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How the outcry over a Reading test reveals wider problems with SATs
By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 24 May 2023
Credit: Phil Meech, UCL.
One of my daughters did Key Stage 1 SATs ‘quizzes’ last week, and she found it tiring and emotional. Some of her friends were in tears over how they did, and this is without the pressures of having your results used to appraise the whole school. Judging by the outcry over the Reading paper, the Key Stage 2 SATs week was especially tough for pupils, parents and teachers alike this year. But this concern over SATs goes much deeper than one difficult paper; many parents and teachers have simply had enough of what they see as a damaging system. Read the rest of this entry »
Our Changing Society – charting political, social and economic change over nine decades
By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 18 May 2023
Commuters walk around a London train station. Image credit: Chris Mann / Adobe Stock.
The UK is home to a remarkable set of scientific studies that have tracked generations of people growing up in Britain over the last 90 years. These longitudinal population studies are unique in science and unparalleled elsewhere in the world – no other country has anything like them on the same scale.
Over those nine decades major political, social and economic changes have impacted every area of study participants’ lives. CLOSER’s ‘Our Changing Society’ resource provides this detailed historical context through a set of interactive charts and downloadable datasets to help you understand how these changes may have impacted people’s complex lives. Read the rest of this entry »
The link between the Key Stage 2 SATs and teachers’ anxiety levels
By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 9 May 2023
Credit: Phil Meech for UCL.
For quite a long time now, some groups have argued for the abolition of the Year 6 SATs (Standard Assessment Tests). Those who do so argue that they lead to a narrowing of the curricula, encourage schools to “teach to the test” and harm wellbeing across the education sector.
On this final point, in a previous blog I have discussed how evidence of a negative impact of the SATs on pupil wellbeing is pretty thin.
But what about the link between the SATs and the wellbeing of teachers? In a new academic working paper released today I take a look… Read the rest of this entry »
A brief history of school meals in the UK: from free milk to Jamie Oliver’s campaign against Turkey Twizzlers
By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 4 May 2023
Credit: Monkey Business / Adobe Stock.
University of Wolverhampton; Heather Ellis, University of Sheffield.
Mashed potato, gravy, custard. When British people hear the words “school dinners”, it’s not always great memories that come to mind.
That’s not the case for everyone. Indeed France is known for its gourmet school lunches cooked by onsite chefs – bon appétit!
But in the UK people have been complaining about school meals for a long time. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver campaigned against cheap processed foods like “turkey twizzlers” in the early 2000s. And Margaret Thatcher, the UK’s prime minister in the 1970s, was nicknamed the “milk snatcher” when she was education secretary because she stopped free milk for children in schools.
What we should really be asking about ChatGPT et al. when it comes to educational assessment
By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 27 April 2023
Credit: PCH Vector / Adobe Stock
Since its launch in November 2022, the Open AI chatbot, ChatGPT, has been flexing its artificial intelligence and causing moral and practical panics on university campuses across the world. It is unsurprising that universities are concerned about the ramifications of using Large Language Models (LLMs) to create responses to assessments because this:
- Challenges reliable identification of academic standards; and
- Initiates detailed reviews of certain types of assessment and their future applicability.
The ability of a faceless, brainless machine to answer questions, write poetry, compose songs (although musician, Nick Cave disagrees) and create visual art, all in a matter of seconds, presents us with some astonishing food for thought. The future of not just how we write, but what we might wish to say, is looking potentially very different as more free LLMs become available and ‘learn’ how to write for us. As someone who researches educational assessment, and who teaches and assesses students, there are many questions that I’m grappling with in relation to this new landscape in education, but here I’m focusing on some that academics might wish to consider with their students:
- Does the creation and release of LLMs mean students will be more tempted to let an AI model do their academic work for them?
- What characterizes cheating when using LLMs in assessment?
How hostile immigration policies affect mothers and their access to support
By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 21 April 2023
Credit: Cultura Creative / Adobe Stock.
Hostile immigration policies in the UK constrain mothers’ personal relationships and restrict their access to different kinds of support. This means that mothers affected by these policies have to be especially creative and resourceful in their everyday mothering. This can create a significant emotional burden.
Immigration policies in the UK have long been regarded as hostile and racist in their effects. However, in 2012 – in its quest to reduce net migration – the Coalition government set out its plans to create an explicitly ‘Hostile Environment’. Primarily targeting people with no or only temporary residency rights, measures have included dramatic increases in Home Office fees for visa applications and renewals, and a minimum income requirement for UK residents who wish to bring their spouse or partner to join them. These measures penalize migrants from the Global South.
The ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) condition has been expanded, preventing people with precarious immigration status from accessing many public services and mainstream welfare support. More than 1.3 million people in the UK are estimated to be subject to NRPF. Racially minoritized mothers and children are particularly affected. More than 220,000 children are believed to have NRPF because of their visa status.
Being green in the UK: why we need a better understanding of the relationship between climate concern, behaviours and wellbeing
By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 5 April 2023
Litter picking. Credit: lovelyday12 via Adobe Stock.
by Lisa Fridkin, Neil Kaye, Katie Quy.
Much media attention is given to climate change denial and arguments over the impacts of human-driven climate change, as well as the actions of protest groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil. Meanwhile, the latest scientific reports offer a further stark warning on climate change, and call for top-down leadership to tackle the climate crisis with greater urgency. Data indicate that, in a broad sense, the British public is on board, with three-in-four Britons now saying they are worried about climate change, and many reporting they feel the UK government is failing in its duty to act. Read the rest of this entry »
The workforce crisis in schools: evidence isn’t enough
By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 3 April 2023
NEU demonstration in Norwich, February 2023. Credit: Roger Blackwell via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).
by Sal Riordan.
Teachers are in the news, striking for better pay and working conditions. Whatever you think about the rights or wrongs of that—at the start of the action a slim majority of Brits supported it — it’s hard to ignore the country’s teacher workforce crisis. National Education Union (NEU) members have just rejected the government’s pay offer, triggering two further days of strikes. Read the rest of this entry »
How many 15-year-olds are gullible enough to get scammed by a spam email?
By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 1 April 2023
Image credit: Africa Studio via Adobe Stock.
Online fraud is very serious business. We are faced with it every day. Indeed, as I am writing this blog, I’ve just received an email from a prince from a far-off-land who has an “exciting” business opportunity he wishes to discuss with me…….
I’m sure you have all received such emails as well: it is estimated that around 3.4 billion spam emails are sent every day. But how many young people are actually at risk of being duped by such a primitive digital scam?
Given that in many countries today it’s April Fools’ Day, essentially a day where we celebrate gullibility, let’s take a look. Read the rest of this entry »
We need an overhaul of England’s early childhood system, not ‘just’ more childcare
By Blog Editor, IOE Digital, on 23 March 2023
Credit: FeeLoona / Pixabay
Ahead of his UCL Lunch Hour Lecture on 11th May, Emeritus Professor Peter Moss sets out why ‘just more childcare’ is not the answer to England’s early years needs.
Last week’s Spring Budget saw the latest of many attempts by successive governments to fix England’s broken early childhood system. More funding was directed at childcare. But expensive childcare is just one symptom of a flawed system, itself the product of decades of government neglect followed by a failure to think critically and holistically once early years gained policy attention from 1997.
The result today is a hodgepodge of fragmented services, coupled with weak and poorly co-ordinated leave provision. Read the rest of this entry »
