The achievement-wellbeing trade-off in education - report launch and panel discussion
13th November, 10.30 for 11am start, till 12.30pm
The idea that pupil well-being and effective learning go hand in hand is an important tenet of progressive educational theory. Since ‘deep’, genuine learning is supposed to be invigorating and joyful, education that does not live up to these ideals tends to be seen as ineffective and wasteful. Progressive theory has therefore come to highlight the relationship between pupil-led learning, enjoyment, and performance as a virtuous circle. Yet little rigorous evidence has been presented in favour of this assumption. Indeed, the paper presents evidence showing to the contrary that effective learning is often not enjoyable. Rather, several interventions and strategies – such as homework, school competition, and traditional teaching methods – involve an achievement-happiness trade-off.
Download the full report, ‘The achievement-wellbeing trade-off in education’.
At this event CfEE lead economist, and report author, Gabriel Heller-Sahlgren and panellists discussed the evidence for and against the progressive theory of the relationship between pupil well-being and achievement; alternative conceptualisations; and whether we might be served by taking the concept of trade-offs between different educational goals more seriously.
The report was widely covered in the national and education press, including by the i newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, the TES, Education Executive, and FE News. It also provoked lively debate on social media and has drawn particularly keen interest from key government and regulatory decision-makers in the sector.
James Croft wrote this comment piece for Huffington Post - 'Should We Choose Between Pupils’ Happiness And Their Achievement?' - and this for Schools Week: ‘Is pupil enjoyment key to effective learning?’
Download the full report, ‘The achievement-wellbeing trade-off in education’.
Business Stay-Up Part 2. With: Gabriel H Sahlgren and Rachel Maclean MP (Tuesday 26th June 12:45-2:15)
Business Stay-Up Part 2. With: Gabriel H Sahlgren and Rachel Maclean MP (Tuesday 26th June 12:45-2:15)
Event sponsors
Parents: The silent education stakeholder?
Tuesday 22nd May 2018, 7.00pm till 9.30pm
Panel 1: Is education done to you or with you?
Chaired by Neil McIntosh, President, CfEE.
Panelists: Mark Lehain, Director, Parents and Teachers for Excellence, Stephen Rollett, Inspections and accountability specialist, Association of School and College Leaders, Michelle Doyle Wildman, Acting CEO, Parentkind, Emma Knights OBE, Chief Executive, National Governance Association.
Key Note: Parents and accountability
Amy Finch, Head of strategic development, Ofsted.
Panel 2: Can parent engagement influence outcomes?
Chaired by Karen Wespieser, Director, CfEE.
Panellists: Tony McAleavy, Research and consultancy director, Education Development Trust, Dr Kathy Weston, Parental Engagement Expert, Barnaby Lenon, Chair of the Independent Schools Council, Norman LaRocque, Principal Education Specialist, Asian Development Bank.
The school reforms of the last three decades aimed to activate parental choice by increasing access to information about school performance. As a result, parents now have more information about schools than ever before through more data in the league tables and qualitative information in Ofsted reports. There is a significant research literature around this aspect of parental engagement, but all too often, once children are on roll parental engagement – and the research literature investigating it – diminishes.
Michelle Doyle Wildman joined Parentkind in May 2015 as its Policy and Communications Director and since May 2017 has been acting as the charity’s Acting Chief Executive. She has over 20 years’ experience of leading teams, public affairs and stakeholder engagement; previously holding senior roles at the Environment Agency and South East Water. As a mother of two boys and wife of a teacher, Michelle takes a keen personal interest in our schools. She has spoken widely on how parents can participate positively in education.
Amy Finch is Head of Strategic Development at Ofsted. Prior to joining Ofsted in 2016, Amy was Head of Education at the Reform thinktank.
Emma Knights OBE is Chief Executive of the National Governance Association (NGA) - the leading charity for guidance, research, advice and training for school governors and trustees. Prior to her appointment in 2010 she was joint CEO of the Daycare Trust. Before that, she worked in a number of roles in the voluntary sector, particularly in the Legal Services Commission, Citizens Advice and the Local Government Association. As well as leading projects on child poverty and educational attainment, Emma has written on a wide range of topics and is co-author of the NGA’s Chair’s Handbook. Emma regularly addresses legislators and the media on governance issues, as well as school governors, trustees, clerks and school leaders. She was a governor at a secondary school in Warwickshire for 7 years and is a founding trustee of the Foundation for Leadership in Education. Emma was awarded an OBE in the 2018 New Year's Honours list for services to education.
