Paul Black (educational researcher)

Summary

Professor Paul Black OBE CPhys HonFInstP[2] is an educational researcher, physicist and a current Professor Emeritus at King's College London. Black was previously Professor of Science Education and Director of the Centre for Science and Mathematics Education at the Chelsea College of Science and Technology and Head for Educational Studies at King's College London. [3] He is a former Chair for the Task Group on Assessment and Testing and Deputy Chair of the National Curriculum Council,[4] and is recognised as an architect of the national curriculum testing regime[5] and the national curriculum for Science. [6]

Paul Black

Born
Paul J. Black
Education
Known forPhysics
Assessment for learning
AwardsLawrence Bragg Medal and Prize
OBE
Honorary Fellow of Institute of Physics
Honorary Fellow of the University of Surrey[1]
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
Education
InstitutionsUniversity of Birmingham
Nuffield Foundation
Chelsea College of Science and Technology
King's College London
Stanford University
OECD
OFQUAL

Early career edit

Black completed his first degree at the University of Manchester,[7] going on to complete his PhD in Crystallography at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in 1954.[3] Between 1954 and 1976, Black was a faculty member in the Department of Physics in the University of Birmingham.[3] During his time at Birmingham, he worked with Jon Ogborn of Worcester College of Higher Education, designing the Nuffield Foundations' A-Level Physics Course.[4][8][9] During the early 1970s Black again work with Ogborn who was the Project co-ordinator, for The Higher Education Learning Project in Physics which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation.[10]

Educational research edit

In 1976, Black left the University of Birmingham and joined the Chelsea College of Science and Technology as Professor of Science Education and Director of the Centre for Science and Mathematics Education.[3] Black became the educational advisor to the Nuffield-Chelsea Curriculum Trust at this time.[11] Between 1978 and 1988 Black was Director for the UK government's national survey of school science performance, and also served on the Research Grants Board of the Economic and Social Research Council.[12] In 1985 Chelsea College of Science and Technology merged with King's College London and Black continued as Professor of Science Education and became the Head for Educational Studies. He held this position until his retirement in 1995[13] becoming Professor Emeritus. From 1985 to 1991, Black was President of the Groupe Internationale de Recherche sur l’Enseignement de la Physique, and became chair of the International Commission on Physics Education between 1993 and 1999.[12] Black has also been a visiting professor of education at Stanford University, and continued to work with the Nuffield Foundation developing design & technology and science work at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.[4] In 1986 Black was the president of the Association for Science Education.

During 1987–88, Black was the chair of the Task Group on Assessment and Testing set up by the UK government. The group reported to the then secretary of state for education, Kenneth Baker. The report produced by the group promoted diagnostic and formative assessment and teachers' professional development and, at a technical level, the use of criterion referencing as the assessment paradigm,[14] and produced the original design for national curriculum testing and assessment.[5] In 1992 Black criticised how they were implemented as the Education Reform Act[15]

Hurried and sweeping changes to the national curriculum will cause 'serious harm' to children's education

Between 1989 and 1991, Black was the deputy chair of the National Curriculum Council.[4] During 1996 Black wrote a report for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in which Black stated[16]

the British science curriculum is unnecessarily dull and should be scrapped

In 1998, Black co-wrote Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment with Dylan Wiliam.[17] Black, along with Wiliam were educational advisors to Tony Blair, giving evidence to the Select Committee on Education and Employment Fourth Report.[18] In 2013, Black and Wiliam wrote a report that criticised the current assessment, stating[5]

A-level grades are an unreliable guide to a student's ability

Black has been a member of three committees of the USA National Research Council, including the National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Cognitive Foundations of Assessment, and is currently a member of the Technical Advisory Group of OFQUAL.[4] He is currently a member of the British Educational Research Association and the National Academy of Education.[4][3]

