Newsletter1

Editorial
Welcome to the first edition of the TEI Newsletter. We all want the best for our children. I don't think many of us would argue that the main responsibility for any child is with the parents who brought the child into the world. We all know of the enormous reservoir of love that we give to our children and we know that without it children would grow up with deep psychological problems. So let us assume that whatever the circumstances the majority of children grow up knowing they are loved not only by their parents but usually by various family members as well.

Why do I start at this point? Because it is clear that school cannot and should not replace the very close bond between parents and child. Yet the state takes the vast majority of children and has the responsibility of educating them. In one sense they are gifted to the state by the parents. I believe that is the attitude we should nurture in our approach to children, namely they are a gift from their parents in order that they might be educated. However next to the parents and perhaps some other family members who knows the children best? Yes it is, of course, the teachers who educate the child. It is clear that we need to give these professionals an excellent training and then empower them to carry out the task of educating the children under their care.

When we do this we find that the children learn and achieve. The more power we give teachers the more their children achieve. The less power we give them the less they achieve. In this issue we look at why teachers in England and Wales have voted to boycott tests in the UK.

In the next issue we shall examine the Finnish education system and in the following issue the New Zealand education system. These countries came first and second in a recent OECD study of student achievement amongst countries in the developed world outperforming students in the USA. These results tell their own story and it is why TEI exist and will continue to exist until USA teachers and students take their rightful place in the modern world.

UK: Teachers poised to boycott pupil tests
The biggest teachers' union is set to carry out its threat to boycott classroom tests next year, disrupting the Government's target setting agenda. Leaders of the National Union of Teachers are likely to announce a ballot on industrial action next month after a survey of members showed overwhelming support.

More than four in five of the 30,500 teachers questioned said they would support a boycott of tests for seven-year-olds, 71.4 per cent those for 11-year-olds and 64 per cent those for 14-year-olds. They said the tests were unreliable and caused stress for pupils. Results in the tests are used to judge the performance of schools and form an important part of local and national league tables.

Ofsted uses them to help decide how well schools are doing in comparison with others in similar circumstances and to help identify weak teachers.

Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, responded furiously to the threat, saying tests were a fundamental part of raising standards. They helped teachers see what progress pupils were making and were particularly important for children in the most disadvantaged areas. "Testing tackles the low expectation culture that used to hold back these children. Parents, too, value the information testing provides and we have no intention at all of taking this away. "It would be an absolute betrayal for teachers to boycott these tests and I hope that teachers throughout the country will vote against strike action. This sort of strike would damage a generation of children." National testing was here to stay, he said. "We are not going back to the bad old days when no one knew what went on in the classroom."

The survey follows a vote for the boycott at the union's annual conference last Easter. The leadership decided to test support by a wide scale survey before drawing up the terms of the ballot. The union has to decide whether to ballot on a boycott of all three sets of tests or those for younger children. It must also choose whether to ballot only teachers involved in setting tests or the full membership.

Doug McAvoy, its general secretary, said there was no threat of strikes. "Parents will continue to receive information on pupil progress. Teacher assessment, which gains much support in our survey, will be the basis for all pupils in Scotland and is the basis for seven-year-olds in Wales. "The Government is adopting a blinkered view, refusing to look at any system which would achieve those aims except its own discredited testing regime." (Daily Telegraph UK)

Teachers denounce national tests
Teachers would prefer to assess pupils themselves. Compulsory national tests for schoolchildren are an unnecessary and stressful burden, according to a survey of teachers in England and Wales.

Only 6% thought the tests a reliable way of evaluating pupils' achievements. More than eight in 10 of the 30,500 teachers surveyed for the NUT union felt tests were stressful to children.

There was strong support for a boycott of the tests - but the government has said that would be an "absolute betrayal" of pupils and parents.

The NUT's general secretary of the union, Doug McAvoy, said: "This survey underlines the strong criticisms teachers have of these tests. "They narrow education, limit use of professional judgment, place unnecessary stress on pupils and add significantly to the workload of teachers without producing any benefits."

The tests regulator, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, said its annual evaluation, published on Thursday, "shows that the majority of teachers surveyed feel they are appropriate for assessing pupil performance, and are motivating and engaging for pupils."

On the contrary, said Mr. McAvoy: "The government would be hard put to find a teacher who thinks they are beneficial, improve achievement, or promote a broad and balanced education for our children. "Throughout the report, teachers emphasize the waste of time and energy these tests represent for no real return." He said the government should let teachers use their own assessments to determine pupils' needs and inform parents of how their children were coming along. But the Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, said tests were a fundamental part of raising standards in schools. "Many parents will be alarmed at the threat of preventing them knowing how their children are doing at school."