Norman LaRocque is Principal Education Specialist, Asian Development Bank where he specialises in public-private partnerships in education, higher education policy, private higher education, higher education financing and student loans, regulation of education, project design, project processing and implementation. Norman has worked in more than 15 countries in Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. He has undertaken consulting projects for a range of organisations, including the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, GTZ, the Asian Development Bank and the IBM Center for th Business of Government. Norman joins the event via video-link from Karachi.
Mark Lehain is the Director of Parents and Teachers for Excellence, an organisation which works to improve state education by encouraging schools to adopt high-expectations behaviour cultures, a knowledge-rich curriculum, rigorous examinations and lots of enrichment opportunities for their students. Mark has a wealth of educational experience, having founded one of the first free schools in the country in September 2012. Mark was appointed Interim Director of NSN in March 2018.
Barnaby Lenon was educated at Eltham College and Oxford University. He taught at Sherborne School, Eton for 12 years, was deputy head of Highgate School, head master of Trinity School Croydon and head of Harrow (12 years). He has been a governor of nine schools. He is chairman of governors of the London Academy of Excellence, a new free school which opened in 2012 in Newham, east London. He is chairman of the Independent Schools’ Council and a board member of Ofqual.
Tony McAleavy is Research and Consultancy Director at the Education Development Trust. Tony is passionate about evidence-informed education and has worked extensively on school reform in many countries – particularly in the Middle East. He plays an instrumental role in developing Education Development Trust's portfolio of work in the UK and worldwide and ensures that Education Development Trust's body of research is relevant and insightful. Tony's road to Education Development Trust took him via an MA in modern history at the University of Oxford and senior school and local authority posts in England.
Neil McIntosh is the former CEO of the CfBT Education Trust, a charity he describes as a ‘social business’, which he led from being a one service EFL provider in two or three countries to become a worldwide provider of education services. He has been at the forefront of significant education policy developments, including the growth of free schools and academies, and was the driving force behind the development of the CfBT Schools Trust multi-academy chain. Prior to joining CfBT, Neil was director of Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity, and before that Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), a UK charity providing skilled fieldworkers to developing countries around the world. He is currently chair of The Access Project, an initiative to ensure that young people with high potential but limited means have access to one-to-one tutors to ensure they reach their potential. He is also an Honorary Norham Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Department of Education. Neil was appointed CBE in 2013 for services to education.
Stephen Rollett was appointed ASCL's Inspections and Accountability Specialist in September 2016, supporting members across a range of issues in relation to Ofsted and school accountability. Prior to this role, he was a vice principal in a challenging secondary school which he helped to transform from 'inadequate in all areas' to become one of England's most improved schools in less than two years. Stephen originally trained as a history teacher and his work as a Hampshire 'Leading Teacher' contributed to an Ofsted best practice publication on how to use subject networks to raise standards of teaching and learning. He also has experience of North American education, having worked in partnership with schools in the USA as well as teaching in Canada for a short time.
Karen Wespieser is Director of the Centre for Education Economics. Karen has led research in the education sector for over fifteen years and has extensive knowledge and experience of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. She also works at the National Foundation for Educational Research, volunteers as a school governor, and runs a weekly twitter chat on education research.
Dr Kathryn Weston is one of the leading motivational speakers in the UK today on parenting and parental engagement in children's learning. Initially she trained as a criminologist at Cambridge University before moving into education research. In 2007, she joined the School of Education at the University of Hertfordshire as a research fellow. This is where she developed her great interest in bridging the gap between academic research and real-life parenting. She delivers CPD talks to teachers and talks to parents across the UK. In recent years, Kathy was invited by the Education Select Committee (House of Commons) to chair a panel on parental engagement and by Bloomsbury to write a book for teachers on the topic. She is a regular panellist on BBC radio and writes for the Huffington Post.
Presentations: Dr Kathy Weston | Norman LaRocque | Mark Lehain | Michelle Doyle Wildman | Tony McAleavy
CfEE Panel discussion: What relevance do international assessments have for understanding England's education system?
