How to improve educational outcomes: the case of England

Nick Gibb, the English politician who has reflected most on education, has written one of the most pedagogically stimulating books of this century so far. Reforming lessonsThe book, which bears the subtitle "Why English schools have improved since 2010 and how it was achieved," was published by Gibb. Gibb served as Shadow Education Minister in 2005 and as Education Minister from 2010 to 2012, from 2014 to September 2021, and again from October 2022 to November 2023.

If England has become an unavoidable educational benchmark today, this book explains why. But it also contains a kind of handbook for politicians who aspire to reform education. I must warn you that Reforming lessons It is totally inadvisable for those who wonder what use mathematics is if you have emotional problems, while it is essential for those of us who believe that, whatever your emotional problems may be, you have more to gain than to lose with good literacy in language and mathematics.

Gibb set out to improve educational outcomes through a change of mindset across the entire system (with the exception of the faculties of education, which are, as the Scholastics of God said, sui cause) who wanted to dismantle the anti-intellectual agenda word by word. That is why he built upon a solid conceptual foundation, adopting the theses of some of the essential educational psychologists of recent decades, such as ED Hirsch (The schools we need), Daniel Willingham (Why don't children like going to school?), Daisy Christodoulou (Seven myths about education), John Hattie (Visible learning), Doug Lemov (Teach like a champion) and, obviously, Robert Peal (co-headmaster of the high-achieving West London Free School in Hammersmith, and author of the greatProgressively worse).

From this point, the following objectives were set:

1. Zero tolerance for bad behavior and high school expectations.

2. Special emphasis on literacy: it is not a part of the child's education, but its foundation.

3. A strong curriculum, because it is impossible to acquire critical thinking without a broad base of prior knowledge.

4. Skepticism towards the effective results of expressions such as "learning to learn", "the student at the center", "project-based learning", etc.

5. Knowledge first; then skills. There are no general skills.

6. Put an end to grade inflation.

7. The teacher at the center. "There is only one way to improve teacher recruitment and retention: improve the quality of our schools."

8. Encourage direct instruction, the well-planned lesson.

9. Connection with the common sense of families, who understand that the two main tasks of school are to teach and to learn.

10. Drastic reduction of school bureaucracy.

11. Autonomy in schools and external evaluations.

“Teacher recruitment kept me up at night during my tenure,” Gibb admits (p. 213). But all indications are that he didn't make it his top priority. Today, the teacher shortage is the biggest problem facing the English education system. But not only the English system. The latest PISA report indicates that “a lack of teaching staff has been identified as the most common barrier to teaching, both in England and across the OECD.” The main problem driving teachers to leave the profession is the workload.

Given that in education any new minister arrives with more of a founder's spirit than a continuationist's, upon taking office Labour immediately launched a comprehensive curriculum review. However, they seem determined to retain the core elements of the Conservative reform, fearing a decline in results.

While England's education system was improving, Scotland's was sinking into mediocrity. In 2004, the Scottish government began designing what became known as the Curriculum for Excellence. A veritable monument to progressive pedagogy, brimming with the noblest intentions and lofty formulations. For the Scottish Secretary of State for Education, it was the most ambitious project in decades for transforming the country's education. In 2021, it naturally had the blessing of Schleicher, the driving force behind PISA. However, in 2023, Schleicher was forced to acknowledge, as he did regarding Finland, that he had been overly optimistic.

By the way, I support the Catalan teachers on strike.