"Knowledge is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. At the very least it calls for content to be constantly updated. But also fundamentally it also changes the very purpose of education."
His proposition is that Scotland needs to be at the cutting edge and operate in a knowledge based economy.
Apart from the fact that `knowledge` is being used rather vaguely it might be imagined that the new curriculum for Scotland would produce cutting edge results in science, reading and mathematics.
Not so.
Following this so-called `altered purpose of education` and its implementation: "Lindsay Paterson, Professor of Education Policy at Edinburgh University, has described the decline in the Scottish PISA results as `shocking...`"
"The PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) tests look at the performance of 15-year-olds in a range of countries in the three `domains of science, reading and mathematics`..."
"Prof Paterson highlights what he believes could be one of the causes of this decline - Scotland's 'Curriculum for Excellence' (CfE) the philosophy which underlies all school teaching north of the Border."
"In an analysis which will be widely read, Prof Paterson asks: `What has changed that might explain this dismaying Scottish performance?`"
He concludes:
"The students who sat these PISA tests have been educated under Curriculum for Excellence since they were age 10.
Students in England in the same period have not suffered the same decline, and yet share an economic and social context that is broadly similar to Scotland's except in policy on schooling. If Curriculum for Excellence is not the explanation of Scottish decline, then what is?"
See also Professor Walter Hume`s excellent opinion piece in the Scottish Review:
http://scottishreview.net/WalterHumes111d.html
No comments:
Post a Comment