Being bilingual ‘boosts brain power’
October 5, 2012
Learning a second language can boost brain power, scientists believe.
The US researchers from Northwestern University say bilingualism is a form of brain training – a mental “work out” that fine-tunes the mind.
Speaking two languages profoundly affects the brain and changes how the nervous system responds to sound, lab tests revealed.
Experts say the work in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides “biological” evidence of this.
For the study, the team monitored the brain responses of 48 healthy student volunteers – which included 23 who were bilingual – to different sounds.
They used scalp electrodes to trace the pattern of brainwaves.
Under quiet, laboratory conditions, both groups – the bilingual and the English-only-speaking students – responded similarly.
But against a backdrop of noisy chatter, the bilingual group were far superior at processing sounds.
They were better able to tune in to the important information – the speaker’s voice – and block out other distracting noises – the background chatter.
‘Powerful’ benefits
And these differences were visible in the brain. The bilingualists’ brainstem responses were heightened.
Prof Nina Kraus, who led the research, said: “The bilingual’s enhanced experience with sound results in an auditory system that is highly efficient, flexible and focused in its automatic sound processing, especially in challenging or novel listening conditions.”
Co-author Viorica Marian said: “People do crossword puzzles and other activities to keep their minds sharp. But the advantages we’ve discovered in dual language speakers come automatically simply from knowing and using two languages.
“It seems that the benefits of bilingualism are particularly powerful and broad, and include attention, inhibition and encoding of sound.”
Musicians appear to gain a similar benefit when rehearsing, say the researchers.
Past research has also suggested that being bilingual might help ward off dementia.
BBC NEWS
Evidence points to holding low stakes exams, Quinn says
October 5, 2012
Minister broadly accepted NCAA proposals
THERE IS compelling international evidence that students will perform better by moving away from “high stakes” exams like the Junior Cert, according to the Minister for Education and Skills.
The Junior Cert exam is to be replaced with a school- based model of assessment with an emphasis on the quality of students’ learning experience. The new system is modelled on current practice in Scotland, Finland, New Zealand and other high- performing education systems.
Ruairí Quinn said the new “lower stakes” Junior Cert would deliver a programme which would allow students to develop a wide range of skills, including critical thinking skills and basic skills such as numeracy and literacy.
It would, he added, “liberate teachers to do what they do best – teach effectively in the classroom”.
The Minister described his plan as “the most radical shake-up of the junior cycle programme since the ending of the Inter Cert in 1991”. Mr Quinn has broadly accepted proposals put forward by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to introduce a new junior cycle programme.
The most controversial plan is the proposal for teachers to assess their own students, which is vehemently opposed by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI).
Other features of the plan include:
Most students will generally take no fewer than eight subjects and no more than 10 full subjects for certification purposes in the new junior cycle;
Students will be able to substitute two short courses for one full subject, allowing options such as Chinese or physical education or digital media literacy to be taken;
Schools will also be able to offer their own short courses in accordance with specifications provided by the NCCA. This will give schools the flexibility to tailor the programme to the needs of students i n their locality – for example, a short course might focus on an aspect of l ocal industry, agriculture or heritage;
Standardised testing will be i ntroduced in literacy and numeracy (from 2014) and in science (from 2016);
Parents will get a fuller picture of how their child is progressing at every stage of their first three years at second level, and
External supports will be available to schools who underperform in relation to national averages.
Mr Quinn said the current Junior Cert exam had dominated teaching and learning.
“The Junior Certificate is no longer a high stakes exam, yet we continue to treat it as if it were a ‘dry run’ for the Leaving Cert – to the detriment of many of our students.”
In the new exam, the State Examinations Commission (SEC) will be involved in the assessment of English, Irish and Mathematics in the initial years as recognition of the central role these subjects play in literacy and numeracy.
These subjects will be examined at higher and ordinary level, while all other subjects will be assessed at common level.
The SEC and the NCCA will also provide materials to schools to assist in ongoing assessment of students’ progress and achievement.
