Robin Alexander - Useful Research for Schools
6 April 2010
VICCSO's forum with Professor Robin Alexander, one of the world's leading educational researchers, was very successful.
In this e-news, we have included his Melbourne lectures and a selection of his discussion papers. See the 'Want to Read More?' section below to access these lectures and papers.
At the VICCSO forum, held on 11 March 2010 and attended by over 80 people, Robin did a presentation about many of the challenges in education. Taking part were teachers, parents, principals, students, researchers and representatives of key organisations.
Apologies to those who missed out - numbers were limited. But you can obtain a copy of Robin's PowerPoint presentation - by e-mailing Nicholas Abbey at nicholas.abbey@optusnet.com.au.
About Professor Robin Alexander
Robin Alexander is Fellow of Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge, Professor of Education Emeritus at the University of Warwick, past President of the British Association for International and Comparative Education, and Director of the educational agenda-shaping Cambridge Primary Review.
Robin delivered the keynote address at the National Curriculum Symposium (on 25 February 2010) at the University of Melbourne. (See Want to Read More? below for a copy of this paper).
You can also hear a recent interview with Robin on Life Matters.
ROBIN's AGENDA-SHAPING work
Robin's work includes the recently-completed Cambridge Primary Review, the most comprehensive enquiry into English primary education since the 1960s, as well as research into comparative education, the future of schooling, pedagogy and classroom talk.
The Primary Review proposes an educational framework which is driven by 21st century aims, is grounded in real evidence and guarantees students' entitlement to curriculum breadth, depth and balance - and to high standards in all learning areas.
Drawing on his five-nation study Culture and Pedagogy (which culminated in a close-grained comparative analysis of classroom interaction in England, France, India, Russia and the United States) and a wide research tradition, Robin has developed an approach to classroom talk ('dialogic teaching') which is proving increasingly influential in schools in the UK and elsewhere. You can find more information about the power of student talk on our website.
WHAT IS GOOD Pedagogy?
Robin's has written extensively about pedagogy. His most recent book entitled Essays in Pedagogy provides a useful summary of his key ideas and is highly recommended. The book discusses:
- Dichotomies (old and new) in pedagogy, and how to avoid them
- The centrality of talk to development, learning and teaching and the empowering potential of classroom dialogue
- The scope and character of pedagogy itself, including why pedagogy and the practice of teaching are different.
Influenced by Robin's work, VICCSO's discussion of pedagogy (and why it is everybody's business) can be found in 'Powerful Learning in Your School' at Four Ways to Improve Your School.
The English experience - lessons
In just over a decade, England's school system has become one of the most centralised in the developed world.
As levers of reform, the UK Government has used high stakes testing and inspection, nationally prescribed teaching strategies, school league tables and curriculum micro-management.
Among the issues covered in his VICCSO presentation, Professor Alexander discussed some of the possible lessons for Australia of the English experiment in centralised reform - from the critical perspective of how to combine needed national requirements with a protected 'community curriculum' that is devised locally.
Want to read more?
The following discussion papers and a booklet are available:
- Introducing the Cambridge Primary Review
- The Final Report
- The Perils of Policy: Success, amnesia and collateral damage in systemic educational reform (Robin's Melbourne lecture)
- Reform, Retrench or Recycle? A curriculum cautionary tale (Robin's keynote address at the National Curriculum Symposium)
- Towards a New Primary Curriculum.
For discussions of dialogic teaching and talk in learning, see:
- Culture, Dialogue and Learning: Notes on an Emerging Pedagogy
- Talk for Learning: the First Year
- Talk for Learning: the Second Year.
