The Taming of Education: Evaluating Contemporary Approaches to Learning and Teaching

Description

This book evaluates contemporary approaches to education, with a particular focus on the ways in which assessment shapes the educational experience and influences pupils and students. It adopts a critical approach, arguing that there is a need for students to develop critical thinking skills, be flexible and have the capacity for originality. Education has increasingly come to be seen as a process with qualifications as the output; however, as economies change, attaining advantage increasingly relies on creativity and originality. Unfortunately, in the quest to remove uncertainty from education, creativity and originality are often overlooked; and the result is that education is impoverished. Creasy argues here that there is no single factor that has shaped education and led to this situation; rather, developments within education can be seen as having been shaped by a range of forces such as neoliberalism, New Public Management, standardization and internationalization. This is not to claim any deliberate undermining of education, but the cumulative effect is that education is less and less fit for purpose. Written for anyone involved in education, student, teacher or manager, this book draws upon Educations Studies, Sociology and Social Policy to offer a compelling critique of contemporary education. Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Seeing Education as a Process (Rob Creasy)....Pages 1-9 Education: Wicked or Tame? (Rob Creasy)....Pages 11-27 Control Over Teaching: Taming Teachers (Rob Creasy)....Pages 29-51 Shaping the Landscape of Education (Rob Creasy)....Pages 53-78 Where We Learn (Rob Creasy)....Pages 79-106 Education as a Process: Assessment, Outcomes and Achievement (Rob Creasy)....Pages 107-129 Taming Assessment in Higher Education (Rob Creasy)....Pages 131-155 Where Are We Now? (Rob Creasy)....Pages 157-176 Towards Wicked Education (Rob Creasy)....Pages 177-203 Back Matter ....Pages 205-224