Explaining the changes, Mr Quinn pointed out that significant numbers of first-years did not make progress in English and maths – the key building blocks of learning. “Too many students switch off in second year and never reconnect to learning … It is high time we changed this, for the good of our students and our teachers.”
www.irishtimes.com
Quinn: Radical reforms will end ‘teaching to the test’
October 5, 2012
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn says his plan for the Junior Certificate will benefit students and mean teachers are no longer under pressure to “teach to the test”.
His radical changes will see junior cycle students examined entirely by schools instead of the State.
He has largely rubber-stamped the reforms proposed last November to change the focus of the junior cycle to learning instead of preparing students for a final exam.
However, he went beyond what the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) advised him by deciding all elements of the Junior Certificate will eventually be set and marked by students’ teachers instead of by the State Examinations Commission.
He said regular in-school assessment at lower second-level was a feature of the best education systems.
The other main elements will include:
* Most students sitting exams in eight to 10 subjects;
* The option to take up to four short courses, with marks in two to be used in place of a traditional subject;
* Final exams will be worth 60% of total marks and, except for English, Irish, and maths, will be taken in normal school time in May;
* A new five-point awards system will replace the traditional system of A, B, etc down to no grade;
* The phased introduction of changes, starting with students entering second-level in 2014, with third-year students in 2020;
* The SEC will eventually withdraw from setting and correcting the Junior Certificate.
However, though Mr Quinn says the plan will liberate teachers and students, and give parents more information on pupils’ achievements, unions have strong concerns.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland said it would be grossly naïve to presume a certificate awarded by a school would hold the same status as one awarded by the State, and ending an anonymously marked exam system will impact negatively on perceptions of impartiality and student-teacher relations.
“This is not about being paid to correct exams, we’re angry that there has been no consultation with us, or with parents and school managers. And we don’t have faith that the resources and funding for training or for administering exams in schools will be provided,” said ASTI general secretary Pat King.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland said there was serious concern about increased workload against a background of slashes to school staffing and other cutbacks.
Mr Quinn rejected the TUI’s assertion that key elements of the plan were driven by budgetary rather than educational rationale. He said significant professional development for teachers and principals would start next year.
www.irishexaminer.com
Education faces a new test
October 5, 2012
FOR all its critics, the Irish educational system gets more right than wrong.
But a hardy perennial, when it comes to complaints, is the cry that our second- level schools teach by rote and that stressed students, in both the junior and senior cycles, resort to cramming in the home straight.
Yesterday Education Minister Ruairi Quinn announced a radical shake- up of the junior cycle by heralding the scrapping of the Junior Certificate, replacing it with a system of continuous assessment.
As much as 40pc of the assessment of each subject will be based on schoolwork and the rest in the shape of written exams by teachers.
Under this system there will still be standardised tests in English, Irish, Maths and Science.
This seems a progressive move and perhaps an indication of what might later apply, in some disciplines at least, in the Leaving Cert. But that is another day’s work.
The change, however, has not been unreservedly welcomed. Teachers’ unions have expressed fears that abolishing traditional state exams could erode parents’ trust in the system.
And then there is the issue of the necessary resources to fashion this new assessment process. Are there any?
The first batch of pupils to experience this brave new world start secondary school in the autumn of 2014.
That doesn’t give the Department of Education a whole lot of time to iron out any wrinkles, but plenty of time for its critics to expose any lingering flaws.
www.independent.ie
Junior Cert changes will be most radical reform of exam system
October 4, 2012
Proposals will aim to tackle the problem of male students disengaging from school during the Junior Cert cycle and lift standards in literacy
TRENCHANT CRITICISM of the Junior Cert exam has been a feature of the education debate for over a decade.
The exam – designed in 1989 to be radical and different – quickly became a mirror image of the Leaving Cert, with the same, familiar failings. It was too high stakes, too dominated by rote learning and it forced teachers to teach to the test.