Chair: Carole Willis, Chief Executive, NFER. Panellists: Dr Dirk Hastedt, Executive Director, IEA; Juliet Sizmur, Research Manager, NFER; Dr Christian Bokhove, Associate Professor, University of Southampton, Cath Murray, Features Editor & Head of Digital for SchoolsWeek and FEWeek.
England has been participating in international large scale assessments for over 20 years. The best-known of these – PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS – focus on students’ achievement in reading, mathematics and science, but they are increasingly branching out into other outcome measures as well.
Run by the OECD and the IEA, but funded by national governments, these studies have had a significant influence over education policy in England and overseas. Each time new results are published there is much fanfare and interrogation of global league tables. There is also frequent commentary from detractors of the tests, academics or teachers who are concerned about the methodology or how the results are used.
However, amongst this maelstrom, there is rarely time to step back and consider what we can learn overall about the performance of England’s education system from across the studies. This panel discussion will feature some of the key players in the system including the IEA, academics and policy makers. Together, they will consider what the latest round of findings (from PISA 2015, TIMSS 2015 and PIRLS 2016) can tell us education in England when placed in an international context.
CfEE Panel discussion: Skilling up for a future: prospective policy challenges
Lead speaker: Professor Ewart Keep, Chair in Education, Training and Skills, Department of Education, University of Oxford
Panellists: Mark Dawe, CEO, Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP); Tom Richmond, former senior adviser to the Skills Minister, vocational education and skills; and Gemma Gathercole, Head of Funding and Assessment, Lsect.
Participants
Professor Ewart Keep is Chair in Education, Training and Skills, at the Department of Education, University of Oxford, and Director of Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE). He is a member of HEFCE’s new Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee, and the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland’s joint Skills Committee. His research interests include: lifelong learning policy, training for low-paid workers, the design and management of education and training systems, employers’ attitudes towards skills and what shape these, and how governments formulate skills policy.
Mark Dawe is chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP). Mark is on the Board of WorldSkills Uk and the UfI Trust as well as a range of government boards such as the SFA / EFA advisory board and the DfE’s Apprenticeship Stakeholder Board. Previously he was the chief executive of OCR, the exam board. He is currently a governor of Sawston Village College and Stapleford Community Primary School.
Tom Richmond has spent almost a decade working on education, skills and welfare policy: for stakeholders, including Pearson, G4S Welfare to Work; think-tanks such as Policy Exchange and the Social Market Foundation; and then from 2013-15, as senior adviser to DfE Skills Ministers.
Gemma Gathercole is Head of Funding and Assessment at Lsect. Prior to joining Lsect, she spent 11 years with exam board OCR, latterly as their Head of Policy for FE and Funding. Previously she held a number of roles relating to different aspects of vocational qualifications; spending more than five years in vocational qualifications development.
Event sponsored by
Panelists: Ben Durbin, Head of International Education at the NFER; Sandra McNally, Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Surrey; Luke Sibieta, Programme Director, Education, Employment and Evaluation division, Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS); and Mark Parrett, Audit Manager, Education value for money, National Audit Office.
Despite widespread concerns about the level of school funding, much of the academic literature has struggled to find a significant link between (moderate) changes in school expenditure and changes in pupil outcomes. Moreover, schools (and education systems) with similar levels of funding can achieve very different levels of pupil attainment. Evidence is lacking about the appropriate level of funding for schools, the scope for economies of scale (at a school or MAT level), how funding is best administered and where best to spend limited funds in order to have the greatest impact. At this seminar, a leading panel of scholars draw their conclusions as to where the balance of evidence lies on these important issues, with particular attention to the impact of changes to school funding and social mobility in England, including the likely effects of the new National Funding Formula.
Participants
Carole Willis is Chief Executive of the National Foundation for Educational Research. Before joining NFER, Carole was Director of Research and Analysis at the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser. She had responsibility for leading DfE’s community of analysts, setting direction for the Department’s research activity, and building capability to use analysis and evidence effectively to drive education policy reform.
Ben Durbin is Head of International Education at the NFER, leading on the delivery of the PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS international studies in all four countries of the UK, and providing research, assessment and consultancy services to countries across Europe, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. From 2013 to 2016 Ben was Head of Impact at NFER, and prior to that a Senior Research Manager.
