Back to blogging....PISA and Innovation

Phew...it seems like a long time since I was a full-on blogger! I think that in the last few years, I have been more used to using an e-portfolio to reflect on things educational. This has been useful, but at the moment these are linked to the school that I was and am in.

So....back to blogging.

In my present role of DP Teaching and Learning I naturally spend a lot of time reading around pedagogy and practice. These two articles today - Measuring Innovation and Shanghai may abandon PISA - create some interesting paradox. The #1 innovation in organisational policy and practice is : (1) More public posting of secondary achievement data…followed by (2) More peer evaluation of teachers in primary and secondary education…and then (3) More external evaluation of primary and secondary school classrooms… 
The range of 'innovations' as listed in the chapter headings below is interesting-

• Chapter 5: Innovation in teaching style
• Chapter 6: Innovation in instructional practices
• Chapter 7: Innovation in class organisation
• Chapter 8: Innovation in the use of textbooks in classrooms
• Chapter 9: Innovation in the methods of assessment used in classrooms
• Chapter 10: Innovation in the availability of computers and the internet in the classroom
• Chapter 11: Innovation in the use of computers in the classroom
• Chapter 12: Innovation in the provision of special education in schools
• Chapter 13: Innovation in the extent of teacher collaboration in schools
• Chapter 14: Innovation in feedback mechanisms in schools
• Chapter 15: Innovation in evaluation and hiring in schools
• Chapter 16: Innovation in schools’ external relations
• Chapter 17: Composite indices of innovation in classrooms and schools

Shanghai to abandon PISA - "but it is clear that Shanghai officals have acknowledged that PISA does not give them waht they want. Its narrow defintion of education quality as test scores obscures other aspects of ec=ducations that are much more important". They will develop a new "so called green evaluation' which will de-emphasize the significance of test scores. "Instead of being the sole measure of educational quality, test scores will become one of 10 indicators....motivation and engagement, student-teacher relationships and physical fitness..."

I'll look forward to following that evaluation process with interest.