is that one of your indicators? What are you talking about, indicators?
You're saying, well, you've just told me something important,
a key idea, which we often call an indicator
and we use that, to have some form of measurement.
So, in this case, the indicator that
you're talking about, is readiness to learn.
>> Mm. >> And every teacher
would say that is the key.
That's probably the most important thing that we have to pay
attention to in the classroom, that children are ready to learn, otherwise
- as we've talked about, the hierarchy, needs of, all the rest
of it, they're not fed, everything else, - they're not ready to learn.
So, when we talk about indicators, sometimes people talk about this hard
measures, so you would want to measure how well the readiness to learn
is observed in classrooms.
But, we also talk about indicators in another way, and that's
essentially, the way you've just talked about them, as tin openers.
Because when you explore that, you find out the
child hasn't been fed, the child has been weeping.
Why is this child weeping?
Well, something's happened at home. What's happened at home?
And so, as you unpack, as you open the tin, if you like,
you discover a whole lot of things, that lie
behind it.
So, indicators are useful, when they perform that kind of function, I think.
>> Okay.
>> That they open up issues which teachers need to pay attention to,
and, of course, readiness to learn is one of a whole suite of indicators.
And the thing that we did in Scotland many years ago
was when we developed indicators for the Scottish government we said,
let's start with the young people themselves and
ask them what indicators are important to you.
So, a five year old, what indicators are important to you?
Well, we wouldn't use that language -
we'd say tell us what was important to you in your school?
And then they would say, well, we like a
teacher who was friendly, we like a teacher who
will maybe take a joke, we like a
teacher who understands when we have difficulties and so on.
These are the indicators that we've developed and then now they're in
in the whole system.
So, the issue of indicators is relevant, I think.
>> Mm-hm.
>> In every context, but often the language itself is
an inhibition that we need to be able to demystify what we're talking about here.
>> It is.
>> You introduced us to four critical thinkers about education.