Comments on: How to stem the Matthew Effect in education

By: Marius

Marius — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:13:13 +0000

I suggest that at the next matric exam all the teachers sit the exams too. If they can’t pass the exam which they are supposed to be teaching what chance is there that their pupils will be able to get through. This should separate the wheat from the chaff very quickly

By: How to stem the Matthew Effect in education « Play. Think. Learn.

How to stem the Matthew Effect in education « Play. Think. Learn. — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:45:56 +0000

[...] to stem the Matthew Effect in education How to stem the Matthew Effect in education is a piece I wrote about a presentation given by Dr Luis Crouch at the Integrated Education [...]

By: Communication and Analytical Skills Development « Helen King

Communication and Analytical Skills Development « Helen King — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:30:30 +0000

[...] and findings. A buzz pharase that is circulating in education circles in South Africa is the “Mathew Effect”. Taking its name from the book of Matthew, and highlighting how those with, get more, those [...]

By: Richard Mungwara

Richard Mungwara — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:55:03 +0000

The problem is, we are so concerned about the end results. We forget the readness of each individual pupil. Pupil”s mental maturity plays a great role, in his or her future achievements. UK government is having the same problem, under achivement by majority of students at Secondary. Kenya and Tanzania are doing well maybe because most pupils start schooling at 7yrs and leave secondary at 20yrs.That means 6yrs of secondary education before going for tertiary education. In South Africa pupils as young as 5yrs are already starting schooling.If they miss the basic at the start it means, grade 2 teacher is not to teach grade 1 lessons in grade 2.There is no one answer to this problem.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:56:35 +0000

How to fix it is simple:

(1) What do we want to define as an educated child, and how should education benefit them —(a) outcomes
(2) How do we best get them to achieve those outcomes.

——
Eliminate the 12 Year schooling system
impliment a basic read, write, sums curriculum for 2-3 years.
Take kids up into a career based tuition of 2-3 years, for eg — computer technician, welder, scientist, accountant

When they leave school they can choose higher education, or another career of there choice. They always have something to fall back on. but our school leavers are then immediately employable or can market their own skills when they leave school.

After 12 years, we ened up with kids who still have to be taught a career from the ground up…..12 wasted years.

By: Thought Leader » Llewellyn Kriel » Could this be my last blog?

Thought Leader » Llewellyn Kriel » Could this be my last blog? — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:19:22 +0000

[...] TL blogger Steve Vosloo speaks of the Matthew Effect in education, based on Matthew’s Gospel [...]

By: Jannie

Jannie — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:08:36 +0000

“We need less social engineering and more management at each school.”

“The act of reading fluently wires your brain differently — this needs to happen early on in brain development”

These are critical points, if you are only going to get two things right, it must be these two. They provide the leverage to turn the education system around.

The Mathew Effect applies to so much about the ‘free’ world.

By: Taxman

Taxman — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:01:10 +0000

Outcomes-based education won’t work and can’t work with more than 25 pupils in a class. And that class HAS to be well-resourced, not run on a shoestring budget. You’ll get FAR more bang for every educational buck with the utterly tried-and-tested old-fashioned content-based chalk-and-talk teaching and testing regime.

By: brent

brent — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:37:17 +0000

Good teachers, good management, accountability, safe schools, good back up from the department, discipline and no politics (the Party kind) in schools coupled with massive suppport intervention for the poor will save SA education. All within the bounds of our capability, spend on poor education not guns and submarines and political infighting.

By: cool down.

cool down. — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:21:41 +0000

I am not a teacher,but am married to a high school
teacher and am part of a family in which there
is no shortage of teachers.

So I am only able to pass on what I have been told
and have seen.

Firstly the obsevation that the teacher to learner
ratio has not an significant effect is wrong.
No teacher in in high school can handle more than 25 learners in a class, especially if they are language teachers because periods are usually 40
to 45 minutes. So if you have to reading exercises
you cannot spend more than one minute per learner.
Just imagine if you have 40.

Modern schools have classrooms designed not
to accomodate more than 30 learners. If you have 40 desks and chairs are so tightly packed they are right up to the lackboard,with little room for teachers to move in.

In a grade 12 class in a Boys high school this usually leads to the disruption of the whole class as the moving of one chair or desk has a domino effect, of course happily exploited by the rest of the class.

Discipline. Without discipline no education can
take place,if teachers hands are tied and nothing
happens to offenders,the best teachers are rendered
helpless.

Instead of listening to so called experts or persons like myself,teachers should be asked
for their opinions,without fear of reprisal.

They have more qualifications,experience and expertise than all the experts and politicians
put together.

So if good teachers consistently obtain good results over a number of years, they must be doing something right and we need to know what that is,
before the minister embarks on another dead in
the water scheme.