IOE Insights

2018 Global Teacher Prize Lecture.

Art at the heart of education: why you cannot be truly educated without the arts, and why their decline affects us all - Andria Zafirakou, MBE

To experience the arts is to experience aspects of humanity which cannot easily be defined or understood in another context. In whatever medium it comes, the importance of ensuring young people have – to coin a phrase – access to the best that has been thought, and said, and created in the arts has never been more pressing.

Yet while some schools manage to maintain a broad and rich cultural offer, others find that they are having to turn away from arts education, driven by among other things a restricted funding environment and accountability pressures that act to narrow the curriculum.

Such a trend, if it continues, is of real concern. It threatens to become yet another factor which divides the more privileged from the less. And it takes away from the majority of the next generation the opportunity for them to experience and feel the power of art, and to have it shape their development.

Andria (PGCE Art and Design) is an IOE alumna and the winner of the 2018 Global Teacher Prize.

IOE Public Debates:

What are Key Stage tests and national exams for – to support learning, certify competence, or sort pupils by ability? One answer is ‘all of the above’. But can our assessment system realistically do all of these things, simultaneously? There is the other question of whether we need all the formal tests and exams that we currently have, the number of which continues to expand, in the process prompting concerns among commentators and parents alike. And what about formative assessment and assessment for learning – where should that fit in the overall scheme of things?

Speakers include:

- Ken Jones, Lead Policy Advisor, National Education Union

- Tim Oates, Group Director of Assessment Research and Development, Cambridge Assessment

- Dave Mellor, Director of Assessment and Curriculum, AQA

- Dr Ruth Dann, Associate Professor, Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment, UCL Institute of Education

- Chair: Professor Becky Francis, Director, UCL Institute of Education

#IOEDebates

IOE Public Debates:

Young people’s poor sense of well-being has hit the headlines this year, with talk of crisis and a lot of soul-searching about why so many of our children seem to be so unhappy and ill at ease these days.

Thankfully, serious mental health problems remain comparatively rare and it’s important to remember that childhood and the teenage years, in particular, have always been a difficult time of transition. But something else seems to be going on today, from an earlier age.

Blame has been laid at the door of many things – from neoliberalism, to social media, to excessive testing in schools. What's changed to impact on young people’s well-being to such an extent, and what can schools, parents and carers, and policy makers – do about it? Are we doing enough, early on enough, to respond to modern day pressures – whether through mental health training for pupils or mental health first aid training for teachers? We've brought together a panel of experts to give us their views.

Speakers included:

* Viv Grant, Director, Integrity Coaching

* Caroline Hounsell, Director of Community Development, MHFA England

* Patrick Johnston, Director of Learning, Place2Be

* Praveetha Patalay, Associate Professor, UCL Institute of Education (IOE) and UCL Faculty of Population Health Sciences

* Chair: Professor Becky Francis, Director, UCL Institute of Education

#IOEDebates

An occasion to mark Professor Geoff Whitty’s long-standing association with the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) – from trainee teacher to Director Emeritus. We’ll be reflecting on Geoff’s time at the IOE and his contributions to the field of sociology of education as well as looking more broadly at the limits and possibilities for realising social justice in and through education.

IOE Public Debates:

We use maths in every aspect of our lives. We need numeracy at work, as citizens to make sense of economic news, as patients to understand risks, as consumers to work out the best deal; the list goes on.

But it’s something that as a nation we’re not good at, and poor numeracy costs individuals and the UK dearly. And despite this, it remains acceptable to say – boast even – ‘I’m no good at maths’. Why do so many of us struggle with maths at school, and what can schools and parents do so that more children grow up enjoying this subject and confident in their use of numbers? Can we learn anything from other subjects, or other countries?

We’ve asked leading experts: if you were schools minister, what steps would you take to resolve this problem?