The progressive new proposals tabled by Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn have the potential to liberate both students and their teachers. They are arguably the most radical reform of the exam system in the history of the State.
In essence, the Junior Cert is being transformed from a high-stakes exam to essentially a “house exam’’ run by the schools themselves.
Schools and their students can mix and match from a menu of traditional subjects and new “short courses” ( in areas like digital technology and Chinese culture).
They can be chosen from a new syllabus designed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.
The State Exams Commission will still set exam papers in traditional subjects but schools will be free to mix these with their own choice of short courses.
The plan is that the junior cycle will move out of the current straitjacket – schools and teachers will have the elbow room to encourage critical thinking and to provide more creative teaching.
The new Junior Cert is broadly in line with the practice in high performing education systems like Finland and New Zealand.
There is widespread agreement in education circles that the Junior Cert needs radical change.
Last year, Mr Quinn told a conference on exam reform: “It is clear that the Junior Certificate examination has a serious, negative backwash effect on students’ learning and is out of line with international practice.”
Research by the Economic and Social Research Institute indicates that high numbers of male students – particularly those from a disadvantaged background – tend to disengage from school during the Junior Cert cycle. Many teenagers, it concluded, are ill-suited to an education system built around one terminal exam.
The Department of Education hopes the new exam will also help to lift standards in literacy and numeracy.
The most recent OECD/Pisa study in 2009 reported an alarming fall in the performance of Irish 15 year olds in reading and maths. The ranking of Irish teenagers slumped from 5th to 17th since 2000, the sharpest decline among any developed country. In maths, Ireland dropped from 16th to 25th, below the average.
Junior Cert results in the past decade have failed to reflect this worrying drop in standards. Last year, an Irish Times analysis of Junior Cert results indicated persistent grade inflation in both maths and English over the past decade. It also shows grade inflation in science – even though the OECD reported no major change in overall standards.
The most controversial feature of the new exam is the proposals for teachers to assess their own pupils. This could be opposed by the ASTI, although the low-stakes nature of the new exam may soften opposition .
In a significant move last month, Clive Byrne, director of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals suggested teachers should be willing to correct their own students’ Junior Cert exam papers.
“If we’re in the middle of reforming it to ensure it’s not a high-stakes exam any more, why not be a bit more courageous?”
http://www.irishtimes.com/
Eagrais na Gaeilge ag iomrascáil le múnla nua maoinithe
October 3, 2012
DUP blasts TV ad in Irish as waste of public’s money
October 2, 2012
The DUP has accused the Education Minister of wasting money on a new television advertisement broadcast solely in Irish.
The ‘Get Involved’ advert aired during the UTV news at 5.45pm, and was swiftly condemned by East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell. Mr Campbell said the Sinn Fein minister, John O’Dowd, was “potentially acting illegally” and was more concerned with a party political agenda than the education of young people. “At a time when all government budgets are under pressure and schools are seeing budgets cut it is entirely inappropriate for the Education Minister to sanction a politically motivated television advert in Irish,” Mr Campbell said.
“The last census figures we have available highlight that around 90% of the population of Northern Ireland have absolutely no knowledge or use of the Irish language. “Of those who do speak, write or understand the Irish language in Northern Ireland, there are none who are unable to speak English. “This therefore is an example of public money being spent on a party political promotion of the Irish language with no benefit either to the education of our young people or to society as a whole.” Mr Campbell claimed the DUP Finance Minister, Sammy Wilson, had withdrawn the Department of Education’s ability to spend money in this way. He called the decision to proceed with the advert a “petty stunt” and said he believed the broadcast could be in breach of the Communications Act (2003). But Mr O’Dowd said he was “disappointed with the criticism” of the campaign, which is also being broadcast on radio and online.
