BBC Radio 4 – Educational Debates

If you have got time the educational debates taking place on Wednesday evenings at 8pm on BBC Radio 4 are well worth a listen.

This series of debates is looking at education in the UK from topics on current reform within the secondary school curriculum, discussing why the arts have taken a back seat while more “acceptable” and “assessment” friendly STEM subjects are being pushed to the forefront. Discussion on how the use of technology is changing how students are learning/engaging and with this in mind, what it is that students are actually expecting  to learn while at our institutions.  Does the system in its current form actually meet their expectation or do we need radical change across the whole UK educational arena?

The first debate was last night (Wednesday 23rd August) and can be listened to at the following link http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m1721

 

The BBC blurb for this first broadcast is as follows:

In the first of three debates to mark the most dramatic reforms in education in decades, John Humphrys asks leading education thinkers what we should teach.

Whether it’s to get to university, to launch a fulfilling career, or to be a useful member of society, what our children learn at school today will profoundly shape their lives, the society we live in and the health of our economy in the 21st Century.

The web gives today’s schoolchildren access to previously unimaginable amounts of knowledge – and yet across Europe there has been social unrest among young people who are angry and terrified that what they know will be meaningless in a future with no jobs.

At home, Government reforms have led to big changes in the national curriculum, increased university fees and parents running their own schools.

Has there ever been a more important time to come back to the fundamental questions of education? In this first programme, leading educationalists including Anthony Seldon, Estelle Morris and Rachel Wolf debate what we should teach.

 

The Second broadcast is on the 29th August BBC Radio 4 at 8:00pm and its official blurb and panel details are as follows.

In programme two, John Humphrys asks a panel including union leader Mary Bousted, cognitive scientist Prof Guy Claxton and inspections expert Roy Blatchford how we should teach.

How should we teach? Why are we obsessed with testing? Are we really exploiting the benefits of the internet and technology? And to what extent can young people teach themselves?

Britain’s education system is going through a period of huge upheaval. A new curriculum comes in next year, the way children are tested is being revamped, and academies and free schools now have new freedoms to teach what and how they want.

The internet means children can access untold amounts of knowledge and new ways of learning – as well as interact with each other and their teachers in ways that were unimaginable just ten years ago. So how are schools and pupils responding to these dramatic advances?

 

Third debate details as currently released

And in the final debate, Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg, Neil O’Brien of Policy Exchange and Prof James Tooley, an expert on private schools for poor children, discuss who should teach.

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We would be interested in peoples feedback on these debates and their thoughts on the relevance to UK Higher Education.