New Zealand was not alone, with overall average scores for maths, reading and science dropping in the 81 countries and economies participating in the tests.
This is, of course, concerning, but I seriously doubt the suggested enforced 3h of learning is going to change things one iota. IMHO, the biggest problem is not how schools are teaching core subjects, but how much learning is happening at home.
I say this with no judgement. Parents are, increasingly I feel, using a tablet to babysit their kids when they are younger, and not monitoring their social media use when they are older. I would also be interested to learn how much reading to your kids has declined. I could be wrong, but I suspect it has been slipping in line with the PISA results.
I don’t think mandatory 3 R’s will help, but I wouldn’t be so quick to push the blame home. Personally I don’t remember much parental involvement in my learning.
But what has happened with teachers the past 20 years? For one, I have worked with half a dozen ex-teachers that trained as teachers but didn’t find the role worthwhile. When leave teacher’s college and find you can get a contact centre job with no training and higher pay you have some choices to make.
Is it possible our teachers aren’t as good, or more likely, aren’t as well supported as they used to be?
In general I’d expect that the best teacher’s would also make the best candidates for other roles. Perhaps all the good teachers left for higher paying roles, leaving the teachers that can’t get other roles to continue teaching and leaving new teachers without great role models.
Irs likely all of the above: Teachers are under valued and over worked, poverty, bad housing and low pay for parents means less time their kids, 3 years of covid… it all adds up
Well I certainly agree teachers are undervalued, underpaid and overworked. I was a teacher once upon a time, and the workload has only increased. Couple that with dealing with increasingly difficult parents, students with increased needs while taking support away will naturally lead to things falling through the cracks. There have also been a number of changes to the ECE curriculum that were not entirely evidence based. Recently, our primary school has rolled out a brand new, evidence based, reading strategy which really appears to work well.
TBH I agree with @[email protected] below - it is a difficult problem with many causes, and any one “cure all” solution will ultimately fail.
Parental involvement goes beyond direct involvement in school learning. It also includes reading and fostering an environment where reading is viewed positively, general life learning for skills like adding and subtracting, and so-on. However, I fully acknowledge that I made somewhat of a blanket statement.
This is, of course, concerning, but I seriously doubt the suggested enforced 3h of learning is going to change things one iota. IMHO, the biggest problem is not how schools are teaching core subjects, but how much learning is happening at home.
I say this with no judgement. Parents are, increasingly I feel, using a tablet to babysit their kids when they are younger, and not monitoring their social media use when they are older. I would also be interested to learn how much reading to your kids has declined. I could be wrong, but I suspect it has been slipping in line with the PISA results.
I don’t think mandatory 3 R’s will help, but I wouldn’t be so quick to push the blame home. Personally I don’t remember much parental involvement in my learning.
But what has happened with teachers the past 20 years? For one, I have worked with half a dozen ex-teachers that trained as teachers but didn’t find the role worthwhile. When leave teacher’s college and find you can get a contact centre job with no training and higher pay you have some choices to make.
Is it possible our teachers aren’t as good, or more likely, aren’t as well supported as they used to be?
In general I’d expect that the best teacher’s would also make the best candidates for other roles. Perhaps all the good teachers left for higher paying roles, leaving the teachers that can’t get other roles to continue teaching and leaving new teachers without great role models.
Irs likely all of the above: Teachers are under valued and over worked, poverty, bad housing and low pay for parents means less time their kids, 3 years of covid… it all adds up
I thonk you’re right.
Well I certainly agree teachers are undervalued, underpaid and overworked. I was a teacher once upon a time, and the workload has only increased. Couple that with dealing with increasingly difficult parents, students with increased needs while taking support away will naturally lead to things falling through the cracks. There have also been a number of changes to the ECE curriculum that were not entirely evidence based. Recently, our primary school has rolled out a brand new, evidence based, reading strategy which really appears to work well.
TBH I agree with @[email protected] below - it is a difficult problem with many causes, and any one “cure all” solution will ultimately fail.
Parental involvement goes beyond direct involvement in school learning. It also includes reading and fostering an environment where reading is viewed positively, general life learning for skills like adding and subtracting, and so-on. However, I fully acknowledge that I made somewhat of a blanket statement.