Chris Lintott’s Universe

August 29th, 2007

Sorry for lack of blogging but in the meantime

Posted by chrislintott in Uncategorized

Sorry for the lack of posts – normal service to resume soon – but in the meantime no, no, no, no, no and no.

7 Responses to ' Sorry for lack of blogging but in the meantime '

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  1. Alice Sheppard said,

    on August 29th, 2007 at 3:22 pm

    I’m really looking forward to my Science PGCE (starting one week today) – thanks for this nice little booster, exam boards. But I asked someone who’s already a teacher why we had heard absolutely nothing in advance of that “radical shake-up of education” Gordon Brown introduced when he came to power, and he told me exactly how much difference it was really going to make – round about the square root of one. It is very fashionable to announce radical changes to all of last year’s radical changes in education (the PGCE has been re-named, for instance – to the PGCE! “P” now stands for “Professional”, not “Post”. Shock horror!). Dolores Umbridge in the fifth Harry Potter book was often much better at actually making real differences . . .

    The only plus side of this 70% thing that immediately comes to mind is that the detailed questions they’re phasing out were balanced against us happening to have studied a very small part of the syllabus in great detail and ignored most of the things we’d learnt. But that wouldn’t have mattered if we’d been learning to truly learn anyway – rather than just memorised for the exams and then forgotten as soon as possible. When I spent a year studying in a Spanish university I was stunned at the amount of detail people were expected to remember, not only from their present courses, but from school, too.

    I don’t think pupils I introduce to Galaxy Zoo should forget it in too much of a hurry, at the very least. :-)

  2. Alice Sheppard said,

    on August 29th, 2007 at 3:41 pm

    Sorry, I mean “balanced in favour of us happening to have studied a tiny amount of the syllabus in intense detail”, not “against”.

  3. Judith-Anne MacKenzie said,

    on August 31st, 2007 at 10:29 am

    One sample question I saw given in thge newspapers (a multiple choice requiring one to identify the telescope as the instrument to use to view stars, rather than e.g. a microscope) seemed to be a vocabulary question that I would have been asked in an English lesson at the age of about 8! I hope it was not true.

  4. Ian T said,

    on September 2nd, 2007 at 11:07 pm

    What can I say apart from *SIGH*

  5. JupiterOrbit said,

    on September 19th, 2007 at 8:52 am

    This isn’t surprise especially after read this article. I have to admit that I’ve noticed the “trend” mentioned in the OECD report for many years, especially when I compare the attitude towards higher education between my colleagues and friends in the UK with friends and family back in India to whom not having a university degree is such an alien concept. In fact, back in India amongst the working and middle classes having an under graduate degree is considered not very special and the minimum expectation is at least a masters. If science exams in the UK are going to be made “easier” as a way to get more people in to the sciences, to me that’s creating an alarming and very sad state of affairs in the UK. In interest in Science should be nurtured from a young age so that children don’t feel daunted or bored by the mere mention of science. For me, science has always been facinating ever since my father bought me a BBC Micro computer when I was seven years old. Later my interest in Astronomy developed. However, when I see a lot of parents today, they themselves know nothing about science. Hardly anybody ever questions sensationalised headlines in new papers claims “scientests said this” and “scientists say that.” and blindly believe everything they read. If that’s the current state how parents think in the UK then what hope has the government got in converting more interest in to science from an early age. The OECD article echoes a worrying downward spiral for science in the UK. I only hope there’s some way to reverse this trend. I fear it’s already too late.

  6. DisGruntled of Effing said,

    on September 19th, 2007 at 10:26 am

    Hey Chris, I’d be paying a bit more attention to how the Galaxy Zoo is being run, if I were you. The words ‘private fiefdom’ spring to mind.

  7. peteshmm said,

    on September 28th, 2007 at 11:24 pm

    Phoo…phoo…Just blowing some cobwebs away…phoo..

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