The Education Continuum

British Education Studies Association Annual Conference

After a thought-provoking day at The Festival of Education (yes, Michael Gove did turn up, but the philosophy in schools panel escaped the need to change their clothes as A C Grayling pulled out so the crowd behaved themselves...oh well, there's always next year!), I'm heading to Manchester for the British Education Studies Association Annual Conference.

I'll be manning our stand in the Atrium at Manchester Metropolitan University on Thursday and Friday - I'm really looking forward to catching up with a few familar faces as well as meeting new people so please do come and visit our stand if you're attending the conference, or introduce yourself at the Continuum sponsored drinks reception on Thursday night.  We'll have some great discounts on the stand, and I'll be taking inspection copy orders from anyone who thinks they're interested in using one of our texts on their course.  And, as usual, I'll be really keen to hear all about your current research, teaching experiences and any new project ideas you have!

I look forward to seeing some of you there.

Alison Baker
Commissioning Editor (Academic Education)

The Sunday Times Festival of Education

Both Ally Baker and I will be at the Festival of Education at Wellington College this weekend. The festival promises to be a smorgasboard of educational treats, and I am in no way sore that the weather forecasters predict a heatwave this weekend as there are enough controversial figures in this year's line-up to ensure the event sizzles with passion and ire.

On Saturday we'll be going to see the head of Jamie's dream school, John D'Abbro or 'Dabbs' as he's more generally known getting to the bottom of the question 'who is failing our kids?' alongside our own 'Behaviour Guru', Tom Bennett. I wonder if there will be any fisticuffs with his 'ex-employee' David Starkey who'll be waiting in the wings?

Shadow Secretary, Andy Burnham will be making a keynote address, as will Michael Gove (if he turns up this time). Author of 'The If Machine', Peter Worley is teaming up with A C Grayling (yikes), Julian Baggini, Angie Hobbs and Emma Williams to talk philosophy in schools (let's hope the rest of the panel bring a change of clothes in case the crowd get rowdy). Other Continuum authors speaking their minds include Guy Claxton, John Abbott, Phil Beadle, John Murphy, Francis Beckett and Frank Furedi.

Other big names in the education world making an appearance over the weekend include Gove's biggest fan and author of 'To Miss with Love', Katherine Birbalsingh (you know, the one who got fired for saying that the British school system was 'fundamentally broken' at the Tory conference), Editor of the TES, Gerard Kelly, and err, former Welsh Rugby player, Scott Quinnell. Oh, I almost forgot, all round philanthropist Sir Bob Geldof will be making an appearance too.

I can feel my temperature rising in anticipation already.

Melanie Wilson
Commissioning Editor (Professional Education)

Top Tips on Social Networking from Paul Ainsworth

If you read, ‘I have probably learnt more in the last six months on ------- than in the previous twenty years of teaching’, you would be intrigued to know what the hidden word is. If you then read,  ‘-------- connects me, as an educator, with an unprecedented and global bank of ideas, activities and most importantly people.’ You may be even more interested to know what the resource is’. Finally, ‘it's great for sharing good practice mostly by pointers to external links, research or articles’ was one last quote on the same resource.

All these teachers are talking about twitter, the social networking site which millions of people use every day and is gathering a large following amongst many teachers.  Many people’s view of twitter is that it allows people to talk about the banalities of life or as a way of following the daily life of celebrities. Stephen Fry was one of the first famous people to really be known for tweeting. Sports lovers may think of slips on twitter such as when Kevin Pieterson reflected on being dropped from the England Cricket Team with a statement containing expletives. A tweet which was later deleted and replaced with an apology.

Two questions that may in be in your mind are what is the point of twitter? Is it worthwhile as a teacher twittering? A third may be around safety or issues of safeguarding which a teacher needs to be aware of.

The Dangers of Social Networking Sites
Teachers have to take care when they are using social networking sites. There are perhaps three main dangers to be aware. The first is that if you publicise your contact information such as phone number or address, pupils may find the information and in some cases harass the teacher. The second is that any public pronouncements or photographs you have on the site can be read by anyone. So perhaps take care as to whether your put up your beach holidays pictures or discuss a recent night out in too much detail unless you want your pupils to see it. The final danger of is befriending pupils on such sites and then allegations being made about the propriety of such relationships. Common sense and the use of privacy settings can avoid these dangers though. The same care needs to be taken when communicating with any student electronically, there can be a temptation to accidentally type something that we wouldn’t dream of saying in a classroom.

Twitter
The idea of twitter is that you have 140 characters to answer the question, ‘What’s happening?’ which on the surface hardly seems an opening to such educational opportunities as were described above. When I first used twitter along with many people, I followed a few famous people that I was interested in and a couple of friends and hardly sent any tweets, as a result I used it more as another news service rather than a method of networking. From that experience I would not have imagined using twitter as a form CPD.

One question that you might ask is who reads your 140 characters of wisdom? In twitter as well as being able to follow people, other people can follow you. Every time you write a comment this is passed onto your followers. Key to getting the most out of Twitter is to build up a group of people who follow you. If you want to build up a community of followers, you need to actively engage with twitter.

Tips on building your community

1) Write a short profile explaining who you are and what you do. Include some of your interests but remember this is public information so don’t write you are a naturist or a regular cannabis smoker!

2)  It is unlikely that Brad Pitt or Kylie Minogue will follow you but fellow educationalists will. Search for individual people who you may know and follow them or you could also follow well known educational commentators and magazines such as Sec Ed.

3) Look at who is following Sec Ed and read people’s profiles and follow those who share your interests.

4) Regularly write your own comments, forwarding other’s comments known as retweeting and answer people’s questions.

