[Catalist] An interesting read...

[Leon Harris]

Yes,  interesting.
In WA, from data that I have been seen, we're not seeing this. Chemistry 
seems to be maintaining or increasing enrolments, and I am not aware of 
teaching shortages. Stress and change are big factors that make all 
science teaching hard, and the tendency to have "data driven" decisions 
being made by people who have little skill or training in such subjects 
is worrying. I am not referring to my current school on this, but 
nowhere in these "ooh shiny" longitudinal data displaying tools or pd 
sessions is there any acknowledgement of the uncertainty associated with 
data, or the need for "internal standards" or controls. We live in 
dangerous times !

When the administrations of many schools are appointed on the basis of 
the Peter principle (rise to the level of your inability - a 1970s 
public service concept, particularly in the UK), it is hard to expect 
more. Note the representation of D&T and phys ed among the deputy and 
above layer- this is because one of the best attributes to have when 
applying for a job is past experience, and no-one seconds the HOLA of 
maths, or science to the temporary deputy position caused by illness as 
those are large, busy and complex departments and doing so will 
potentially kill the ATAR of the current crop of 12s, with all the 
associated parental howls ! By the way, guess which departments are 
likely to have numerate, data-savy people in them, with technical 
understanding of statistics? Yup!

So in summary here, chem is good, science not bad, but this data-focus 
(junk data) misapplied has the potential to do some savage damage to our 
systems, and degrade the pleasure and quality of teaching.

Thanks for the article, it seems to be different in the uk than here.

Cheers,
Leon

On 15/11/2017 11:18 AM, jaclyn mcgregor wrote:
>
> https://eic.rsc.org/feature/recruiting-and-retaining-teachers/3008189.article
>
>
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