Teachers for Supply

Banks should “step as much as the plate” and offer more loans to postgraduate students, the colleges minister has told a better education summit in London.

Expanding student loans for postgraduate study was not conceivable, David Willetts told the Guardian’s Way forward for Higher Education conference. He said professional and career development loans were the “classic device” for funding postgraduate study.

“There can’t be a universal loans system, and that i don’t need to discover us inadvertently ending up with student number controls for postgrads therefore,” Willetts said.

Career development loans of as much as £10,000 come in to students taking courses to be able to boost their job progression. The federal government pays interest while students are learning, and repayments start once the coed has completed their course.

Last year, banks gave career development loans to 44% of the 22,716 individuals who applied. Willetts said banks should “improve the spread” of loans available.

Funding opportunities for college kids shrank this year when research councils announced they might now not support those on taught master’s courses. Financial support for those on research master’s and PhD courses is to be cut severely.

Last month the Sutton Trust, an education charity, warned that postgraduate study was “the hot frontier of social mobility”. It recommended the introduction of targeted, state-backed loans to aid students from poorer or middle income backgrounds. The NUS, the Centre Forum (pdf) and university groups have also recommend proposals.

Willetts said students should see tuition fees as “a flow of payments via the tax system instead of doing speculative calculations about calculations of debt”. Postgraduate application rates may be monitored to evaluate the impact of cuts to analyze council grants.

Willetts said universities should work to enhance the standard in their teaching as opposed to focusing exclusively on research. “There are various committed teachers, and plenty students have good experiences at universities, but from the national student survey it’s clear that feedback is the realm where students are less satisfied.”

However, the drive to enhance student experience was at odds with academics’ priorities, he suggested. “Whilst you examine academics’ perception of what drives promotion, they do not feel teaching is being promoted in same way as research, and that’s something i need to vary.”

Michael Gove is to be recalled by the Commons education select committee to reply to questions on when he was informed of allegations of bullying and intimidation by advisers in his department.

Graham Stuart, the Tory chairman of the committee, confirmed that Gove and his permanent secretary Chris Wormald will be summoned to present evidence early next month.

Stuart told the Guardian that Gove will be asked concerning the answer he gave to Ian Mearns, a Labour member of the committee, in January that he was not conscious about allegations that his special advisers had acted inappropriately to civil servants.

The Observer reported on 9 February, just over two weeks after Gove’s appearance before the committee on 23 January, that a senior civil servant received a payoff of around £25,000 after a grievance procedure involving Gove’s special adviser Dominic Cummings and the department’s former head of communications, James Frayne.

Stuart said: “Ian Mearns asked the secretary of state specifically about whether he was privy to allegations against his own advisers and he said no and followed up with a letter categorically stating it again. The committee wishes to speak about the flaws around disciplinary and grievance matters, once they can be delivered to the secretary of state’s attention, once they will be delivered to his attention and the way issues akin to settlements are sorted out, who authorises them and to what amount.

“The committee just wishes to inspect these issues slightly more carefully. i do not believe anyone is suggesting that Michael Gove was anything as opposed to straightforward with us.”

Stuart said the committee was also more likely to question Gove about allegations first published within the Observer on 2 February that members of his department can be behind the @toryeducation Twitter account, which has launched strong attacks on journalists.

The Observer reported that Cummings and Henry de Zoete, Gove’s other special adviser, were asked in 2011 by the Tories’ then head of press, Henry Macrory, to tone down the partisan nature of the account. De Zoete told the Observer: “i’m not toryeducation.” Cummings said: “After all i am not this Twitter account and not were.”

Stuart said: “It’ll be as much as members [of my committee] to determine which particular lines they need to pursue. There is not any concern there [in regards to the account] provided that that [the denials] is the case. The Observer has run and run and run with this without seemingly with the ability to provide you with any killer facts to confirm its allegations. We’ll see if anything is revealed within the session when the permanent secretary and secretary of state come before us.”

Labour’s Mearns said: “The education secretary clearly has inquiries to answer. He says he was blind to serious allegations of bullying and harassment regarding his close advisers; however, the ministerial code is extremely clear – ‘the responsibility of the management and conduct of special advisers, including discipline, rests with the minister who made the appointment’. Given the allegations against his advisers, the secretary of state should account for his adherence, or loss of it, to the ministerial code.”

Here we’ve collated some highlights and links from our recent live chat exploring the advantages and challenges linked to learning through play. To read the discussion in full, click here.

Don Ledingham, education blogger and director of education and children’s services for Midlothian Council

Over the years I’ve become a whole convert to the early years’ approach, where children are encouraged to profit through play and active learning. It has been interesting to observe this approach percolate throughout the primary school, where play is now often used productively with older children.

Yet after I consider the secondary school curriculum, the notion of using play as an technique to promoting learning is uncommon and, in some subject areas, completely unknown.

