Comments on: Why governmental educational reforms fail. http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2009/06/07/why-governmental-educational-reforms-fail/ Education. Technology. Productivity. Wed, 23 May 2012 07:20:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Martin King http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2009/06/07/why-governmental-educational-reforms-fail/comment-page-1/#comment-5846 Martin King Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:32:00 +0000 http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/?p=2298#comment-5846 Doug, I think it's a case of move on before it hits the fan - Government and leaders like big announcements - the trick is to announce the next big thing before the last one has had a chance to succeed or fail. Doug,

I think it’s a case of move on before it hits the fan – Government and leaders like big announcements – the trick is to announce the next big thing before the last one has had a chance to succeed or fail.

]]> By: Ian Lynch http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2009/06/07/why-governmental-educational-reforms-fail/comment-page-1/#comment-5845 Ian Lynch Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:13:00 +0000 http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/?p=2298#comment-5845 Newtonian physics is still used much more than relativity. Relativity is really a refinement to an approximation. The approximation is fine in many circumstances but breaks down in extremes like the very small, the very large or very fast. If there is an education reform analogy we would be saying that the current paradigm works mostly but can be refined in extreme contexts eg failing schools (special measures rater than special relativity :-) ). I think the main problem with government reform is that it has generally led to over-complication and poor value. Good maths and science produce elegant uncomplicated solutions to what appear to be complex problems. It seems that social reform linked to education develops complex solutions to what often appear to be straight forward problems. eg Let's use modern technology to support learning. Government Solution, blow 500 million on a complicated curriculum on-line that has little real impact apart from entrenching out of date technologies. Simple solution - divide up the NC POS into coherent units and provide on-line free and open resources for schools to use and modify. NC is about 10,000 hours so spending £1000 per hour of curriculum time costs 10 million covering the entire 5-16 statutory curriculum. So 2% of the cost for a simple manageable more effective solution. Newtonian physics is still used much more than relativity. Relativity is really a refinement to an approximation. The approximation is fine in many circumstances but breaks down in extremes like the very small, the very large or very fast. If there is an education reform analogy we would be saying that the current paradigm works mostly but can be refined in extreme contexts eg failing schools (special measures rater than special relativity :-) ). I think the main problem with government reform is that it has generally led to over-complication and poor value. Good maths and science produce elegant uncomplicated solutions to what appear to be complex problems. It seems that social reform linked to education develops complex solutions to what often appear to be straight forward problems. eg Let’s use modern technology to support learning. Government Solution, blow 500 million on a complicated curriculum on-line that has little real impact apart from entrenching out of date technologies. Simple solution – divide up the NC POS into coherent units and provide on-line free and open resources for schools to use and modify. NC is about 10,000 hours so spending £1000 per hour of curriculum time costs 10 million covering the entire 5-16 statutory curriculum. So 2% of the cost for a simple manageable more effective solution.

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