Wider Professional Practice Essay
Wider Professional Practice (Part 2)
The purpose of this assignment is to review recommendations on various educational policies for improving learner’s performance and determine if what’s mentioned on paper is relevant and realistically transferable to the classroom environment. Over the years several policies and reports have been produced all making various recommendations. Such publications include: Moser Report (1999), Success for all (2002), Every Child Matters (2004), Tomlinson Report (2005), Leitch Report (2006), Future Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances (2006), Raising Expectations Education & Skills Act (2008), Models for Success (2009), Skills for Life (2009).
Can the solution for improving learner’s performance simply lie within these policies? Why is there even a need for such policies to exist? The answer is relatively straight forward, over the years there has been an increasing amount of adults exhibiting low skills, in particular relating to numeracy and literacy. In comparison to our European counterparts the UK is lagging behind. Overall the result of adults with low skills is an increasing amount of people working in unskilled jobs or no job at all, making …show more content…
the UK vulnerable in terms of economic growth and development.
In 2004 Sandy Leitch was commissioned by the government to undertake a review of the UKs long term skills. The Leich review recognised that although the UK has substantially improved its education, employment and skill rates over the years, it’s still a mountain to climb if we wanted to be on par with our European counterparts. According to Leitch (2006: The Leitch Review Summary) “we have considerable weaknesses. More than one third of adults do not hold the equivalent of a basic school-leaving qualification. Almost half of adults are not functionally numerate and one 6th are not functional literate. This is worse than our principle comparator nations.” To achieve what Leitch refers to as ‘Target World Leader Status’, Leitch proposed the following targets: a 10 – 15% increase in achievement of level 1 numeracy & literacy levels, an additional 320,000 adults achieving a minimum level 2 qualification, doubling the amount of apprenticeships on offer and having more than 40% of adults achieving a level 4 qualification. Implementation of the above recommendations according to Leitch is a combination of 3 key players: The government, the employer and the individual. The government needs to reduce its levels of duplication and bureaucracy, examine the qualification structure and address the funding needed. Employers need to be more responsive to government initiatives and individual needs to take steps to enhance their own skills.
The Tomlinson report was published in October 2004. This report was produced as a result of: * Too much disengagement among students leading to bad behaviour * Numeracy, Literacy & ICT levels not sufficient to warrant employment * Too many people not continuing in education past the compulsory age limit * Too many assessments & specification with the qualifications
The report recommends the introduction of a new diploma awarded at four different levels: 1. Entry 2. Foundation 3. Intermediate 4. Advanced.
It was proposed that the new diploma would replace: GCSE’s, AS Levels, AVCE’s and BTECS. The structure of the new diploma was split into two main elements: the core and the main. The core covered the subject areas such as; numeracy, literacy, ICT, communication etc, whilst the main revolved around learning in the specialism topic. Working with NEET learners on E2E and now on FL, as I have done for the last 6 years, emphasis has moved away from the Tomlinson’s vision of progress at own speed’ (in my experience highly necessary for this cohort) to funding being clawed back for qualifications uncompleted by year and dates. Minimum level performance, whilst a guideline, should not be a ‘be all and end all’ for difficult to reach students, where actual attendance and personal development (soft skills) are often major achievements.
The Moser Report [Improving Literacy and Numeracy – A Fresh Start] 1999
‘We have found that people are staggered when one confronts them with the basic facts about literacy and numeracy, and rightly so. It is staggering that over the years millions of children have been leaving school hardly able to read and write, and that today millions of adults have the same problems.’ [Moser]
One of the most influential education reports to be published during Labour's 13 years in government was Claus Moser's, A Fresh Start: improving literacy and numeracy.