The secondary school curriculum has evolved right into a set of formal learning outcomes that regularly lead the instructor to adopt a strategy where they’ve complete control over the character of the training process, the standards in which success could be measured and the duration of the educational experience. Here is driven by a tacit expectation that ‘good’ teaching requires explicit goals and formalised learning steps.

But play was used productively in secondary schools. As an instance, secondary teacher, @kenny73, told me on Twitter his class used sand trays and water to encourage students to simulate coastal actions.

He said: “i used to be very clear that I wasn’t searching for a definitive answer to anything, but I did want students to watch and record their findings before attempting to link to actual coastal landscapes. The liberty allowed students to only try things their very own way, experiment and doubtless make some different conclusions from mine, but some similar ones which they are going to ultimately keep from a memorable lesson. There are such a lot of pieces and links we are able to pick up from this in future lessons, no matter if the educational was messy, with a distinct structure and an unusual strategy to explore the hot topic.”

To read more of Don’s views and concepts, visit his blog here.

Teresa Cremin, professor of education on the Open University

The US researcher Sternberg argues that as children go through school, they quickly learn the way the system works and suppress their spontaneous creativity. This does not happen, however, at home, on digital platforms or out with their friends where they can be highly creative.

Some teachers, in trying to achieve prescribed targets, which they’re pressured to do, also curb their creativity, avoid taking risks and leading explorations in learning. However needn’t be that way. A key issue in my opinion is being convinced that play and creativity have a terrific role in education, and that as professionals we’ve a responsibility to nurture these.

The world is changing and is more uncertain than ever before. Surely creativity is a critical component in enabling us to manage, to locate pleasure, and to make use of our imaginative and innovative powers. These are key resources in a data-driven economy and, as educators, we must soak up the mantle and educate for tomorrow.

For an approach that fosters playful sharing of ideas, Teresa recommends The Helicopter Technique, developed by the team at MakeBelieve Arts in London.

Tim Taylor, AST working in Norwich

Play in education remains to be crucial pedagogical tool for some educators. i need to voice a word of caution, however. By declaring play as a child’s ‘right’, which has to be somehow shielded from adult interference, and that kids at school need to be free to guide the training in whatever direction they desire, we leave ourselves open to attack of loss of rigour and professional responsibility.

I favor to see play, and by extension the usage of dramatic inquiry, as a well researched and effective pedagogical tool that develops children’s learning where other more traditional, direct instruction and open discovery methods are less useful. Nevertheless, they still have a very powerful role in teaching and learning. Being a teacher is a pragmatic occupation, where using one of the best methods now we have available is paramount, and we must always resist pressure to limit our options by people who find themselves fighting ideological battles.

Tim edits and writes for mantleoftheexpert.com and imaginative-inquiry.co.uk.

Sian Carter, English lead practitioner on the Mountbatten School in Hampshire

Surely, at its heart, if learning is fun and noteworthy, and also you actually learn through it, that’s the best type of learning there’s. Learn differently to think differently. Encourage students to impeach and develop their very own ideas. There’s nothing wrong with learning through play. Teachers should have the boldness to show our students during this way and to develop this vital teaching and learning strategy.

Governments come and go. In 25 years time, i would like students to keep in mind my lessons and what they learned. I bet in 25 years time they will not be capable to tell me who the education secretary was. But they can understand that time once they were human punctuation marks or sang to profit key vocabulary. Or ran up and down the playground to be told tenses, or once they put a book character on trial within the conference room, judge wig and all. And that’s why we must always learn through play and continue to develop this vital pedagogy, despite any changes coming our way.

Sian shares her ideas for best practice and artistic lesson plans with teachers on her blog.

Judith Raey, head of the Sue Hedley Nursery School, Hebburn, South Tyneside

Through the High Scope approach we’ve a method called SOUL: Silence Observe Understanding Listen. Here is the method our practitioners battle through before entering a child’s play. You’re then making an educated decision as to how and whenever you should enter the play. Through this supportive climate for learning, the kids and adults have genuine shared control. The adult highly values the child’s active learning they usually become authentic play partners with the newborn, following their interests.

Jeremy Dean, English teacher working in Spain

I feel two of the main things that play can develop within the class are interest and motivation. If we will be able to encourage these, then the kids are on board and contributing to their very own learning.

Here’s an example that may interest the mathematics department. i take advantage of the ‘times table Macarena’ to educate counting in twos, fives, 10s etc. I play the Macarena and ensure the children know the moves. Here in Spain that’s not a controversy (after all they correct me). How humiliating. Once we’re warmed-up, I write the answers to the table i would like them to profit and practise at the board (three, six, nine, 12). I then show them the way to sing the numbers in time with the movements of the song. Conveniently, there are 12 movements. After we get the hang of it, I start rubbing some of the answers off the board so the youngsters have got to remember them. I usually end the session by promising that we are able to do it again tomorrow. But provided that they know the numbers. This often leads to hastily scribbled notes being made. I’m always happy to peer children setting their very own homework. A word of warning, in case you are as old as i’m, do warm up the muscles around your hips before attempting this.

