Posted by: PPTAweb
on 09, Feb, 2012
Tagged in:
teaching ,
teachers ,
students ,
research ,
privatisation ,
PPTA ,
MOE ,
Ministry of Education ,
John Banks ,
Hekia Parata ,
Class size ,
ACT Party
Everyone seems to be back to their 'usual' lives. Teachers and students back at school, workers back at work, including me, so that means update the blog - as no elves updated it for me during my own summer(?) break.
Politicians are back prevaricating and obfusticating and some of their advisors advice appears to do the same. The announcements on charter schools, and class size - and the Ministry of Education briefing to the incoming Minister - are depressing examples.
So to advice from Bertrand Russell and the Skepticblog and referenced in the title of this blog - don't take people's (politicians in particular) word and check everything twice:
Posted by: PPTAweb
on 10, Oct, 2011
Tagged in:
teaching ,
teachers ,
students ,
student achievement ,
secondary schools ,
PPTA ,
Performance pay ,
MOE ,
Ministry of Education ,
learning ,
education spending ,
education politics ,
education ,
Class size ,
annual conference
Sitting on the train wondering where to begin with this week's blog. Class size seems a good place to start as Kate Gainsford, PPTA vice president, was on breakfast TV yesterday morning discussing class size - and in the twitterverse a couple of commentators suggested performance pay for teachers would be better value for money in improving student achievement.
Posted by: Albatross
on 03, Mar, 2010
It is interesting that MoE officials have turned to slogans in an effort to sell National Standards.
This is no doubt a response to the dearth of data supporting such a programme.
The current slogan is “The kids can’t wait” As with all good advertising, the sentence is never completed.
Posted by: Winged Avenger
on 11, Feb, 2010
"big sports fields and small class sizes"
This month a new private school opened in Whangarei. Quite a few kids are already enrolled, which begs the question: other than old-style uniforms and dodgy international exams, what does a private school have that a state school does not? The student quoted in the local paper knows: "big sports fields and small class sizes. That's an improvement coming from a class of 33. It means teachers can focus on smaller groups."
Well then. Smaller class size. A 12-year-old knows that it makes a positive difference to her learning. What makes it so hard for the government and other class-size deniers to understand her simple point? Fewer kids, more teacher time, more space to learn, more flexibility, less stretch on shared resources… win, win, win…
Oh, and hats off to Mesdames Roy and Tolley, for the funding boost to private schools that gives them what the state schools are not funded to have: Small classes. And, by the way, private schools have raised their fees (again) this year, on average by 3.5%. More public money plus higher fees, what’s not to like?
Posted by: blogger
on 03, Nov, 2009
By Peter Sumpter
A scientist was researching cockroaches. He trained one to jump out of a petrie dish each time it heard the command “Jump”. He then removed its legs and repeated the experiment. On the command “Jump” it stayed motionless in the dish. This proves scientifically that if you take the legs off a cockroach it will go deaf.
Most high schools have larger classes for their high achieving and well motivated students, allowing the school to have smaller classes for low achieving students or students who require learning support.
Enter New Zealand’s leading educational researchers to survey the students. The statistics clearly show that the highest achieving students came from a class of 30 taught by teacher A, while the lowest achieving students come from a class of 18 taught by teacher B.
