#1730 - 02/03/10 04:15 PM
UBC-Education
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Heather
Administrator
old hand
Registered: 07/20/07
Posts: 897
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In reference to this article in the Vancouver Sun on a new and improved teacher education in university. Go read it right now and come back. Okay, done? BUYER BEWARE!!! From the piece:
It’s safe to say that every aspect of our program is going to be changed,” associate education dean Rita Irwin said in an interview. “We want to be as responsive as possible to what’s happening in schools. Right now, we’re doing our best to do that, but we think there’s a need to reconfigure.”
If Irwin really wanted to be responsive to what is going on in BC schools she'd be teaching teachers how to teach reading!!!
Students beware. Those who believe they are going to get an education in how to become a teacher are going to not only be out 100,000ish but they'll also be sorely disappointed at the lack of skills they'll end up with.
A while back a statistic told us that 50% of teachers after five years of leaving university left the teaching profession. I can't imagine what that number will be after this kind of an initiative.
Who is the watch dog for universities? Do they unilaterally just get to decide what they're going to teach or rather, not going to teach?
I despair.
Thank you Janet for this article. Janet also notes on her blog that there is NOTHING new being offered on reading courses. Nothing. Na da, Zilch, Zip, ZERO! This is truly horrifying.
Edited by Heather (02/03/10 04:19 PM)
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SCIENTIA EST POTENTIA
Knowledge is power
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#1731 - 02/04/10 01:22 PM
Re: UBC-Education
[Re: Heather]
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Tunya Audain
journeyman
Registered: 12/05/07
Posts: 87
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Mind-Scrambling Teacher Training
To get UBC’s new teacher training ideas to the present state has taken 10 years so far. The discussion paper for this project (42 pg), CREATE (Community to Reimagine Educational Alternatives for Teacher Education), is so full of jargon, nebulous notions, and outdated theories it resembles a patchwork rather than any coherent development. Granted, it is clearly labeled DRAFT.
But, frankly, this decades-long process seems to me like one long consciousness-raising exercise by faculty members who are trying on different philosophical hats. The aim seems to be to develop more progressive programming for the future without once using the word “progressive”. But, it is all about social justice and redistribution and how these principles and practices are to be infused into all future training. With the end object, of course, that the new teachers will be better able to teach social justice in the classroom and be social and political activists in their communities.
If you want to read more comments critical of this UBC development, do go to the first link in Heather’s story. Below is my comment to that Sun article.
The Molding of “New Man” Continues
I agree with the critics who fear that this UBC proposal is more social engineering.
It was in the early days of the Soviet Revolution that one of the aims of communism was to create a “new man”. Human nature would be changed to turn labor and struggle into the greater good for the collective. Individualism was discouraged.
I really worry about these “social justice” programs, especially since it’s a major thrust of the teachers' union, the BC Teachers’ Federation, with every local having a “social justice” committee.
I’m really upset that mathematics classes “might also end up discussing class, gender or race”. Are math teachers also going to organize field trips to rich houses and poor houses to help students calculate economic disparities?
I just sent a letter to UBC to express my views to the search committee looking for a new Dean of Education.
The current Dean, Rob Tierney, has resigned to take a new post in Australia. I expressed my disappointment that he, as a dean, supports views that I see as inappropriate. He decried best practice and evidence-based practice, even suggesting it was malpractice. He strongly dismissed phonics as “simple minded” but which is a successful method of teaching reading in many schools. He also spearheaded the signing of an Accord by Canadian Deans of Education, that among other goals, aims to prepare new teachers to assume social and political activist roles, to interact with their communities so as to produce informed citizens who contribute to social change and community transformation. (Teachers as community organizers?)
As well as what’s going on at UBC, I’m disturbed about a new program just started at SFU Faculty of Education. It’s a two year Masters program in teacher unionism, the first program of its kind on this planet!
I really worry for the future of education in BC unless citizens check out what’s happening in our university teacher preparation programs. Citizens and our parliamentarians should have some say in these matters.
Edited by Tunya Audain (02/04/10 01:55 PM)
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#1734 - 02/07/10 10:31 PM
Legal Actions Contemplated: It's a Matter of Time
[Re: Tunya Audain]
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Tunya Audain
journeyman
Registered: 12/05/07
Posts: 87
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Legal Actions Contemplated: It's a Matter of Time
It's a complete coincidence! At the same time as another writer, Karin, posts on another thread here about legal challenges to our complacent education system, I'm doing the same on a blog in Ontario.
It's so unfortunate, but legal actions may be the ONLY way to go as the obstructions and obfuscations are getting too much to bear.
And look at the waste. This UBC vanity project, CREATE, is an abomination -- wasting money, time, energy and our patience!
The site I've been blogging on recently is SQE, in Ontario. See this thread on union obstructionism. Note, in particular, that the constant union defendant, DL, is a long-time ex teacher unionist, who always tries to have the last word. See:
"How to cut off your nose to spite your face"
Below is my latest comment where I too, like Karin, anticipate legal actions will soon happen.
Value-Added Scores – Promising Education Reform
In my earlier post of Feb 05 entitled “Should Student Progress be Used for Teacher Evaluation? Unions Say NO” I brought up the concept of the “value-added effect” of schooling. Basically, it is the difference a teacher makes in the classroom in the school year.
CD Howe schools research factors out the socio economic status (SES) effect which amounts to 50 % of input and then says the remaining education progress of students is due to teaching – the value-added effect.
I think it is Eric Hanushek who describes it this way:
- The excellent teacher can teach two years curriculum in one year.
- The average teacher teaches one year’s material.
- The poor teacher achieves zero, therefore the student is one year behind.
I had said in my comment that it was this effect that the Obama/Duncan program was trying to promote with their Reach To The Top federal funding.
The evidence is in that value-added evaluation works. It’s been known for over 10 years. A generation of students!
What really bothers me is the conspiracy of silence which keeps this kind of information from coming forward to help people understand and press for appropriate change. I fault Education Faculties and Administrator groups. They know this material. Why are they silent?
The unions, of course, are opposed to this kind of change because it can tie student evaluation to teacher dismissals.
What REALLY bothers me is that these dogs-in-the-manger cause untold harm by their blocking of needed change. Countless children are harmed and some are criminalized (in jail or dead) due to faulty education. These are truly crimes against humanity. Too bad we, the public and parents, can’t sue for this damage done and for misrepresentation.
The public school trustees too deserve a lot of blame for turning a blind eye and not raising alarms.
The Ministries of Education, with their stacks of researchers and access to the latest information, should be on top of best practice and implement it.
When the dust settles, and we finally get reform, I hope we will get some people and groups to repent and recant for their malfeasance -- wrongful conduct by public officials. And there will be class action suits and tort settlements.
Please see this short video of a superintendent in Houston Independent School District saying how she uses value-added scores.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaB6Pywe9CQ
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