Transcript Slide 1

Evidence and policy in education
Tom Schuller
University of Brno
May 2011
Aims
Provide overview of OECD experience
on evidence/policy interface
Illustrate from UK Inquiry into the
Future of Lifelong Learning
Offer a menu for reflection
“There is nothing a politician likes so little as to be
well informed; it makes decision-making so
complex and difficult.”
John Maynard Keynes,
The context: a widening lens
• General questioning of outcome measures at
different levels, eg on national economic
performance
• Issue of trust in official statistics, and in the
presentation of public policies
• Massive increase in public access to
‘information’
“ Measuring the size of these wider benefits
of learning is an important research
priority, where progress requires better
measures of people’s characteristics in a
range of domains and surveys that follow
the same individual over time.”
Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi 2009
Measuring Economic Performance and Social
Progress, p47
Difference between trust in official statistics and trust in
national governments
50%
10%
0%
-10%
-20%
-30%
BE
CZ
DK
D
EE
EL
ES
FR
IE
IT
CY
LV
LT
LU
HU
MT
NL
AT
PL
PT
SI
SK
FI
SE
UK
B
HR
R
TR
40%
30%
20%
BE – Belgium; BG – Bulgaria; CZ - Czech Republic; DK – Denmark; DE – Germany; EE – Estonia; EL – Greece; ES - Spain; FR – France; IE – Ireland; IT – Italy; CY - Cyprus; LT –
Lithuania; LV – Latvia; LU – Luxembourg; HU – Hungary; MT – Malta; NL - The Netherlands; AT – Austria; PL – Poland; PT – Portugal; RO – Romania; SI – Slovenia; SK –
Slovakia; FI – Finland; SE – Sweden; UK - The United Kingdom; HR – Croatia; TR – Turkey.
Lessons from OECD educational
R&D reviews
General conclusions :
• Low levels of investment
• Low capacity
• Weak research/policy/practice links
Government expenditure on ERD as a percentage of total (public and
private, all levels) expenditure on education
Source : OECD, 2009. Data on ERD are for 2007. Data on expenditure on education are for 2006.
Government expenditure on ERD as a percentage of the public
expenditure on R&D
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
2007%
Source : OECD, 2009.
2008%
Knowledge networks
Policy-makers
Researchers
Practitioners
Strengths/weaknesses of each link?
Lessons from OECD educational
R&D reviews
General conclusions :
• Low levels of investment
• Low capacity
• Weak research/policy/practice links
Recommendations:
• Balancing the research portfolio
• Accumulation: building a knowledge base
• Dissemination and brokerage
• Capacity-building
Methodologies and capacities
Methodological debate:
Scientific ideal(s) vs. best available
Warfare, mutual invisibility or complementarity
Capacity building:
– deepening vs. broadening
– producers and consumers
Questions:
What forms of capacity are most in need of
strengthening?
How and by whom should this be done?
Brokerage agencies
Issues/functions:
• Dissemination: publications, internet,
presentations
• Promoting interactivity
• Legitimating rigour/quality
• Developing cooperation/trust
Questions:
Rationales: what are the different functions and of
brokerage agencies?
Effectiveness: what are their achievements to date?
http://www.tlrp.org/pa
Aims of the Inquiry
The overall goal : an authoritative and coherent
strategic framework for lifelong learning in the UK:
• Articulating a broad rationale for public and private
investment in lifelong learning;
• A re-appraisal of the social and cultural value
attached to it by policy-makers and the public;
• Developing new perspectives on policy and practice.
Outline of Inquiry Papers
IFLL Final Report
IFLL Strategic Framework for Lifelong Learning
Interim Papers
Thematic
Stocktake
Sectoral
Public Value
 Prosperity Employment &
Work
 Demography and Social
Structure
 Wellbeing and Happiness
 Migration and
Communities
 Technological Change
 Poverty Reduction
 Citizenship and Belonging
 Crime and Social
Exclusion
 Sustainable Development
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Public Sector Investment
Private Sector Investment
Third Sector Investment
Individual Commitment
 Participation, over 10
years
Early childhood
Schools
Further Education
Higher Education
Local Authorities
Voluntary Sector
Family learning
Cultural institutions
Private Training Providers
Horizon Scanning / Scenario Planning
Poverty
Health
Crime
Wellbeing
Equality
Expenditure on costs of learning provision (£ billion), 2007-08
Proposed re-balancing of expenditure
by 4 life stages
100
% of current
population
90
80
% of current
expenditure
70
60
Projected % of
population by
2020
50
40
30
Proposed % of
expenditure by
2020
20
10
0
18-24
25-49
50-74
75+
Ten Recommendations
Base lifelong learning policy on a new model of the educational life course, with four key
stages (up to 25, 25-50, 50-75, 75+)
Rebalance resources fairly and sensibly across the different life stages
Build a set of learning entitlements
Engineer flexibility: a system of credit and encouraging part-timers
Improve the quality of work
Construct a curriculum framework for citizens’ capabilities
Broaden and strengthen the capacity of the lifelong learning workforce
Revive local responsibility….
…within national frameworks
Make the system intelligent
Recommendation 10
Make the system intelligent
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State of Learning: 3-yearly stocktake
Benchmark with other countries
Benefit/cost analyses
Experimentation
A ‘systemic’ approach to knowledge
management
A focus on how the stakeholders:
- Generate good quality knowledge and
information
- Share that knowledge and information
effectively
- Work together to improve the knowledge
base and its utilisation
HERDIS/Tom Schuller
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Engineering a stronger knowledge base
(from review of educational research in Hungary)
• Raising the aspirations of educational researchers, with clearer
incentives for performance
• A clearly focused drive to take forward the training of doctoral
students
• Reform of initial and in-service teacher training to make the
profession more capable of absorbing research.
• Strengthening leadership within the sector.
• Reform HE management structures to promote a more
strategic approach to knowledge management in the sector.
• More emphasis on experimentation and evaluation
HERDIS/Tom Schuller
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The nature of ‘evidence’
• Precision vs ‘certainty’
• Measurable now vs what should count
• Timeframes
• Political demand: narrative and decision
Future challenges
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Defining an ‘evaluation culture’
Selecting key capacities
Building social capital into research strategies
Complementarity/accumulation: promoting
mixed methods to strengthen the knowledge
base
References
Evidence in Education: Linking
Research and Policy (CERI/OECD 2007)
New Challenges for Educational
Research (CERI/OECD 2003)
www.lifelonglearninginquiry.org.uk
[email protected]