School Improvement: What's in it for Schools?

In keeping with the model of learning that Dann is promoting, in the early sections of this book she tries to reflect critically on the system she works within (that is, the English system in which SATs and other summative assessments for accountability rank high in teachers’ priorities). This book is a welcome publication for this reason alone. She critiques the objectives-driven model of learning suggested by the National Curriculum and its Key Stage assessments because they assume that learning is straightfonvard and can be done by teachers to pupils. She urges teachers to reflect in a similar way on the model of learning they are promoting in their own classrooms, and through reflection, to transform their own Iearning and therefore teaching.