{"id":146,"date":"2005-06-09T13:41:38","date_gmt":"2005-06-09T13:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php\/2005\/06\/09\/testing_theory\/"},"modified":"2005-06-09T13:41:38","modified_gmt":"2005-06-09T13:41:38","slug":"testing_theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/?p=146","title":{"rendered":"Testing Theory X and Theory Y"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Donnelly<\/a> tirelessly argues the case that our schools are failing. He
\nwas at it in The Age<\/a> again recently with
\nthis piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Donnelly’s argument basically goes that schools have been taken over by leftist
\nprogressives who are "committed to overthrowing the status quo and turning
\nstudents into politically correct new age warriors"<\/em> (from “Cannon fodder of the culture wars”<\/a> ) and not much
\nabout educational standards. Under the influence of these radicals we have brought
\nup a generation of kids who can’t read or write. (Funny who this generation
\nof illeterates has produced 40 million odd blogs.) <\/p>\n

According to this view, teachers fall into three
\ncategories. The radicals themselves. Those who are too afraid to speak out against
\nwhat they know (according to Donnelly and his supporters) is bad teaching. Finally
\nthere are those who are two lazy to care. I suspect Donnelly believes this last
\ncategory is the majority. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Donnelly’s answer the industrialist’s response. That is to force this lazy
\nmajority into action by threat of the sack. He wants to measure their performance
\nand sack those that don’t meet his standards. His measurement approach is also
\ntaken straight out of the industrial revolution – measure the product. Test
\nthe students. I think if he had his way he would test the students in every
\nclass in the nation every day. That way we could tell what improvment the teachers
\nhad made in their students on a day to day basis.<\/p>\n

There is a whole argument here about the value of testing and what we measure
\nwhen we give students tests but I will leave that for another day.<\/p>\n

Rather, Donnelly’s industrial response to a human problem is the issue for
\ntoday. Schools are the only modern institution that was born in the industrial
\nrevolution and we have never been able to remove ourselves from the industrial
\nmodel. Students are placed in groups and move along an assembly line. Conformity
\nis key. Students are thought of as fodder for the manufacturing process. The
\nstandard they reach is a product of the school and teacher. Good teachers produce
\ngood students. Lazy teachers produce underperforming students. Student performance
\ncan be measured precisely with the micrometer of standardised tests. Thost that
\ndon’t measure up are rejected and have to be "re-manufactured."<\/p>\n

I am struck by the strong parallels of this approach and those of
\nMcGregor’s
\nTheory X<\/a>. McGregor, a 1950s industrial theorist noted that there seemed to be
\ntwo basic "theories" operating amongst the managers he observed. One
\ngroup of managers operated according to Theory X. According to this theory workers
\nare lazy and unmotivated. The only way to get them to work productively is by
\nthreatening them. They have to be continually supervised and have the threat
\nof losing their jobs hanging over the heads at all times. This was the predominant
\nparadigm in management for most of the industrial era.<\/p>\n

McGregor discovered that it was not the only paradigm. There was another group
\nof managers who seemed to be operating according to a different theory. McGregor
\ncalled this Theory Y. According to these managers, workers came to work to do
\na good job. They were inherently motivated. These managers saw their job as
\nenabling their workers to get on with their jobs. To remove the obstacles that
\nprevented them from doing the best they could. To co-ordinate their energy to
\na common goal. To encourage them and resolve problems when motivations clashed.<\/p>\n

This paradigm gained the ascendency during the 70s – at the same time that
\nschool reform was occuring on a large scale – but has lost some of the ground
\nthat it made during its heyday. However, there are very few mainstream western
\norganisations that now openly operate on a Theory X paradigm. Sure we’ve learnt
\na lot since the 60s and 70s and our understanding of human organisational behaviour
\nhas increased immensely since then. <\/p>\n

Well at least it has for some of us. The Australian Government’s recently announcend
\nindustrial relations reforms seem to be based mostly on the Theory X paradigm.<\/p>\n

And of course, Dr Donnelly seems firmly entrenched in the view.<\/p>\n

I find it really hard to accept that at the beginning of the 21st Century we
\nare still having to fight the fights of on hundred years ago. That we can’t
\nmove on from this view of schools as production lines. That we can’t see children
\nas young people who need nurturing and encouragement. That we just can’t see
\nthese naturally enquisitive minds and instead of killing the desire to learn
\n(as Theory X does) we can’t nurture it. That we can’t see teachers as the greatest
\nasset we have a society and we can’t support them in the difficult, agonising
\nand exhausting task they have committed themselves to.<\/p>\n

If teachers are lazy its because the’ve given up in the face of continuous
\nattacks on them over the last two decades at the same time that resources and
\nsupport have been denied.<\/p>\n

I completed my Diploma of Education in 1976. I remember one of the lecturers
\nspeaking about teacher morale. He told us of his belief that the biggest single
\nthing the Minister for Education could do to improve the quality of teaching
\nwould be to praise teachers. No buts. No hidden messages. No backhand compliments.
\nJust pure hearfelt praise.<\/p>\n

I cry at the thought of how little has changed over three decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Donnelly tirelessly argues the case that our schools are failing. He was at it in The Age again recently with this piece. Donnelly’s argument basically goes that schools have been taken over by leftist progressives who are "committed to overthrowing the status quo and turning students into politically correct new age warriors" (from “Cannon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}