Libraries of the future

An interesting view of libraries into the next ten or twenty years, from Andrew Churches.

http://www.fluency21.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=2717

Why merit pay for teachers doesn't work

I see that our Minister of education has trotted out the old mantra that merit pay for teachers will improve education by rewarding better teachers.

Well maybe she hasn't read this (or ANY of the research on the issue), or maybe her officials haven't, or maybe they just don't want to??

Here is an excellent summary from the Washington Post.

It seems that merit pay often isn't the best way to motivate better performance .. well there's a surprise.

Educational outrage ..

Normally it only happens every three years, coinciding funnily enough with the electoral cycle as politicians look for some populist cause with which to win electorate support. And maybe the easiest target is the education sector. We are all experts on education, after all we all went to school.

We have such a poorly performing education sector that it needs radical reform. Children emerge from the sector incapable of reading or writing, incompetent in basic numeracy skills. Recognise the sarcasm? If you listen to the politicians, then you could be forgiven for thinking that. And we shouldn't be surprised by these assertions, after all the profession itself has been slow to take up the cudgels of evidence informed practice.

However the evidence clearly doesn't support these assertions at all. The latest PISA study (the 2009 data) is pretty clear. Now remember that the PISA is an international study across many nations that is designed and administered by the OECD. You can access the entire report here.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international standardised education research study of 15-year-olds. PISA 2009 is the fourth administration of a three-yearly OECD assessment which began in 2000. Sixty-three countries took part in PISA 2009.

And here are some quotes from the New Zealand study:

Key PISA 2009 reading literacy findings
PISA assesses and reports on three reading processes – accessing and retrieving information, integrating and interpreting texts and reflecting on and evaluating texts -and two text formats – continuous texts and non-continuous texts. The results form the reading aspects are summarised and reported on an overall reading literacy scale.

• New Zealand 15-year-old students' overall reading performance (521) was substantially higher than the average for the 34 OECD countries (493)
• Of the 65 countries or economies participating in PISA 2009, only two OECD countries, and two non-OECD partner economies performed better¹ than New Zealand, four countries were similar, and the other 56 countries performed at a significantly lower level. 

Key PISA 2009 scientific literacy findings

PISA assesses three scientific literacy competencies (identifying scientific issues, using scientific evidence and explaining phenomena scientifically) and two knowledge domains (knowledge of science – physical, living, earth and space and technology systems and knowledge about science – scientific enquiry and scientific explanations) were assessed in PISA 2009. As scientific literacy is a minor focus of PISA 2009 students results on these competencies and knowledge domains are summarised and reported on an overall scientific literacy scale.

• New Zealand students’ overall scientific literacy performance (532) was higher than the average for the OECD countries (501).
• Only one OECD country and three non-OECD partner countries achieved a higher mean scientific literacy score than New Zealand. Six OECD countries were similar, and the other 54 countries were lower. 

Key PISA 2009 mathematical literacy findings

PISA assesses four aspects of mathematical literacy - quantity (numeracy), uncertainty (statistics), space and shape (geometry) and change and relationships (algebra). As mathematics is a minor focus of PISA 2009 students results on the four mathematical content areas are summarised and reported on the combined mathematical literacy scale.

• New Zealand students’ overall mathematical literacy performance (519) was significantly higher than the average for the OECD countries (496).
• Five OECD countries and six non-OECD partner countries or economies performed better than New Zealand, four OECD countries were similar, and the other 49 countries had a significantly lower performance.

Does this look like a system that is failing? The problem that we do have is that we have a long tail of under achievement. Why? After all, Finland (the consistent Number 1 performer) doesn't have this. But Finland has a much  more homogeneous population. New Zealand's population is much more diverse. The tail is significantly a function of population diversity.

But here is some opinion for free: it is also a function of teacher skills and teacher training.
The current University dominated teacher training model emphasizes academic skills, when in fact it should be practicum focused. There are some things you just don't learn from a book when it comes to teaching. It's not that our teachers are bad people. Far from it, they are all dedicated people.

However in many cases their training has not given them the necessary skill set.

Is performance pay the answer? No!! Teaching is fundamentally a collegial activity. Performance pay works when you have individuals who are required to attempt to outperform each other. Teachers are however altruistic by nature. They don't need to compete against each other. Equip them with the proper skills and they will do the job. It's reform in teacher training that is required, not performance pay.