Research Bid Failed

My interest in researching remote methods of delivering teaching and learning took a blow recently when I failed in my bid to get funding for a research project.  The application is reproduced here for the interest of educators:

Employment History (5/7)

Job title 

Retired Teacher

Name and address of employer  

n/a

List, in brief, previous employment or occupations  

Shipwright Artificer - Royal Navy
Submarine Officer - Royal Navy
General Manager -and Business Management
Teacher - Business Studies, Law and ICT

Briefly list appropriate qualifications, if any. In particular, if your project is science or medicine related, please include your relevant qualifications  

BA(Hons) Business Studies
P.G.C.E. (Secondary) (Business and Economics Education)
M.Teach
Fellow Mirandanet
FCollT

Additional Information (6/7)

 Interests outside normal work 

Motor cruising, dinghy sailing, kayaking
Community Volunteer with Victim Support

 Apart from holidays, have you ever been abroad; if so, where and in what connection? 

Africa, Asia, Australia, USA, Mediterranean and European countries - Royal Navy
New York with Business Studies students
Denver, Colorado to write a report on the provision for TaG students

Project Details (7/7)

Project Description 

To evaluate Disrupting Technologies for Remote Teaching and Learning

Please indicate under which category you are applying 

Education - Education Futures

Which country(ies) do you wish to visit? 

- Australia

For how many weeks 

6

State the background to your proposed project. 

Since qualifying as a secondary teacher at the age of 50, I have, and continue to, research various Disrupting Technologies to bring education to students who could not access school for a variety of reasons. I have run a 'virtual classroom' successfully. During early research, I discovered that the Alice Springs School of the Air achieves consistently higher results than mainstream schools by remote education. I wish to show that UK schools could utilise this pedagogy to reach school refusers.

 Describe the aim(s) of your project 

To understand how the School of the Air, and parents, maintain motivation to study in the face of geographic isolation by working with School of the Air, and visiting the remote communities that they serve. To compare the School of the Air results and processes with Queensland schools (Townsville) and, main cities such as Sydney. To promulgate the findings and possibilities with UK academies, LEA and free-schools via presentations, TES articles and using the global Mirandanet Fellowship based in the UK, and proselytise the benefits of remote digital learning for certain students and schools.

 Describe how you will carry out your project 

The Alice Springs School of the Air is one of the world leaders in teaching children by remote and ever changing technologies. One week working with the school in Alice Springs with the teachers and administrators will give a clear insight into the methodologies being used. A further week spent visiting remote communities will show how the school and the parents maintain motivation and focus by their children.

It is also necessary to compare the School of the Air with other Australian states and schools to discover any fundamental differences between them and the School of the Air, and also the UK best practice. Two weeks researching, team teaching and meeting parents and children in schools in the North East town of Townsville, followed by the final two weeks following the same aims and objectives in Sydney will give a clear and usable pedagogical data.

A report would then be written and shared with Government Departments, Academy Trusts, Local Education Authorities and clusters of Free-schools.

Describe the benefits of your project, to others as well as yourself 

There appear to be a number of benefits for education in the United Kingdom that can be derived from a better understanding of providing education via remote access such as 'virtual classrooms', quizzing programmes such as Socrative, Second Life and MOOC courses (massive open online course). The benefits can include educating school refusers, the long-term ill, prisoners, isolated communities in the Highlands and Islands, and excluded and disruptive children.

The dissemination of this fascinating topic can be processed by presentations, magazine articles (e.g. TES), and television interviews. Using academy and free-school trusts, the Mirandanet Fellowship and teacher training establishments, the thinking around Disruptive Technology can be promulgated.

Oh well!

Oh well!

It might have provided me the evidence I needed to show that if Alice Springs School of the Air can do it, so could the UK education system: My application to travel to Australia for 6 weeks to research remote blended learning has hit the buffers:

"Dear David,

I am sorry to have to inform you, on behalf of the Advisory Council of the Churchill Trust, that you have not been shortlisted for interview.

This year’s awards generated considerable interest, and we received 989 applications for the 150 Fellowships we are offering in 2016. The overall quality of the applications has also been exceptionally high, and Council members had a very difficult task assessing and selecting a short list for interview."

Where is the research about violence in respect to school size?

Within my limited resources, I have found research that shows that the larger the school, the greater the instance of violence in schools.  Unfortunately, the research is from other countries such as the US and it does indeed show a correlation.  I cannot find any research in the UK which addresses this issue.  Should we not have that evidence before we start to build super-schools?

Does anyone know of any such investigation into the correlation between pupil numbers and instances of violence in school?  I would be interested to hear about it.

More tinkering with a broken engine instead of changing the engine?

The Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, continues to tinker with a broken engine.  What do I mean?  She is now proposing a National Teacher Service to take high-flying teachers out of their schools to parachute them into 'failing' schools.

In my experience, the loss of fantastic teachers to other schools dilutes the original school's success and demotivates those left behind.  The 'failing' schools' staff are then perceived by parents to be incompetent and useless.  The 'failing' schools are judged on the results of the most over-tested children in the World and rarely has anything to do with poor teaching.  The socio-economic divide and the expectations of children are the real causes of 'poor' results.  To be frank, as in my school days in the 50's and 60's, some children are just not up to getting 5 A*-C GCSEs, and the jobs they took after school were worthwhile but now degraded in value.  To expect 90%+ plus to gain A* to Cs is unrealistic and setting some pupils up to fail.

In addition to removing good teachers from their schools, she intends increasing testing of Primary students.  For goodness sake stop torturing them and let them have a childhood.  We all find our level in the end.

Time for a moratorium on school changes and the setting up of a national task force to develop the paradigm shift in education that we desperately need.