The Education Minister said the advertisement was in keeping with his department’s statutory duty to encourage and facilitate Irish-medium education. “Not only did I go through all the due processes to procure this campaign, but it is one that is of vital importance to our society,” he said. “It is aimed at raising the value we, as a society, place on education.” Meanwhile, at a Belfast City Council meeting last night the DUP failed in its attempt to prevent the erection of a ‘Nollaig Shona Duit’ (Merry Christmas) sign being erected in the grounds of City Hall again this year.
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Sir E Scott pupils visit Irish Gaelic School
October 1, 2012
Pupils from Sir E. Scott School in Harris are taking part in a school exchange with Pobalscoil Ghaoth Dobhair in Donegal this week.
The group set off on Friday and will spend five days in Gweedore in County Donegal in the first pupil exchange between the two schools. Pupils have already written to their peers and they will take part in a range of activities together over the five days.
Pobalscoil Ghaoth Dobhair is a 300 pupil High School in the Irish Gaeltacht area of Donegal where all subjects are taught through the medium of Gaelic. The Donegal dialect of Gaelic is very close to Scottish Gaelic. Both schools have a very strong Gaelic music tradition.
The Gaelic Department at Sir E Scott School began this link project in November 2011 and staff from the Harris school visited the Pobalscoil in February 2012 to establish the link. The project has received support from Colmcille and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.
www.stornowaygazette.co.uk
Newbridge’s Irish speaking youth ‘club wins ‘club of the year’ award at the RDS
October 1, 2012
The Newbridge branch of Cumann na bhfiann, an Irish language youth club in the town celebrating after winning the ‘club of the year’ last week.
The Newbridge club Cumann na bhFiann, the Irish language youth organisation set up only two years ago, was awarded the Club of the Year last week at the RDS.
The Newbridge club, which was set up for primary school students, and is hugely popular is to provide young people with the opportunity and the outlet to speak the language in a fun a friendly environment outside of the school structure. Michelle Reddy, from the Green Road is a past pupil of Cumann na bhFiann and the leader of the Newbridge youth club.
“I am so delighted our club has won this award,” she said. “I wanted there to be a branch of Cumann na bhFiann in Newbridge because I know first hand the positive benefits of having an outlet to speak Irish on a regular basis. “Often I hear young people saying that they ‘hate’ Irish. “This is generally because they have spent so many years studying the language but cannot speak it and they fail to see the relevance of learning it. “I believe the only way you can learn a language is to practice it, and speak it often. That is what we do in Cumann na bhFiann, we give the opportunity to young people to practice Irish every week in a fun and friendly environment”.
There are two other branches of the club in Kildare, in Naas and Athy. The aim of Cumann na bhFiann is to provide young people with the opportunity and the outlet to speak the language in a fun and friendly environment outside of the school structure. The positive benefits of this, the club claims, are that the language becomes ‘a vibrant method of communication and students become more confident in speaking it’.
The Newbridge club started back last week after the summer break. It will run every Friday from 5.00pm to 6.30pm in Scoil Mhuire junior school until Easter 2013. There are currently limited spaces in the club for students from 4th class to 6th class. The Naas club is for secondary school students and is held in Naas CBS every Friday from 7.00pm to 8.30.
Meanwhile the Athy club is held in scoil Mhichil Naofa every Friday from 7.00 to 8.30pm. Cumann na bhFiann is the after care service of Coláiste na bhFiann. Coláiste na bhFiann has 45 years’ experience running Irish Summer courses. These three week residential summer courses are run countrywide in the following centres – Ros Muc, Co. Galway, Ráth Cairn and Droim Rí, Co. Meath, Sligo, Baile an Sceilg and Killarney, Co. Kerry. Anyone interested in membership or further informaton can call Cáit on 087 9160819. All are welcome to attend.
www.leinsterleader.ie
There’s just no getting away from Dumbo in the corner
October 1, 2012
The promotion of the Irish language is the one thing that is unchallenged in RTE, writes Declan Lynch
IN the Henry Root letters, the author writes to the queen, noting that she always seems to be opening things, and wondering if, for a change, she might consider closing a few things — the BBC, the Guardian, and so on.
