Teaching Values in the Classroom

Teaching Values in the Classroom

Despite occasional bursts of rhetoric about developing that mysterious beast ‘the world class workforce’, the goal of most education ministers turns out to be beating Singapore or Finland in the tables of PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment: in other words, to keep racking up the test scores, without stopping to think what those scores are meant to indicate. Examination results are proxies for our underlying values and intentions, not ends in themselves. Most of what kids learn in school they forget within weeks of having taken the test. As Einstein said, ‘Education is what remains after you have forgotten everything you learnt in school.’ So what are the valuable residues which we want for all our young people after those 12 long years in school? 

How many leaders does a school need? Plenty – because everyone is responsible for leading someone.

How many leaders does a school need? Plenty – because everyone is responsible for leading someone.

School leaders improve teaching and learning indirectly and most powerfully through their influence on staff motivation, commitment and working conditions. School leadership has a greater influence on schools and students when it is widely distributed. Some patterns of distribution are more effective than others.
Visible Learning

Visible Learning

For teachers to be able to regularly evaluate their impact in the classroom and adjust their teaching methodology in response to what they see, the classroom needs to be made visible. The concept of seeing clearly what teachers are teaching and what students are learning is known as Visible Learning.