Published in February 1999, it revealed the stark fact that roughly one in five adults – perhaps as many as seven million people – were functionally illiterate or innumerate. For many years there had been limited funding and limited availability of basic skills training for the 16+ area of the lifelong sector; training and skill enhancement had been mostly office based [audio typing, short hand, word processing etc.] and mostly funded by the private individual. – ‘as a national priority, improvements in literacy and numeracy never reached the front of the policy queue.’ [Moser Report – Chairman’s
foreword]
The Moser Report identifies the home and family situation as one of the root cause for gaining low numeracy and literacy levels; again this relates to the explanations from our FL learners for their low levels. Moser recommends entitlement and better opportunity for learning. Given this report was written a few years ago the same problem is still very much evident today.
Over the decades and in more recent years the face of education has changed. The world of education has been swept up in a whirlwind of policies and procedures stating how teachers should teach and how institutions should be operating. One problem with this is the varying degrees of institutions offering very different types of educational facilities. None of the above policies are a complete match to Redwood for improving learner’s performance. Almost all can relate in some form or another but not one specifically matches. All similarity across all the policies is the identified need to increase the UK’s basic skills level. All policies mention either a complete change (diplomas) or amending the current curriculum in place (GCSE/A levels).
I became a tutor to work with, support and hopefully offer opportunity to young people, but I find constant educational change is at least disruptive and more so detrimental to my ability and motivation. I did not enter the teaching profession for an easy life but the whole process of learning should be about understanding in the simplest way possible – something governments should take on board.
References:
The Lietch Review Summary (2006) A roadmap directing UK towards world class skills by 2020 – online http://www.britishparking.co.uk/includes/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/filemanager/files/ skills/061207_ssda_summary_of_leitch_report.pdf
Skills for Life: Execute Summary (2009) http://rwp.excellencegateway.org.uk/readwriteplus/bank.cfm?section=218 The Tomlinson Report (2005) 14 – 19 Curriculum and qualification reform http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/ps/documents/briefing_papers/ps0007_the_tomlinson_report_14_19_curriculum_and_qualifications_reform_feb_2005.pdf Moser Report (1999) Summary and Recommendations http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/mosergroup/freshsum.pdf Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances: Execute Summary (2005) 14 – 19 Education and Skills http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/CM%206476.pdf You +1'd this publicly. Undo
The purpose of this assignment is to review recommendations on various educational policies for improving learner’s performance and determine if what’s mentioned on paper is relevant and realistically transferable to the classroom environment. Over the years several policies and reports have been produced all making various recommendations. Such publications include: Moser Report (1999), Success for all (2002), Every Child Matters (2004), Tomlinson Report (2005), Leitch Report (2006), Future Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances (2006), Raising Expectations Education & Skills Act (2008), Models for Success (2009), Skills for Life (2009).
Can the solution for improving learner’s performance simply lie within these policies? Why is there even a need for such policies to exist? The answer is relatively straight forward, over the years there has been an increasing amount of adults exhibiting low skills, in particular relating to numeracy and literacy. In comparison to our European counterparts the UK is lagging behind. Overall the result of adults with low skills is an increasing amount of people working in unskilled jobs or no job at all, making …show more content…
the UK vulnerable in terms of economic growth and development.
In 2004 Sandy Leitch was commissioned by the government to undertake a review of the UKs long term skills. The Leich review recognised that although the UK has substantially improved its education, employment and skill rates over the years, it’s still a mountain to climb if we wanted to be on par with our European counterparts. According to Leitch (2006: The Leitch Review Summary) “we have considerable weaknesses. More than one third of adults do not hold the equivalent of a basic school-leaving qualification. Almost half of adults are not functionally numerate and one 6th are not functional literate. This is worse than our principle comparator nations.” To achieve what Leitch refers to as ‘Target World Leader Status’, Leitch proposed the following targets: a 10 – 15% increase in achievement of level 1 numeracy & literacy levels, an additional 320,000 adults achieving a minimum level 2 qualification, doubling the amount of apprenticeships on offer and having more than 40% of adults achieving a level 4 qualification. Implementation of the above recommendations according to Leitch is a combination of 3 key players: The government, the employer and the individual. The government needs to reduce its levels of duplication and bureaucracy, examine the qualification structure and address the funding needed. Employers need to be more responsive to government initiatives and individual needs to take steps to enhance their own skills.
