knowledge? Do teachers require knowledge about education itself? Or is educational knowledge and theory an unnecessary diversion from developing their craft practice? And is all this so different from what the previous government attempted? In short, is teacher training at a turning-point?

Monday May 16th 2011 at 7pm at the Art Workers Guild, 6 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, London, WC1N 3AT

Education Forum at the Battle of Ideas 2010

Highlights from the Battle of Ideas 2010

Can you parlez-vous?

So why are languages so unpopular? Are we all too ‘thick’, too lazy, too provincial to learn them? Is the teaching that bad? Does it even matter, if, after all, English is the ‘global’ language. Sarah Cartwright (language teaching advisor, CILT, the National Centre for Languages), Dr Lynn Erler (research fellow in second-language acquisition, department of education, University of Oxford) and Sabine Reul (society and politics editor, NovoArgumente and founder, writer and translator, Textbüro Reul GmbH) discuss.

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March Education Forum

The English Baccalaureate – one step forward, two steps back?

In the third of a series of discussions focused on the Coalition's new white paper, Education Forum members David Perks and Kevin Rooney will debate the merits of the Coalition’s English Baccalaureate (EB).

Coalition plans to introduce the EB can be regarded as a return to sense – a pruning down of an overcrowded curriculum in order to focus attention on academic subjects. Or it can, and has been, interpreted as an example of government interference and prescription – another mechanism with which to make schools accountable.

Other criticisms of the EB regard it as representing nothing more than the arbitrary choice of an individual – and a posh politician at that. Or the focus on traditional academic subjects is condemned as elitist – suitable for upper or middle class pupils, but not for all children – who may have other non-academic interests.

In a world that seems to be ever changing, are traditional subjects still relevant? Are they the best way to prepare young people for adult life? Is an academic curriculum a precondition, or an obstacle, for a child’s development ?

Love it or loathe it, the English Baccalaureate raises important questions about what should be in the school curriculum and for what reasons; as well as who should decide what our children learn at school.

Monday 21st March, 7pm at Art Workers Guild, 6 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, London, WC1N 3AT.