Education

Thursday, 15th September 2005

As the opening speaker on the Labour side this afternoon, I do not want to start with the details of the motion but to go back to first principles. 

What have we learned in recent years about how we all learn.   

In a world of information overload – where we and even more the next generation will be bombarded throughout our lives with more than we can ever know – how we learn has become the subject of ever more interest not only amongst teachers but to psychologists, economists and specialists of all sorts.   

From the economics world the pre-eminent expert in how we learn is Nobel Laureate James Heckman, who as some of you may know visited Scotland last year under the auspices of the Allander series.   

His central insight that is shaping schools policies globally is that families rather than schools are the most important teachers in our lives– hence the worldwide emphasis on early years.   

But then he turned to what matters most in the school age years. 

Here his central insight is that success in life depends on much more than cognitive skills, one’s IQ – just as important are your non cognitive skills – the “I can” of  perseverance, dependability, consistency and social skills. 

And when it comes to acquiring both IQ and I can, cognitive and non cognitive skills good teaching and personal mentoring is what matters most – more than anything else we talk about in education policy – class sizes, funding, buildings. 

Teachers matter most in raising Scottish educational achievement.   

Faced with this evidence –which is common sense – the Executive had a choice.   

One road would have been to try and distinguish between the good and the less good teachers – not so sensible when we needed more teachers overall – the other road was to embark on an ambitious programme to raise quality all around.   

They chose the latter road and deserve credit for it.  Consider the difference between a pupil in Scotland sitting Standard Grades this year compared to one entering primary one this year. 

For today’s fifteen year old – when they went into primary one: 

Contrast that with the school a new primary one pupil entered this autumn: 

And even if those primary ones have a brand new teacher – they will have benefited from a world-acclaimed induction scheme – making sure that they and their class were not thrown in at the deep end.   

And throughout primary and secondary school we are raising the standards by ensuring all teachers undertake at least 35 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) each year to develop their skills.  

Good teaching rather than conflict in the classroom is what typifies our schools today.  We are finally rewarding those who invest in their craft.  The Chartered teacher programme allows teachers who are not attracted by the prospect of school management to stay in the classroom whilst being paid for doing so.  Creating an incentive for our best teachers to teach. 

And of course great teachers benefit from great leadership in the school.  The Executive deserves credit for investing in innovative development opportunities for leaders:  

·         The Leadership Trust

·         Columba 1400

·         And a host of other programmes

 

And the Executive is not resting on its laurels – it is also looking ahead to create Scottish Teachers for a New Era.  The intention is to create: a new teacher.  Trained in how we learn – the IQ and the I can. 

In future classroom practice will become a “clinical internship”.  Increasingly CPD will be designed to cultivate teachers’ mentoring capabilities. 

I realise all this leaves little for the opposition to say and there is a grudging graciousness in their amendments.   

For those fretting about teacher shortages: take heart – in the last three years alone – a more than doubling of teacher training entrants on both Maths and English. 

The Executive has looked at the evidence – recognised the central role of teaching and is making a difference – today’s primary ones will have an easier, more enjoyable passage through school than this year’s standard grade pupils – and for that the Executive and Scotland’s teachers deserve credit.  As the opening speaker on the Labour side this afternoon, I do not want to start with the details of the motion but to go back to first principles. 

What have we learned in recent years about how we all learn.   

In a world of information overload – where we and even more the next generation will be bombarded throughout our lives with more than we can ever know – how we learn has become the subject of ever more interest not only amongst teachers but to psychologists, economists and specialists of all sorts.   

From the economics world the pre-eminent expert in how we learn is Nobel Laureate James Heckman, who as some of you may know visited Scotland last year under the auspices of the Allander series.   

His central insight that is shaping schools policies globally is that families rather than schools are the most important teachers in our lives- hence the worldwide emphasis on early years.   

But then he turned to what matters most in the school age years. 

Here his central insight is that success in life depends on much more than cognitive skills, one’s IQ – just as important are your non cognitive skills – the “I can” of  perseverance, dependability, consistency and social skills. 

And when it comes to acquiring both IQ and I can, cognitive and non cognitive skills good teaching and personal mentoring is what matters most – more than anything else we talk about in education policy – class sizes, funding, buildings. 

Teachers matter most in raising Scottish educational achievement.   

Faced with this evidence -which is common sense – the Executive had a choice.   

One road would have been to try and distinguish between the good and the less good teachers – not so sensible when we needed more teachers overall – the other road was to embark on an ambitious programme to raise quality all around.   

They chose the latter road and deserve credit for it.  Consider the difference between a pupil in Scotland sitting Standard Grades this year compared to one entering primary one this year. 

For today’s fifteen year old – when they went into primary one: 

Contrast that with the school a new primary one pupil entered this autumn: 

And even if those primary ones have a brand new teacher – they will have benefited from a world-acclaimed induction scheme – making sure that they and their class were not thrown in at the deep end.   

And throughout primary and secondary school we are raising the standards by ensuring all teachers undertake at least 35 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) each year to develop their skills.  

Good teaching rather than conflict in the classroom is what typifies our schools today.  We are finally rewarding those who invest in their craft.  The Chartered teacher programme allows teachers who are not attracted by the prospect of school management to stay in the classroom whilst being paid for doing so.  Creating an incentive for our best teachers to teach. 

And of course great teachers benefit from great leadership in the school.  The Executive deserves credit for investing in innovative development opportunities for leaders:  

And the Executive is not resting on its laurels – it is also looking ahead to create Scottish Teachers for a New Era.  The intention is to create: a new teacher.  Trained in how we learn – the IQ and the I can. 

In future classroom practice will become a “clinical internship”.  Increasingly CPD will be designed to cultivate teachers’ mentoring capabilities. 

I realise all this leaves little for the opposition to say and there is a grudging graciousness in their amendments.   

For those fretting about teacher shortages: take heart – in the last three years alone – a more than doubling of teacher training entrants on both Maths and English. 

The Executive has looked at the evidence – recognised the central role of teaching and is making a difference – today’s primary ones will have an easier, more enjoyable passage through school than this year’s standard grade pupils – and for that the Executive and Scotland’s teachers deserve credit.