Sally Wheeler, science AST on the Mountbatten School in Hampshire

I attempt to quit the baton to students and relinquish control up to possible. Bad science in movies as an introduction is often good. Could this really work Why How similar to the television programme Mythbusters. Prove it. Students explore possibilities. i exploit abstract objects within the lesson to model key ideas: Lego and plasticine are a customary feature.

Before setting an issue, give students time to play with the equipment. Students will often plan a stupendous inquiry but stumble on the first hurdle. Allow them to play before they plan. This can pick up and address many misconceptions before they begin. Give them direct, hands-on access to explore and generate their very own questions. Pose the questions across the room and get one another to reply. They may be on top of things.

Philip Waters, reader and participant within the live chat, is a play project coordinator for the Eden project, Cornwall. He’s currently undertaking a PhD with the ecu Centre for Environment and Human Health

The tension within education about play getting used as a vehicle for formal and informal learning is a ludicrous one, especially when you consider play as a biological drive. We must always be asking ourselves what right we’ve got in not allowing play to be a main portion of children’s learning experiences. Who will we think we’re, suppressing another human being’s natural way of engaging with the world

Adults who tell children to not giggle, laugh, whisper, shuffle of their seats or stare out the window and dream, might in addition gag and nail those children to the ground. They’re doing just as much harm. Adults who tell children what, when and the way they’ll learn, and stifle every interest or self-pursuit, might in addition sit all children in front of a screen and press the download button.

The problem is easy, really. Play is a challenge for schools because letting children play means turning in control, content and intent, and foregoing power. That is the argument utilized by many play advocates. But play is mostly a reciprocal and social state of being. If schools could lose, only for an afternoon, as an ordeal, their demarcations of authority and drop child/adult, teacher/student identities, and instead all be players for an afternoon – and, dare I say it, all be learners too – then play just becomes another medium of practice utilized in the faculty experience.

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Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ prudent withdrawal from Antarctica is available in the identical week because the successful return from the Arctic of a student at Sunderland University, which has an attractive niche in Polar research.

Matthew Ayre, who’s 25 and from Tynemouth, was engaged on ice melt, both contemporary and historical, on board the usa icebreaker Healy during a five week voyage within the Arctic Ocean.

He got the billet because Sunderland has made a speciality of the study of captains’ logs, or sea-going diaries, from whaling expeditions mounted from North Sea ports in England as much as 250 years ago. These are actually considered important to trendy studies of climate change as a result detailed observations of ice and sea conditions made by men who were seldom academics but had immense practical experience.

Doing what she does best – the Healy

Ayre’s work is a part of the university’s ARCdoc project which already has data from the various most celebrated of the ocean captains, including Sir William Parry’s expeditions in HMS Hecla to the North West Passage and the North Pole. Hecla became a famous Arctic vessel by reason of her weight and strength, originally designed for her previous role as a heavy artillery platform used to bombard Barbary Coast pirates of their main refuge at Algiers.

The archive material also includes logs sent to go looking for Sir John Franklin’s doomed try to find the North West Passage in 1847, in addition to the detailed records of many ordinary commercial whaling voyages including those run by the Palmer fleet based in Newcastle. Ayre have been focussing on 60 log books belonging to whaling vessels between 1750 and 1850, such as whalers from the north east and Yorkshire describing sea ice advancing and retreating and stipulations at the fringe of the pack ice, where they sometimes installed camp during whale hunts.

Ayre on board, along with his own log

The work involves an additional type of research, into the vocabulary utilized by the sailors including local slang for technical terms which has since been lost. Ayre has drawn on sea ice terminology from the books of the Whitby whaler William Scoresby Jnr (1789-1857) to recent satellite data. The end result would be the first ‘sea ice’ dictionary to hold both archaic and contemporary definitions of the identical thing. Ayre says:

On board the Healy I recorded what was happening with the ice, making observations every six hours using Scoresby’s ancient definitions, in parallel with the Healy’s researchers’ own daily records.

The old records describe, for instance, various varieties of ice from ‘loose’ to ‘heavy’ and using each of the data i used to be ready to map the ice edge, which hasn’t ever been done before in any great detail since it melts and freezes annually and that’s happening further and faster than ever before.

The style ahead. It was an identical for the whalers 200 years ago

ARCdoc’s director Dr Dennis Wheeler has won funding for the 3-year study from the Leverhulme Trust and is operating with the Scott Polar Research Institute, The Meteorological Office’s Hadley Research Centre and Hull University’s Maritime Studies Unit. He said:

The whaling log books are the foremost interesting of all that we use seeing that the crews weren’t trained naval officers, and that they often ventured farther north than any others. The Arctic environmentally is a hugely important area, but we have to understand how it behaved formerly so that we will be able to assess how it will behave at some point; you cannot look forward without in retrospect.