Speakers include:

•Dame Celia Hoyles, DBE, OBE, Professor of Mathematics Education, UCL Institute of Education

• Tom Francome, Lecturer in Secondary Mathematics, University of Birmingham

• Jeremy Hodgen, Professor of Mathematics Education, UCL Institute of Education

• Craig Barton, teacher and creator of mrbartonmaths.com

• Chair: Becky Francis, Director, UCL Institute of Education

#IOEDebates

Rob Webster, Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants (MITA) Lead and Researcher talks about why he joined Twitter, his initial approaches to using the platform, and the professional and personal benefits.

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IOE Public Debates:

The rise of neuroscience within education, as in other spheres, has been dramatic, so much so that accusations of ‘neuro mania’ and warnings about ‘neuro myths’ have become commonplace. Are we correct to pin our hopes on this field as a means of improving learning and attainment?

In this debate we bring together leading neuroscientists and educationalists to reflect on the ‘state of the art’ in (educational) neuroscience, future prospects for the field in providing insights into the learning process and the likely timescales for that, the ethical questions we could be considering now, as well as how we can collectively avoid the worst excesses of ‘neuro-nonsense’.

Speakers include:

- Becky Allen, Director of the Centre for Education Improvement Science, UCL Institute of Education (IOE)

- Steven Rose, Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience, the Open University

- Catherine Sebastian, Reader in the Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London

- Michael Thomas, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Birkbeck, University of London

- Chair: Becky Francis, Director, UCL Institute of Education

#IOEDebates

IOE Public Debates:

This year the Warnock Report turns 40 years old. How far have we come and where should we go next?

The Warnock Report marked a pivotal change in the provision of education for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) – encouraging these children’s inclusion in mainstream classes, and introducing the system of ‘statementing’ that set out a child’s needs and entitlement to additional support.

But much has changed in the intervening years – not least the increase in the number of children with SEND and the complexity of their needs, wider policies of parental choice and school accountability and, now, funding constraints on the availability of special school places and SEND support in mainstream classrooms. More recent years have also seen challenges to the bias towards inclusion.

In this context we are bringing together reflections from Baroness Warnock herself and a range of perspectives to take stock of the Warnock Committee’s recommendations – their underlying principles, their implementation, and their relevance for the future.

Speakers include:

- Tara Flood, disability rights activist and Director at the Alliance for Inclusive Education

- Vijita Patel, Principal & National Leader of Education, Swiss Cottage School and Development & Research Centre

- Sally Phillips, Award-winning writer and actress

- Klaus Wedell, former Chair in Special Education, UCL Institute of Education, and Co-founder, National SENCo Forum

- Chair: Becky Francis, Director, UCL Institute of Education

#IOEDebates

IOE Public Debates:

There’s a lot of talk at the moment about robots and artificial intelligence and how they are bringing about a ‘fourth industrial revolution’ in which occupations and the labour market, right up to the top professions like medicine and law, will be transformed. In this context, what kind of education will young people need to prosper, and can our current curriculum and testing regime deliver it?

The debate over whether schools should focus first and foremost on developing pupils’ knowledge or pupils’ skills is a long-running one; do current technological advances add a new dimension to that debate?

Is it time for a more radical rethink of what and how we teach, or can a classic ‘liberal education’ – introducing children to ‘the best that has been thought and said’ in science and culture – continue to conquer all?

Speakers include:

- Rose Luckin, Professor of Learner Centred Design, UCL Knowledge Lab

- Gi Fernando, Founder, Freeformers

- Professor Mark Bailey, High Master, St Paul’s School

- Baroness Sally Morgan, Chair, Ambition School Leadership and Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust

- Chair: Becky Francis, Director, UCL Institute of Education

#IOEDebates

IOE Public Debates:

The Warnock Report is 40 years old in 2018. The Report marked a pivotal change in the provision of education for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), but much has changed in the intervening years.

Baroness Mary Warnock reflects on the report and developments since in this conversation with Rob Webster, Director of the Maximising the Impact of Teaching Assistants (MITA) project at the UCL Centre for Inclusive Education.

#IOEDebates reflected on Baroness Warnock's remarks and recommendations from the committee named after her, as well as discussing the future of SEND: http://bit.ly/2Cxj5nd