They help teachers see what progress their pupils are making. They can also measure progress against other children. The national tests are particularly important for children in the most disadvantaged areas. Testing tackles the low expectation culture that used to hold back those children."

Parents valued the feedback. "Many parents will be alarmed at the threat of preventing them knowing how their children are doing at school. It would be an absolute betrayal for teachers to boycott these tests." He hoped teachers would vote against such action - "strike action", as he called it, though the union said there was no question of that. A spokesperson for the NUT said: "Parents will continue to receive information on pupil progress.

Testing around the UK
"Teacher assessment, which gains much support in our survey, will be the basis for all pupils in Scotland and is the basis for pupils at Key Stage 1 in Wales."

The survey was organized for the union by Sean Neill of the Institute of Education at Warwick University. He found that teacher assessment was seen as a viable alternative to tests by 85% of the respondents.

Dr Neill commented on a recent international evaluation of testing. "Though the effect of continued testing is to raise test standards, some of this effect can be attributed to increasing familiarity with the test methods by both teachers and learners, increasing emphasis on preparation for the tests, and instruction specifically focused on the predicted outcomes of the tests."

Some anonymous comments from teachers were included in his report. "Raising standards can effectively be done in schools with good monitoring and self-evaluation practices," said a primary school leader.

Send us your comments: Another, teaching infants, said tests "rule" all teaching in a school where children come from poor backgrounds.

"They need enrichment far more than brighter children from more educated families, yet they get less. Save money from SATs and give us support and resources to improve standards."

Almost everyone - 91% - said the tests placed an additional workload on teachers. A similar proportion of primary teachers, and 85% of secondary teachers, said they were stressful for pupils.

Some felt they managed to insulate the children from this. But others said parents bought revision aids and private tutoring and offered children "bribes" to do well - even in the youngest age group.

Some 90% of teachers felt the tests diminished pupils' access to a broad and balanced curriculum.

Boycott
The survey showed substantial support for a ballot by the NUT to boycott the tests. Support was strongest (82.5%) for a ballot to boycott Key Stage 1 tests - the youngest children. In Wales those tests have been dropped.

The support was 71.4% at Key Stage 2, when the tests form the basis of the primary school performance tables. In secondary schools support was 64% in favor of a Key Stage 3 boycott.

The majority of respondents - 67.9% - had more than 11 years' experience in teaching. Most were in England; 4% in Wales. About 57% were in primary schools. (BBC UK)

How teachers responded to statements about the tests.
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Top (Index)

Teaching the Three Times Table
Introduction
Storytelling and Mathematics
The Holistic and Cross-Curricula Nature of the Lesson
Examples from our Material
Conclusion

Introduction
We begin by examining two areas that influenced the lesson design of "Multiplying by Three" and which are not usually part of teaching mathematics. They are storytelling and a cross-curricula approach and we will indicate why both these ideas are appropriate for teaching mathematics to young elementary school children.

Storytelling
Why does a lesson on mathematics begin with a story? Stories, more than anything else, engage the child's imagination. They transport children into a world where they can easily create pictures, and visualize a situation.

Part of the task of teachers is to transmit knowledge to students. However, the act of learning is not complete until students have internalized the knowledge and made it their own. This process is far more effective when it is done through storytelling.

We need not be concerned, at present, with the extent to which this occurs or with the influence on hemispheric development (this will occur in a later newsletter). The main point is to establish that storytelling is a way in which we can pass on information to students while at the same time enhancing and optimizing their learning.

Storytelling and Mathematics
We believe that this enhancement and optimization can occur even in subjects like mathematics. For example, in our material for the learning of the multiplication tables each table starts with a story. When teaching our lessons on the multiplication tables we recommend that, initially, the teacher reads (even better, if the teacher can tell) the story to the class. At this point there is no pressure on children to do anything but listen to the content and create pictorial representations according to their ability to do this.

They will, instinctively, create pictures from the story content, and in so doing they create their own context within which to work. Any information they now receive will be absorbed into this context. Thus the base has been laid for the teacher to move on to the next stage.

In other words, the teacher by reading or telling the story "Ramiro and the Jiwi Fruit" has created a context with which the children can identify, and through which they can absorb information.

