Education in EnglandSeminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, University of Potsdam (Institut für Anglistik/ Amerikanistik), course: Cultural Studies Great Britain, language: English, abstract: The last year I spent abroad as a foreign language assistant in England where I was teaching German from year 7 to 13 at a grammar school for girls. As a result of my time there I decided to write a paper about the educational system in Great Britain because there are some differences between the German and British education. Teaching only girls offered me something that I will never experience in a German school. Single- sex schools are non- existing here or just to a rare amount and although I experienced the teaching as positive, there are also disadvantages of single- sex learning. "One positive effect of being at a girls school" most of my girls said last year, is "that you are not distracted by the classroom- behaviour of the boys". If this very common way in England of separating the genders in different schools is supportive for the school results is a question which I am going to talk about in my work. Besides that I'd like to find out if the so called "gender gap" is really existing and what is meant by that. As a basis for my paper I'd like to give a short introduction to the English school system. Following that I will deal with the education politics during the period of Thatcherism and New Labour to find out which role education played in the past years in British politics and which reforms were made recently. It is obvious that the political dimensions of education are broad, and for that reason I am going to name only the main important changes. In the main part of my work I will consider the problems of inequalities in English secondary schools with special regard to the "gender gap". The literature I have worked with is taken from the internet especially the one about the politic parties |
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achieved Arnot became behaviour better Bills Britain British cause changes classes classroom compared concerning consequence Conservatives consider cultural curriculum deal depending develop Education Act Education in England education politics education system employment England English English secondary schools equal equal opportunities especially exams existing expectations fact female formal further gender gap Gender Inequalities gender problem gender specific girls and boys give going grades hidden higher important impression independent individual influenced interest introduction Labour language learning least lessons major male maths mixed schools named National Curriculum offer opportunities Party political positive possible prepared primary school problem pupils question raise realization reason referring reforms role school results school system sciences secondary schools showed single-sex schools social skills standards strategies subjects success surveys taught teachers teaching Thatcher transformation types underachievement values women