In that spirit, Root would have given a broad welcome to the recent closure of RTE’s London office, though perhaps understandably, this was not the reaction of RTE’s departing London correspondent Brian O’Connell. His piece in the Irish Times last week, in which he described the closure as an endorsement of “Ryanair journalism” which betrayed RTE’s public service obligations, was interesting in a number of ways.
For a start, it may be the only article ever written by a journalist resigning after 20 years in the job, which did not kick off with a few hilarious anecdotes — O’Connell’s reluctance to indulge in such vulgarities even in his swansong was almost admirable. He wrote of “a lack of any nuanced approach to cost-cutting”, which is no doubt true, and yet one felt that there were other nuances involved here, which did not quite come across in O’Connell’s analysis. For example, the first reaction of many intelligent people to the closure of the London “bureau” would be to question why they are closing London when they could have just closed down the Washington bureau about 10 years ago and hardly anybody — even Charlie Bird during that unhappy time when he was actually the US correspondent — would have minded at all. And why are they still maintaining a Connemara bureau or whatever it is they call the place where they make An Nuacht and other such lamentable wastes of public space?
Whatever their limitations, no bureau in London or Washington or anywhere else should be closed as long as we’re looking at “an eilifint ins an seomra” which recently appeared during an item on Morning Ireland about this country being one of only two in Europe in which the learning of a foreign language is not compulsory for schoolchildren.
In an interview with UCD professor Vera Regan, presenter Cathal MacCoille made the point that since English is usually the foreign language being taught in other countries, and since we already have English, perhaps the situation is not so bad. Which was fair enough. He also quoted a Department of Education line that the learning of Irish and English provides a “scaffolding” for the later learning of a foreign language — erring on the side of generosity, he did not mention that it was also a “scaffolding” for bullshit. But mainly he managed not to make the point that our children do indeed learn a language which for the vast majority involves a process similar to the one whereby children in other countries learn a foreign language. Therefore, to all intents and purposes, Irish is the foreign language that is taught in our schools. And whether you regard that as a good thing or a bad thing, for a man as meticulous as MacCoille not to mention it, is a most extraordinary thing.
You wonder has the devotion to “an eilifint ins an seomra” become so institutionalised out there, we may see the closure of the Cork bureau, the Galway bureau and the Belfast bureau and still there’ll be someone reading An Nuacht every day with nobody looking at them? So there is an ideological dimension to these cuts — arguably the promotion of the Irish language is now the core ideology of RTE, the one thing that is unchallenged and undiminished.
Against this, your London bureau wouldn’t stand a chance. But its usefulness could be challenged on other grounds, not least the fact that, as O’Connell writes, “for decades RTE has been a member of the Westminster lobby system, RTE and the Irish Times being the only two foreign news organisations to hold such membership”. This in itself should be grounds for abolition. The “lobby system” encourages one of the lowest forms of journalism, all the more damnable because it is regarded so highly by the hacketariat. Let us just say that any time that a correspondent spends on the inside track at Westminster, when he could be on the outside track talking to poor Paddy up in Kilburn and Cricklewood, is dead time.
In general, we should always be sceptical when large organisations devote so much of their resources to the issue, of, well, “resources”, rather than to the issue of simply getting better at what they do. While some aspects of broadcasting and of journalism are indeed substantially about “resources”, there are other considerations — for example, there’s an exceptionally good programme on Lyric FM called The Blue of the Night. It starts at 10’clock, just after Off the Ball has finished on Newstalk. Which means that every night in Ireland there are five straight hours of high-class radio, and though I am taking a wild guess here, I would say that the whole lot of it put together costs about 30 quid. Sometimes the problem is not that too much money is being spent, but that the wrong people are getting it.
For The Blue of the Night, there’s the consolation that while its presenters are not getting, say, €575,000 a year, they may escape what Brian O’Connell regards as crude cuts. But still, a few “Irish” nights would do them no harm.
www.independent.ie