The Tomlinson report was published in October 2004. This report was produced as a result of: * Too much disengagement among students leading to bad behaviour * Numeracy, Literacy & ICT levels not sufficient to warrant employment * Too many people not continuing in education past the compulsory age limit * Too many assessments & specification with the qualifications
The report recommends the introduction of a new diploma awarded at four different levels: 1. Entry 2. Foundation 3. Intermediate 4. Advanced.
It was proposed that the new diploma would replace: GCSE’s, AS Levels, AVCE’s and BTECS. The structure of the new diploma was split into two main elements: the core and the main. The core covered the subject areas such as; numeracy, literacy, ICT, communication etc, whilst the main revolved around learning in the specialism topic. Working with NEET learners on E2E and now on FL, as I have done for the last 6 years, emphasis has moved away from the Tomlinson’s vision of progress at own speed’ (in my experience highly necessary for this cohort) to funding being clawed back for qualifications uncompleted by year and dates. Minimum level performance, whilst a guideline, should not be a ‘be all and end all’ for difficult to reach students, where actual attendance and personal development (soft skills) are often major achievements.
The Moser Report [Improving Literacy and Numeracy – A Fresh Start] 1999
‘We have found that people are staggered when one confronts them with the basic facts about literacy and numeracy, and rightly so. It is staggering that over the years millions of children have been leaving school hardly able to read and write, and that today millions of adults have the same problems.’ [Moser]
One of the most influential education reports to be published during Labour's 13 years in government was Claus Moser's, A Fresh Start: improving literacy and numeracy.
Published in February 1999, it revealed the stark fact that roughly one in five adults – perhaps as many as seven million people – were functionally illiterate or innumerate. For many years there had been limited funding and limited availability of basic skills training for the 16+ area of the lifelong sector; training and skill enhancement had been mostly office based [audio typing, short hand, word processing etc.] and mostly funded by the private individual. – ‘as a national priority, improvements in literacy and numeracy never reached the front of the policy queue.’ [Moser Report – Chairman’s
foreword]
The Moser Report identifies the home and family situation as one of the root cause for gaining low numeracy and literacy levels; again this relates to the explanations from our FL learners for their low levels. Moser recommends entitlement and better opportunity for learning. Given this report was written a few years ago the same problem is still very much evident today.
Over the decades and in more recent years the face of education has changed. The world of education has been swept up in a whirlwind of policies and procedures stating how teachers should teach and how institutions should be operating. One problem with this is the varying degrees of institutions offering very different types of educational facilities. None of the above policies are a complete match to Redwood for improving learner’s performance. Almost all can relate in some form or another but not one specifically matches. All similarity across all the policies is the identified need to increase the UK’s basic skills level. All policies mention either a complete change (diplomas) or amending the current curriculum in place (GCSE/A levels).
I became a tutor to work with, support and hopefully offer opportunity to young people, but I find constant educational change is at least disruptive and more so detrimental to my ability and motivation. I did not enter the teaching profession for an easy life but the whole process of learning should be about understanding in the simplest way possible – something governments should take on board.
References:
The Lietch Review Summary (2006) A roadmap directing UK towards world class skills by 2020 – online http://www.britishparking.co.uk/includes/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/filemanager/files/ skills/061207_ssda_summary_of_leitch_report.pdf
Skills for Life: Execute Summary (2009) http://rwp.excellencegateway.org.uk/readwriteplus/bank.cfm?section=218 The Tomlinson Report (2005) 14 – 19 Curriculum and qualification reform http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/ps/documents/briefing_papers/ps0007_the_tomlinson_report_14_19_curriculum_and_qualifications_reform_feb_2005.pdf Moser Report (1999) Summary and Recommendations http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/mosergroup/freshsum.pdf Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances: Execute Summary (2005) 14 – 19 Education and Skills http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/CM%206476.pdf You +1'd this publicly. Undo