Sandra McNally is a Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Surrey. She is Director of the Centre for Vocational Education Research at the London School of Economics. She is also Director of the Education and Skills Programme at the Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
Luke Sibieta is a Programme Director within the Education, Employment and Evaluation division of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. His general research interests include education policy, political economy and poverty and inequality. In the recent past, he has conducted research into the following specific areas: school funding; the impact of the home learning environment on child outcomes; trends in top incomes; trends in child poverty and income inequality; and the politics of tax policy.
Mark Parrett is Audit Manager, Education value for money, National Audit Office. Mark’s recent work has been on retention and development of the teaching workforce, and reports on training new teachers and financial sustainability of schools. Previously Mark was involved in NAO’s work with the local government sector, reporting on implementation of the Care Act and local economic growth policies and has been responsible for NAO work on financial management. Prior to joining the NAO, Mark worked at the Ministry of Defence in a number of finance and policy roles.
Event sponsored by
Event sponsored by:
Evening lecture and drinks
'High performance learning: a new reform standard for education'
When: Tuesday 28th March, 6 for 6.30pm to 8.00pm (with drinks following)
Where: Swedenborg Hall, 20-21 Bloomsbury Way, London, WC1A 2TH
Panel discussion
When: Wednesday 1st March, 6 for 6.30pm to 8.00pm (with drinks following)
Where: Offices of The Key, 2nd Floor, 29 Ludgate Hill, London EC4M 7JR
Report launch
Report launch panel discussion:
James Croft, Executive Director, CMRE, and author of the report, with
Professor Daniel Muijs, Director of Research, Southampton Education School, University of Southampton
Presented by Professor Paul E. Peterson
When: Tuesday 26th January 2016, 6.30-7.45pm
Where: Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House (Great Smith Street entrance), Westminster
Gabriel Heller Sahlgren, CMRE Director of Research, James Croft, CMRE Executive Director, and Lindsey Burke, Will Skillman Fellow in Education Policy, The Heritage Foundation.
When: Tuesday 17th October, 2015, 10am to 11.30am
Where: Lehrman Auditorium, The Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington DC
Over the past 15 years, the education debate has become increasingly internationalized following the birth of the OECD’s PISA survey. PISA scores measure the skills and knowledge of students internationally and have become widely interpreted as a measure of countries’ education policy success. Policymakers in countries with lower PISA scores often look to countries that fare well on PISA for ideas to improve student performance. But is this a good way to conduct education policy? This forum will discuss the value of PISA and alternative measures for school reform. Often, a country’s success is more complex than a PISA survey can capture and ignores the potential of free market solutions. Using a range of education policy examples, with Finland, Sweden, England and the United States as case studies, the forum highlights the pitfalls associated with “best practice” and the OECD’s analyses for finding out what works. It will also consider implications for U.S. policy within the context of growing school choice options.
View video of the event here.
James Croft interviews Sir Michael Barber about his latest book How to run a government and discusses its implications for education policy and the business of schooling
with opening remarks from CMRE's President, Neil McIntosh CBE
Sponsored by Dukes Education
When: Tuesday 6th October 2015, 6.30 for 7.00 to 8.30pm
Where: 2 Lord North Street (Great Peter Street entrance), Westminster
The effectiveness or otherwise of governments is fundamental to the prosperity and well-being of society, and of markets. In a time when politicians struggle to make and fulfil meaningful promises in face of the weight of expectations on them and the sheer complexity of delivery, fresh thinking is required to overcome the barriers to implementation presented by the public bureaucracies that have developed as a result. Interviewed by CMRE's Executive Director, James Croft, Sir Michael Barber explores the issues as they relate to education services.
Sir Michael Barber is Chief Education Advisor at Pearson, leading the development of its worldwide programme of efficacy and research into the learning impact of its education services offering.
Read more about the event here.