5) Read quoted articles and give your thoughts on them or retweet them.

6) Use #Hashtags to pull people together on a specific topic such as #ukedchat is a forum which discusses educational topics on Thursday evenings. Finding a hashtag for a chosen specialisation will also find you more people to follow (and can follow you, if you use it).

7) There is little point in following people that follow 10,000 people but only have a few followers themselves. These are likely to be automated message services.

8) To make best use of your 140 characters use a URL (website address) shortening service such as TinyURL and Bit.ly. If you use a twitter app on your mobile phone this may already be built in.

9) Why not ask people’s view on a certain issue such as a really good resource, assembly idea of information on a certain issue? Put ‘please RT’ at the end. I’ve received some really interesting comments!

A Final Thought
Many teachers realise that education is cyclical with the comment there are no new ideas in education. Twitter can act as a virtual staffroom with teachers full of sage wisdom sharing their thoughts with you. Just as in your own staffroom, if you never visit or join in the conversation, people are unlikely to help you if you ask. However if you participate in the chatter every so often it can be a real support in your working life. There is obviously the one caveat that unlike the famous sporting phrase, what happens on tour, stays on tour... what is said on twitter is there for all to see! 

Paul Ainsworth is the Vice Principal of a Leicestershire secondary school and the author of ‘Developing a self-evaluating school’, and the forthcoming 'Get That Teaching Job!' 

You can follow both the Continuum Education team @continuumed and Paul on Twitter @pkainsworth

 

 

 

[To read the full article, printed in SecEd, click here and flick to page 15.]   

Born to Learn

A source of constant frustration for many teachers, are the reams of guidelines, inspection criteria and advice which lapse into lengthy, indecipherable discourse. Information is more available now than in has ever been – the latest research is disseminated within minutes via online newspapers and comment is free. How are we to devise and implement an effective model for education amidst so many conflicting findings and views?

This was the question on John Abbott’s mind when looking back over 20 years worth of research from the 21st Century Learning Initiative into the relationship between format schooling and informal learning outside of the school gates. The answer has come in the form of a series of short, thought-provoking animations, narrated by British actor Damian Lewis and aimed, quite simply, at getting straight to the point on educational issues.

For John Abbott, the “crisis” of education has not arisen simply from bad teaching, but from the failure of the wider community to engage and nurture the imaginations of young people. It is rather more a crisis of society’s committment to young people and their individual idiosyncracies and spiritual needs. The result is an education system in desperate need of finding ways to ensure creative energy is nurtured, and young people come out with confidence, a forward-thinking attitude and the ability to think outside the box and adapt to an ever-changing world in which following in the footsteps of your parents and teachers might just leave you floundering.

But John Abbott needs little help in stating his claim. Born to Learn - http://www.born-to-learn.org/ - takes the theories behind Abbott’s best-selling book Overschooled but Undereducated: How the crisis in education is jeopardizing our adolescents, and turns them into short and accessible nuggets of thought. No legislative provision, he argues, which is not fully understood by the people, will ever effectively reform an outdated system. The animations are aimed at summing up years of research and turning them into a Call to Action – a creative solution for unlocking the creative potential of future generations.

Rosie Pattinson

Editorial Assistant

NASEN Award winners now announced on NASEN website!

http://www.nasen.org.uk/awardwinners2011/

...and here's what they said about each of our shortlisted titles...

The Academic Book Award

Winner
Justice and Equality in Education: A Capability Perspective on Disability and Special Educational Needs – Lorella Terzi (Continuum)
This is a very challenging and thought -provoking academic book which is hard to put down.  The judges certainly didn’t want to. Terzi has certainly managed to discuss SEN in a manner which will unquestionably enable professionals to develop and enhance their thinking and practice.  Whether Terzi set out to shape and influence future thinking with regards to special educational needs or not, this book will undoubtedly initiate and direct many interesting discussions and debates.

Highly Recommended
Special Educational Needs: A New Look – Mary Warnock and Brahm Norwich – Edited by Lorella Terzi (Continuum)
This book discussed the development of SEN legislation in England. It was a fascinating and well written academic conversation between two highly influential and well - respected special educational needs academics – Mary Warnock and Brahm Norwich.  The drawing together of their views was expertly achieved in the final section of the book by Lorella Terzi.  This book would be a very valuable addition to any course list or academic’s book shelf.

Although this book is not the ultimate winner the judges would like this book to be ‘Highly Recommended’.

Primary Resource/Book to support Teaching and Learning (non ICT)

Teaching Children to Listen: A Practical Approach to developing Children’s Listening Skills - Liz Spooner and Jacqui Woodcock (Continuum)
This clearly set out resource looks at developing a whole school approach to listening skills. The authors show how focusing in on learning to listen can work with a limited amount of targeted input. The Listening Skills Rating Scale provides a quick user friendly assessment to use with whole classes.

This is an excellent “toolkit” resource for all teachers, teaching assistants and school management teams. The balance of evidence based information with practical resources and clear guidelines ensures that any theory used is reinforced by activities that can be planned into the school day.

In promoting a whole class approach the authors ensure that the listening needs of every child are included within the framework of a class profile.

Special Award  2011 - Resource to support speech, language and communication needs
A very close second and highly commended is Teaching Children to Listen, from Continuum and written by Liz Spooner and Jacqui Woodcock; another resource that reflects innovation and - in this case- real partnership between specialists (speech and language therapists) and classroom teachers.

It is packed with ideas to use with a whole class or with groups, has training ideas for staff, and includes a straightforward way of evaluating each child’s progress. Local research has already shown that the approach makes a big difference in the classroom, and we believe that large numbers of schools will find it enormously useful.

Kayleigh Chalcroft
Marketing Executive