Good Teaching, Not Testing, Raises Standards, Says British Education Expert

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Evidence from a major education review shows that England’s drive to raise standards has had mixed results, with positive gains coming at a price, according to a leading British expert.

Professor Robin Alexander of Cambridge University led the biggest enquiry into English primary education in fifty years, the Cambridge Primary Review, which was published last year. He was speaking last night (Wednesday 10 March) at a public lecture hosted by the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education.

He spoke about England’s experience of ‘perilous’ government interventions in education since 1997 and the uses and abuses of international comparisons in pursuit of ‘world class’ educational status. He stressed, however, that any lessons from England are for Australians themselves to draw.

Professor Alexander says: “The test regime since 1997 has impoverished the curriculum, denying many children their entitlement to a balanced education, and government-prescribed teaching methods have impoverished pedagogy. Meanwhile standards have not risen as far or fast as has been claimed, the gap between high and low attainers remains as wide as ever, and until recently the testing process has been compromised by shaky methodology.”

“But,” he insists, “the issue is not whether children should be assessed or schools should be accountable: they should. The question is how and in relation to what. In any case, it is not testing which drives up standards but good teaching. And children will not learn to think for themselves if their teachers are expected merely to do as they are told”.

He adds: “Our evidence also shows that a broad curriculum enhances rather than undermines standards in the ‘basics’, yet many political leaders continue to believe that standards and breadth are incompatible.”

Professor Alexander also warned against the obsession with league tables based on the international student achievement surveys in which both Britain and Australia participate. “‘World class’ has become little more than a slogan,” he said, “sidelining important questions about what one country can legitimately learn from others, and about the true priorities for national education systems in an interdependent world.”

Commenting on Finland, widely acknowledged to have one of the world’s most successful education systems, Professor Alexander said: “Many people miss the point about Finland, for it succeeds without national tests, league tables, prescribed teaching methods or other high-stakes government interventions of the kind favoured elsewhere, and concentrates instead on securing social equity and educational quality through a teaching profession which is valued, respected and exceptionally well-qualified.”