Activity 1.2:How does Bassey respond to Skidelsky’s concerns?
Wednesday, 15 Oct 2014, 23:55
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Edited by Nathan Lomax, Sunday, 26 Oct 2014, 11:01
Activity 1.2
After reading through this for the last few days, I am inclined to think that debating such issues only detracts from the real business of teaching. I realise that it is important to understand different view points in research papers, but I fail to see how picking through this philosophical debate will ever be of any benefit to me in my teaching career.
Skidelsky’s concern
Basseys’ response
No theoretically based good practice which defines professional teaching.
Teaching, like law and medicine, requires the practitioner to draw on experience. Constructivism is given as a theory underpinning good practice.
Educational theory is an immature discipline (18thC literature still of profit whereas this is not the case in medicine)
Ancient texts only stimulate thought on philosophical issues, like reading Hippocrates or Locke.
Excessive emphasis on context.
Paucity of testable hypotheses about what works/doesn’t work
Educational contexts are so complicated that attempts to formulate testable hypotheses are a waste of time.
Uncontrolled growth of theory
Important to acknowledge the plurality of research
Lack of healthy research community/ sound research base in education
Awareness of past shortcomings fuels research
What are the phases of ‘educational research’ that Bassey refers to on pp. 144–5?
1968: empirical, based on experiments/ study of individuals
1969: ‘initiating people into desirable states of mind’ (Behaviourist?)
1973: systematically improving efficiency
1978: to assist teachers in the process of improving quality
1991: OK to draw on any discipline and to have ‘an eclectic view of how knowledge is best generated and utilised by policy makers.’
What are the types of discipline-based research that Bassey identifies?
Research grounded in sociology/psychology
What is Bassey’s own judgement on what is ‘educational research’?
That it ‘critically informs educational judgements and decisions in order to improve educational action.’
If you are a practitioner, do you consider that Bassey’s own delineation of ‘the competent teacher of today’ (p. 149) holds true for you?
‘The competent teacher of today has a complex pattern of understandings that come partly from training and from reading, but largely from experience and from professional discourse with colleagues.’
Yes, teaching is informed by experience, but in my own discipline (EFL), qualifications (i.e. the Cambridge DELTA exam, which has a highly practical focus) are a good indicator of competence.
Activity 1.2:How does Bassey respond to Skidelsky’s concerns?
Activity 1.2
After reading through this for the last few days, I am inclined to think that debating such issues only detracts from the real business of teaching. I realise that it is important to understand different view points in research papers, but I fail to see how picking through this philosophical debate will ever be of any benefit to me in my teaching career.
Skidelsky’s concern
Basseys’ response
No theoretically based good practice which defines professional teaching.
Teaching, like law and medicine, requires the practitioner to draw on experience. Constructivism is given as a theory underpinning good practice.
Educational theory is an immature discipline (18thC literature still of profit whereas this is not the case in medicine)
Ancient texts only stimulate thought on philosophical issues, like reading Hippocrates or Locke.
Excessive emphasis on context.
Paucity of testable hypotheses about what works/doesn’t work
Educational contexts are so complicated that attempts to formulate testable hypotheses are a waste of time.
Uncontrolled growth of theory
Important to acknowledge the plurality of research
Lack of healthy research community/ sound research base in education
Awareness of past shortcomings fuels research
What are the phases of ‘educational research’ that Bassey refers to on pp. 144–5?
1968: empirical, based on experiments/ study of individuals
1969: ‘initiating people into desirable states of mind’ (Behaviourist?)
1973: systematically improving efficiency
1978: to assist teachers in the process of improving quality
1991: OK to draw on any discipline and to have ‘an eclectic view of how knowledge is best generated and utilised by policy makers.’
What are the types of discipline-based research that Bassey identifies?
Research grounded in sociology/psychology
What is Bassey’s own judgement on what is ‘educational research’?
That it ‘critically informs educational judgements and decisions in order to improve educational action.’
If you are a practitioner, do you consider that Bassey’s own delineation of ‘the competent teacher of today’ (p. 149) holds true for you?
‘The competent teacher of today has a complex pattern of understandings that come partly from training and from reading, but largely from experience and from professional discourse with colleagues.’
Yes, teaching is informed by experience, but in my own discipline (EFL), qualifications (i.e. the Cambridge DELTA exam, which has a highly practical focus) are a good indicator of competence.