Want to raise 바카라사이트 quality of teaching? Begin with academic freedom

Politicians who want to improve 바카라사이트 quality of teaching through increased competition may ironically simply end up with ever greater systems of centralised control. Following Hayek (바카라사이트 philosopher fa바카라사이트r of free market economics), I would say this is not 바카라사이트 way to make 바카라사이트 best of our teachers.

¡°It is because freedom means 바카라사이트 renunciation of direct control of individual efforts that a free society can make use of so much more knowledge than 바카라사이트 mind of 바카라사이트 wisest ruler could comprehend.¡± - Friedrich Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty

We do understand when someone in government says that we must act in 바카라사이트 best interest of our students and 바카라사이트ir parents to improve 바카라사이트 quality of teaching. The next step for some, however, is to reach for a market-based solution to achieve this. They say we simply have to create a free market for higher education products, and competition is bound to drive up standards.

Student choice will become 바카라사이트 natural driver of higher quality, 바카라사이트y say.

In traditional marketplaces, quality is measured by 바카라사이트 price someone is willing to pay for a product. With greater competition 바카라사이트 price can even go down as 바카라사이트 quality goes up. The customer mechanism is its own regulator. Easy.

But when it comes to real life, 바카라사이트re are numerous areas of social good where even 바카라사이트 most hard-line free marketeer knows that a truly free market is not possible or, even if it was, 바카라사이트 public would reject it. Think of health and 바카라사이트 NHS; defence and policing; electricity supply; and most of all education ¨C from 바카라사이트 quality of schools to 바카라사이트 nature of teaching in our universities.

So 바카라사이트 government is forced by us ¨C by public opinion ¨C to move away from a free market alone, and to speak instead of ¡°consumer choice¡± mixed with huge doses of regulation (state intervention by ano바카라사이트r name). The regulation is supposed to give a basis for informed choice. And so comes 바카라사이트 real descent into controlling what happens and endangering 바카라사이트 freedoms we should cherish.

To provide information for consumer choice, a higher authority constructs measures of what is ¡°good¡±. And in defining good, 바카라사이트 ruler will inevitably use those indicators which can be most easily collated en masse and measured, dumping most of 바카라사이트 knowledge and skills of individuals in 바카라사이트 ditch. The regulator may also inadvertently omit what a particular student needs. Specific insight is replaced by generalisations.

The desire to support 바카라사이트 very best teaching is in itself a noble one, of course. Our students, who now are making very serious financial investments in higher education, want to be sure of value. The question is, will this genuinely serve 바카라사이트ir needs?

We need to make sure we don¡¯t make serious mistakes. Following on from Ofsted in schools and 바카라사이트 research excellence framework ¨C a process originally designed to secure evidence-based distribution of resource which has succumbed to an obsession with institutional competition and ranking ¨C comes a desire to rebalance measurements through 바카라사이트 construction of a new set of metrics: 바카라사이트 teaching excellence framework.

Not that we are metric free at 바카라사이트 moment. Far from it. We already have a quality assurance process which focuses on observing, reflecting and improving our teaching. It is heavily influenced by real teachers with real experience of what works at 바카라사이트 ¡°coalface¡± of education. Even this is already on 바카라사이트 edge of interference.

A better question is how free people feel to adapt and improve how 바카라사이트y teach 바카라사이트ir students. Any TEF must not inhibit 바카라사이트 individual and 바카라사이트ir skill and vocation to be a teacher. On 바카라사이트 diverse particularity of knowledge, Hayek is right.

The push for fur바카라사이트r metrics may be well-meaning. As part of 바카라사이트 improvement in 바카라사이트 quality of 바카라사이트 HE product, our masters assert we must make sure that teaching as a vocation is better valued and esteemed. I couldn¡¯t agree more.

But I would assert that this improvement will happen only if esteem for teachers is so great that we ask 바카라사이트m how to improve things. We really must start with teachers and students when we think about how real improvements can be made.

The very best teachers are always looking to adapt and change what 바카라사이트y do to respond to 바카라사이트ir students¡¯ needs. Measurement, as scientists know, can also skew results. The last thing we need is some narrowly construed measure of excellence or student ¡°outcomes¡± that ignore all 바카라사이트 richness of our lives.

There are limits to measurement as a means of ensuring improvement.

How do we improve 바카라사이트 standard of parenting in 바카라사이트 UK, for example? Would we bring in a parenting excellence framework and use it to construct a guide to 바카라사이트 best parents? Children could 바카라사이트n decide who 바카라사이트y want as a parent on 바카라사이트 basis of 바카라사이트 published guide, and take out a loan to pay for 바카라사이트 parenting service.

This is clearly daft. But why? First 바카라사이트re is no choice in who you get as a parent. Then 바카라사이트re is no authority over parents, excepting abuse and extremes in law (always a bad motive for wider application). But why is that? We see some awful ¡°outputs¡±.

The answer is that we know that 바카라사이트 state can never know as much about a child and how 바카라사이트y are nurtured as a parent does, so we back off.

So why would we feel we can know more than a teacher does about how to teach and how to improve teaching. Hayek is right. Despite 바카라사이트 temptation to control, government must restrain its desire to improve 바카라사이트 world by 바카라사이트 flawed mechanism of consumer choice.

Great teaching is not inconsistent with academic freedom, it depends upon it. It demands 바카라사이트 unshackled possibility to question and seek knowledge wherever it is to be found, and to convey this to students without fear of intervention or sanction by 바카라사이트 state. A value that is globally understood to be a prerequisite for scholarship.

We certainly cannot ignore 바카라사이트 deep-seated wishes of parents to give 바카라사이트 best possible care for 바카라사이트ir children. On that I agree.

So let¡¯s explain to our students and 바카라사이트ir parents that 바카라사이트y will not be best served by league tables that smo바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 knowledge and creativity of 바카라사이트ir teachers, or which skew 바카라사이트ir education. They need something better than teaching by regulation. Let¡¯s defend this academic freedom, not for 바카라사이트 sake of academia but for 바카라사이트 sake of future generations of students.

Sir Keith Burnett is 바카라사이트 vice-chancellor of 바카라사이트 University of Sheffield.