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from the those-who-can,-do,-those-who-can't,-teach dept.
In the US: this article presents an analysis how a person's chosen college major corresponds to their IQ. The interesting thing is that the relationship has remained essentially stable over the past 70 years. At the top of the list are math, science and engineering. At the absolute bottom of the list: education.
These data show that US students who choose to major in education, essentially the bulk of people who become teachers, have for at least the last seven decades been selected from students at the lower end of the academic aptitude pool. A 2010 McKinsey report (pdf) by Byron Auguste, Paul Kihn, and Matt Miller noted that top performing school systems, such as those in Singapore, Finland, and South Korea, "recruit 100% of their teacher corps from the top third of the academic cohort."
The article points out that it isn't quite this simple: Top schools place high requirements on all of their students; poor schools generally attract lower quality students in all of their programs. Still, the national averages are clear: overall, the least intelligent students go on to teach. This is an odd priority.
Educational organizations, of course, have a different view. This article claims that teacher quality declined from the 1960s through the 1990s, but has since recovered, with teachers being barely below average (48th percentile) among college graduates.
On a related note, there is a strong international correlation between teacher pay and student outcomes. The (rather obvious) theory is that higher pay attracts better candidates to the teaching profession.
No conclusions - just thought this might spark an interesting discussion...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Friday July 01 2016, @06:26PM
I don't "hate" teachers, although where I am, I think they're overpaid based on the number of people that are wiling to teach. I also think standardized testing is a great idea at a bare *minimum* to make sure that education is actually working, and how well. I agree with about the lack of responsibility for children, although I blame that on parents, not on teachers, and yes, it's dragging down everyone else. Teachers here generally have several "assistants" to help manage the kid that should not be in that class. That's a separate problem of course. The curriculum in general has been screwed up in many ways as well. What they've done to mathematics and arithmetic in elementary school is absolutely ridiculous and is quite detrimental.
Personally, I think teachers should also work year-round, with the summer being used for improving course curriculum and materials. I keep hearing "Oh, I spend 2 hours a night preparing course material". We've been teaching these same courses for a very long time. The material and planning should be laid out down to the day (with some slack of course, and options), but for every teacher to be doing it manually each year is silly. If teachers want to do something different, that's fine, but there is a certain level that must be attained.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 02 2016, @11:25AM
Teaching isn't like writing a song, and then singing that same song for the next 50 years until you retire.
"They" have done something to mathematics. Oops, there goes all your hard work planning your course just right. Now you have to make a new one that fits 'common core' or whatever this years flavour is called. You have to "manage kids", of course they are all the same, and what works with one is interchangeable with another. You want teachers to get better and better, but spend no time on improving their plans and course material. It's not like "facts" ever change is it. Until "they" all decide slavery isn't important anymore and everyone should learn programming now instead. Lucky no one ever discovers anything new, or invents anything. Nothing ever changes to a new version and things don't go in and out of fashion.
Ahh the republican dream time, it's the 1950's and nothing will ever change.