Australian schools, like those in other developed countries, are caught up in what has been called the “cult of speed”. This is largely driven by reporting of the national assessment program, NAPLAN, which is focused on whether there are improvements in test results from one year to the next. Meanwhile, little attention is paid to the fact that, over the past decade, there has been limited progress in overall results, and students from disadvantaged backgrounds continue to lag behind. [...]
The “slow education” movement, was founded by Maurice Holt in the UK, who advocated that schools should provide students with time to engage in deep learning, curiosity and reflection. This led advocates of this approach to oppose the use of high-stakes testing and rapid improvement in favour of more time spent developing collaborative and supportive classroom relationships for learning. [...]
Drawing on these ideas, we recognise the need for teachers and school leaders to make time for deep consideration of complex matters, such as how to support the learning of every student within a school. Pressure for quick responses tends to lead to thinking that relies on what is already known. Put simply, we need to reduce the pressure on schools to allow people to engage in deeper, more creative thinking about these issues.
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