Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.– Margaret Mead
What is the value of education, increasingly students enquire how do I achieve, rather than what can I learn to expand critical thought. Is money on their mind, if faced with their fees, my views on attainment could have been focused through a commercial lens.
This session consisted of two presenters James Wisdom and Victoria Odeniyi providing illuminating and thought-provoking lectures.
Beginning with James Wisdom, Higher Education Consultant discussing the ‘The Context of Higher Education’. Highlighting the financial benefits of studying a degree to both students and the economy. UK citizens will earn 37% more, in future, if educated beyond a secondary qualification level. These financial incentives are not reflected in the study of the Creative Arts, however he highlighted most students do not select their courses based on future income. We were introduced to the key influencers of Government (Lord Agnew, Lord Wharton of Yarn and Simon Burns), and negative viewpoints currently impacting the University sector, explaining why the UK Government is now more focused on supporting Further Education than Higher Education.
“Is the following hour the best way my students could spend their time”, relating to recent student satisfaction surveys. Mr Wisdom asked how we can measure the quality of our teaching by dissatisfaction rates, is it a true value?. Signing off with melancholic future Higher Education predictions, I hope he was correct in saying “Don’t believe a word I’ve said”.
The second lecture by Victoria Odeniyi, on ‘Reimagining Multilingual Student Conversations.’ Victoria is undertaking observational research into how language and communication is used in classrooms and online teaching.
The second lecture by Victoria Odeniyi, ‘Reimagining Multilingual Student Conversations.’ Ms Odeniyi is currently undertaking observational research into how language and communication is used in classrooms and online teaching.
Inviting us to think about the languages we know, what we do or do not speak, competence levels, background, heritage and affiliation.
Detailing observations of lecturers utilising colloquialisms “I’m chuffed to bits” to technical speech “Adopting an aesthetic lens”, generating a barrier to learning. The class highlighted their own experiences of teaching or being taught in relation to the use of language. Raising conscious levels of potential consequences of my Irish accent and learned jargon in direct opposition to my teaching objectives.
One reply on “£ducation Value(s)”
Your post highlights interesting tensions between the financial value of education, closely linked with the fees student pay to study in HE institutions, and its value as acquiring knowledge in support of personal development. I’m quite surprised that the statement in one of your citations: ‘On average, men benefit by £130,000 and women by £100,000’ from a degree. I agree that this averaging ‘conceals great differences’ such as the potential earning power of certain courses post graduation. I agree with you when you say that these incentives to study degrees is not reflected in the study of the Creative Arts. It is interesting that incentives highlights one types of bias with women earning ‘on average’ less than men, but it would be interesting to delve deeper to understand how other forms of biases play out in terms of earning power post degree. If the average is drilled down, would the incentive to study a degree still be there?
In your post, the question is asked of whether student surveys can be a measure of the quality of our teaching? Personally, I think student surveys should allow us to reflect on students’ experience and what measures might be taken to improve if the surveys convey a clear need for improvement. Relying on the surveys as a measure of the quality of teaching would be dangerous and would create an imbalance in the teacher-student relationship placing significant power to the students. It would reinforce the notion of students as customers where the overriding goal is to assure great student experience, regardless of individual circumstances.