Presented by Jon Coles, Group Chief Executive of United Learning
Chaired by Lord Lucas, Member, All-Party Parliamentary Group for Education,
with panel contributions from Sam Freedman, Director of Research, Evaluation and Impact at Teach First, and Richard Harman, Chair of the Headmasters' & Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) and Headmaster of Uppingham School
When: Wednesday 19th August 2015, 6.15 for 6.30 to 8.30pm
Where: 2 Lord North Street (Great Peter Street entrance), Westminster
Faith in the capacity of the independent schools sector to effect improvement in state school provision has been an enduring feature of the policy debate about how to raise pupil attainment for many years. Since the introduction of the Academies programme, securing independent school leadership and resources for the most challenged schools in particular has been a key part of the government’s strategy. But is this faith well placed? At this event, Jon and panellists explored the implications of contextual realities for the prospects of system-wide school improvement, for policy-making in general, and for the relationship between central government and autonomous state schools.
Read more about the event and subsequent media coverage here.
Tim Oates in conversation with Gabriel Heller Sahlgren
When: Wednesday 22nd April 2015, 6.30-8.30pm
Where: 55 Tufton Street, Westminster
At this joint event, co-hosted by The Centre for the Study of Market Reform of Education (CMRE) and The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), and sponsored by Cambridge Assessment, Tim Oates and Gabriel Heller Sahlgren considered Finland's rise, and demise, in the international PISA rankings, drawing lessons for policymakers, educational practice, and research.
Read more about the lecture and access a video of the event here.
The Inaugural CMRE Friedman Lecture: 'School choice matures: lessons for policymakers'
Presented by Professor Julian Le Grand
When: Tuesday 27th January 2015, 6.30-7.45pm
Where: Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House (Great Smith Street entrance), Westminster
Read a summary of the lecture or listen to an audio recording.
Presented by Professor Olmo Silva with a panel discussion chaired by Gabriel Heller Sahlgren and panel contributions from David Weston and Laura McInerney
When: Thursday 27th November, 6:30-9.30pm
Where: 23 Great Smith Street, Westminster, the offices of the Adam Smith Institute.
Read more about the event here.
Chair: Carole Willis, Chief Executive, NFER. Panellists: Dr Dirk Hastedt, Executive Director, IEA; Juliet Sizmur, Research Manager, NFER; Dr Christian Bokhove, Associate Professor, University of Southampton, Cath Murray, Features Editor & Head of Digital for SchoolsWeek and FEWeek.
England has been participating in international large scale assessments for over 20 years. The best-known of these – PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS – focus on students’ achievement in reading, mathematics and science, but they are increasingly branching out into other outcome measures as well.
Run by the OECD and the IEA, but funded by national governments, these studies have had a significant influence over education policy in England and overseas. Each time new results are published there is much fanfare and interrogation of global league tables. There is also frequent commentary from detractors of the tests, academics or teachers who are concerned about the methodology or how the results are used.
However, amongst this maelstrom, there is rarely time to step back and consider what we can learn overall about the performance of England’s education system from across the studies. This panel discussion will feature some of the key players in the system including the IEA, academics and policy makers. Together, they will consider what the latest round of findings (from PISA 2015, TIMSS 2015 and PIRLS 2016) can tell us education in England when placed in an international context
Parents: The silent education stakeholder?
Tuesday 22nd May 2018, 6.30pm for 7.00pm till 9.30pm
Panel 1: Is education done to you or with you? Chaired by Neil McIntosh, President, CfEE. Panelists: Mark Lehain, Director, Parents and Teachers for Excellence, Stephen Rollett, Inspections and accountability specialist, Association of School and College Leaders, Michelle Doyle Wildman, Acting CEO, Parentkind, Emma Knights OBE, Chief Executive, National Governance Association.
Key Note: Parents and accountability Amy Finch, Head of strategic development, Ofsted.
Panel 2: Can parent engagement influence outcomes? Chaired by Karen Wespieser, Director, CfEE. Panellists: Tony McAleavy, Research and consultancy director, Education Development Trust, Dr Kathy Weston, Parental Engagement Expert, Barnaby Lenon, Chair of the Independent Schools Council, Norman LaRocque, Principal Education Specialist, Asian Development Bank,
The school reforms of the last three decades aimed to activate parental choice by increasing access to information about school performance. As a result, parents now have more information about schools than ever before through more data in the league tables and qualitative information in Ofsted reports. There is a significant research literature around this aspect of parental engagement, but all too often, once children are on roll parental engagement – and the research literature investigating it – diminishes.
PLEASE NOTE: This event is now fully booked. Registration is closed.
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