Posts by Paul Williams
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Though it might appear overly partisan, Collins performance in Parliament just now was woeful and it was surprising how little support she received from her colleagues. And now she must face an urgent debate.
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Hard News: Briefing, blaming, backing down, in reply to Matthew Hooton,
Do you really want us to talk tonight about boring old intermediate school cuts? ACC Chairman and CEO resigning. Auditor-General investigating the Prime Minister's pokie deal. The class size backdown is positively passe.
Matthew, agreed. Listening to Parliament right now, two things strike me. One, the PM's seriously struggling. Two, Eric Roy's a pale imitation of Smith.
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Hard News: Briefing, blaming, backing down, in reply to Nat,
(They usually aim for 24-25 in year 2 but for some reason the numbers didn't work out this year).
There's 22 in my 7 year old daughters Yr 2/3 composite class (Yrs 1 and 2 in NSW terms) and it feels about right (I think the lived-experience is an entirely valid measure). There's four reading groups of four to five kids and the room is not over-crowded meaning the teacher can maintain a pretty constant and calm engagement with them all. I'd say it's close to optimal.
...oh hang on, that's some other kind of AlGore Bloom...
ROFLNUI (we still use that right?)
although your son might not be so appreciative of having his father in the classroom when he is a teenager
Nat is short for Natalie in this instance Hilary.
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Hard News: Briefing, blaming, backing down, in reply to Jane Pearson,
+1
+2.
Unlike other blogs/communities, reading every comment is necessary and informative (and effectively a prerequisite for adding comments which is why I sometimes dip out of the dialogue, not a complaint, just an observation).
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Hard News: Briefing, blaming, backing down, in reply to Tristan,
So class size is number 40 but feedback, direct instruction and early intervention are in the top 10 you know all the things a small class size gives you the the opportunity to do… FFS you couldn’t make this up…
Is it that clear? I'm not arguing that the key factors aren't inter-related, and your point makes intuitive sense, but if the list was compiled following a study of classroom effects from a wide variety of different sized classes then it doesn't follow that the size of the class determines whether or the top ten factors occur.
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Hard News: Briefing, blaming, backing down, in reply to 81stcolumn,
Like any form of statistics, meta-analysis involves data manipulation and for the most part there are agreed rules to which most researchers adhere. This is not the core of my criticism; it is the issue of which experimental effects should be included for analysis
I think I understand this to mean, leaving to one side the data, your concern is what specific factors are measured? I agree. I'm also concerned that, so far as I can tell, the research focuses only on assessments against standard curriculum (I think). This doesn't capture nearly enough about the experience of education for me.
Apparently they’ve held this view since 2009, but if they had any firmer ideas on how the “quality” might be pursued, Parata wasn’t able to articulate them.
I do think this is a key part of the problem. Absent better measures, quantifiable ones, however simplistic, seem to be preferred.
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Hard News: Briefing, blaming, backing down, in reply to Russell Brown,
Oh, quite. Whether it should be actively shopping policy like this is another matter.
Fair enough. In my experience, they mightn't be “shopping” policy, they could, but they could equally just be reviving advice from the past, advice that's not politically expedient, in the hope that circumstances change (which means perhaps Parata’s inexperience is as much to blame, let’s hope the advice is released now that a decision has been made)..
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Hard News: Briefing, blaming, backing down, in reply to 81stcolumn,
The persistent pushing of "evidence that smaller class sizes make no difference" the qualification to this got lost in transmission. Smaller class sizes make less than expected difference, most probably due to teaching methods not being suitably adapted to the change in numbers. There is to my knowledge little evidence the bigger is better BTW.
I'm at a disadvantage, having not read Hattie's book, but my understanding from the Australian research on this (and, as an aside, Hattie is widely recognised to be an international expert), the single most influential in school factor on a child's performance in standardised tests is the quality of the teacher. As you say, it's not that class size is irrelevant, it's just not as important as it's typically thought to be. That said, a less experienced teacher is going to find it harder to run his/her classroom effectively with lots of kids.
Your comment about the data is one I worry about also. I understand these studies necessarily require the underlying data to be heavily manipulated to be internationally comparable.
PA is lucky to have many regulars who'll correct me on all this, if I'm mistaken.
I'd love to see the official advice provided to Parata, it must surely have included strong cautions against this approach. Either she over-ruled them, risky for a new Minister, or she acquiesced to Treasury and will be characterised as a weak Minister. I also think, at the risk of inviting your collective ire, Treasury should be focused on testing the relative merits of different spending options. I think that's part of their job.
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Capture: Going Walkabout in Sydney, in reply to Joe Wylie,
As pretty much anyone in Melbourne will tell you.
Pay that.
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Capture: Going Walkabout in Sydney, in reply to Alex Efimoff,
This is another really beautiful shot Alex. Cheers.