Within this context students have a clear visual image of three, for example, Ramiro's paintings of three portions of various foods. This enables children to become familiar with the concept of three.

As far as our approach is concerned this point is crucial. Students start the process of understanding by creating pictures in their imagination. It is only when this has occurred should they move on to work through hands-on experiences with manipulatives. Finally, and only when they have worked through the first two stages, are they ready to work with the abstract and theoretical.

Top (Teaching the Three Times Table)

The Holistic and Cross-Curricula Nature of the Lesson
An examination of the contents of the lesson indicates its cross-curricula nature. It includes mathematics, language arts, craft, and art.

Why do we believe that we should teach young elementary school children in this way? We have already described how a child of this age thinks pictorially. This is related to the holistic nature of the child's thinking. A young child is able to create an image of a situation without observing or having any direct experience of it. In other words a child's thinking is pictorial and unspecialized.

This type of thinking needs continual stimuli of a rich and colorful nature if the inner imaginative activity is to grow and develop.

Unspecialized
We have already shown how subjects and content need to be taught so that they relate to a child's rich inner life where imagination and feeling are the main factors influencing his/her thinking. However, besides the pictorial element a child's thinking is unspecialized. For the adult it is different. Our thinking is usually compartmentalized and in many instances we find difficulty in looking at the whole. Whereas adults would usually prefer to receive knowledge that fits comfortably into a particular compartment, a child instinctively views the whole.

Practical Application
This should, of course, influence the teaching process. If we wish to reach the mindset of the child we need, wherever possible, to teach in a holistic way. For example, a young child does not think, "I am being taught mathematics, English, or whatever," or "What I am learning now belongs to language arts, or this lesson is about art history," and so on.

We need, therefore, to structure content so that it meets the holistic nature of children's thinking. In other words whereas we, as adults, will talk about the cross-curricula nature of the lesson children only care that the lesson relates to their way of thinking. They do not care that the subject matter is called mathematics.

Top (Teaching the Three Times Table)

Examples from our Material
In the lesson "Multiplying by Three" we not only include mathematics but also language arts, craft, and art.

1. Language Arts/Readability Levels
Children will naturally be involved in decoding as they read the story. Obviously the story needs to be at an appropriate readability level. You will see that in the material we have rewritten the story with a readability level appropriate for young children.

Readability level (including proper nouns) Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 2.2
Flesch Reading Ease (including proper nouns) 94.4
Readability level (excluding proper nouns) Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 1.5
Flesch Reading Ease (including proper nouns) 99.8

2. Cross-Curricula
For example,
Assignment 1 "Ramiro and Jiwi Fruit" is a craft activity and gives students a hands-on approach.
Assignment 2 "Guided Reading" is a language arts activity.
Assignment 3 "Creating Patterns" is a pictorial mathematical exercise.
Assignment 4 "Table Summary" is a mathematical/language arts activity that introduces and reinforces the language of mathematics.
Assignment 5 "Let's Practice What We Have Learned" is a mathematical/language arts activity which again introduces and reinforces the language of mathematics. However, this time mathematical language has to be used more precisely and the child also works with numbers (symbols) in an abstract way.
Assignment 6 "Patterns-Three Times Table" is an activity where the child visualizes the patterns of numbers. It gives teachers the opportunity to show students a practical application; firstly, in relation to the three times table itself; secondly through all the tables to the twelve times table (see Teacher Notes in "Patterns-Three Times Table" for explanation.)

Conclusion
In order for the teaching of mathematics to be successful we must engage all facets of the child's thinking. This will include the engagement and the development of the affective (in modern jargon "emotional intelligence.")

Introducing content with a story does this successfully for it immediately engages the child's imagination. For young children mathematics should not begin with manipulatives or an exercise in the abstract. Both of these are important but the first task is to relate content to the mindset of the child so optimum learning occurs.

It is important therefore that the design of the lesson is in line with children's thinking and that we do not impose a structure to learning that is foreign to them. Unfortunately, subject content in mathematics and related areas does not usually take into consideration that content should be so structured for the younger elementary school student. Hence the need for our material and the newsletter.

Note: We have not dealt with personality types or learning styles. These do, however, play a large part in our approach and we write material taking this area (which we call Methodology of Teaching) into consideration. We plan lessons so that different personality types will find activities that are appropriate for their particular learning style.
Top (Teaching the Three Times Table)
Click here to go to Lesson Plan: Multiplying by Three - A mathematics/language arts lesson

Until next time, Take care, Your Editor Kindness is the greatest wisdom

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