Awards edit

Black was jointly awarded the Lawrence Bragg Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics in 1973 for his outstanding and sustained contributions to physics education, along with Jon Ogborn.[19] In 1983 his innovative work was recognised with an OBE for services to education.[2] In 1991 Black was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Surrey.[1] The International Commission on Physics Education honoured Black with their annual medal award in 2000.[12] In 2005 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution to Science Education, from the Association for Science Education,[20] and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the US National Association for Research in Science Teaching.[13] In 2009, Black won the International Society for Design and Development in Education Prize for Design in Education (The Eddie) Lifetime Achievement Award.[21]

Selected writings edit

  • The Voigt profile of Mossbauer transmission spectra with M.J. Evans, March 2001, Journal of Physics, C Solid State Physics 3(10):2167, doi:10.1088/0022-3719/3/10/020
  • Interference between nuclear resonant and Rayleigh-Thomson scattering from magnetized crystals of iron with D.E. Evans, March 2001, Journal of Physics, F Metal Physics 2(2):219, doi:10.1088/0305-4608/2/2/010
  • Feedback is the best nourishment with Dylan Wiliam, TES, 4 October 2002
  • Testing, motivation and learning with Patricia Broafoot, Richard Daugherty and John Gardner, University of Cambridge School of Education, ISBN 0856030465, January 2002
  • Standards in Public Examinations with Dylan Wiliam, King's College London Department of Education and Professional Studies, ISBN 1871984343 January 2002
  • Assessment for Learning: Putting It Into Practice with Christine Harrison, Claire Lee, Bethan Marshall and Dylan Wiliam, Open University Press, ISBN 978-0335212972, September 2003
  • Assessment in science: A guide to professional development and classroom practice, July 2003, Science Education, 87(4):613-615, doi:10.1002/sce.10097
  • Redefining Assessment? The First Ten Years of Assessment in Education with Patricia Broadfoot, March 2004, Assessment in Education Principles Policy and Practice, 11(1):7-26, doi:10.1080/0969594042000208976
  • The reliability of assessments with Dylan Wiliam, Sage, January 2005, doi:10.4135/9781446250808.n15
  • The Formative Purpose: Assessment Must First Promote Learning with Dylan Wiliam, April 2005, Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 103(2):20 - 50, doi:10.1111/j.1744-7984.2004.tb00047.x
  • Learning how to Learn and Assessment for Learning with Robert Mccormick, Mary James and David Pedder, June 2006, Research Papers in Education, 21(2), doi:10.1080/02671520600615612
  • School pupils’ beliefs about learning with Joanna Swann and Dylan Wiliam, June 2006, Research Papers in Education, 21(2):151-170, doi:10.1080/02671520600615661
  • Large-scale assessment systems: Design principles drawn from international comparisons 1 with Dylan Wiliam, April 2007, Measurement Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 5(1):1-53, doi:10.1080/15366360701293386
  • Formative Assessment Issues Across the Curriculum: The Theory and the Practice, January 2009, TESOL Quarterly 43(3), doi:10.1002/j.1545-7249.2009.tb00248.x
  • Reflections and new directions with Robert McCormick, August 2010, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(5):493-499, doi:10.1080/02602938.2010.493696
  • Road Maps for Learning: A Guide to the Navigation of Learning Progressions with Mark Wilson and Shih-Ying Yao, April 2011, Measurement Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 9(2):71-123, doi:10.1080/15366367.2011.591654
  • EPMA Professionals—Servants or Masters?, January 2012, Measurement Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 10(1-2):33-37, doi:10.1080/15366367.2012.677342
  • Pedagogy in Theory and in Practice: Formative and Summative Assessments in Classrooms and in Systems, November 2013, doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6668-6_11
  • Formative assessment – an optimistic but incomplete vision, January 2015, Assessment in Education Principles Policy and Practice, 22(1), doi:10.1080/0969594X.2014.999643
  • Celebration of the past—challenge for the future, May 2016, Physics Education, 51(3):030103, doi:10.1088/0031-9120/51/3/030103
  • Assessment in Science Education, January 2017, In book: Science Education (pp. 295–309), doi:10.1007/978-94-6300-749-8_22
  • Helping students to become capable learners, March 2018, European Journal of Education, 53(2), doi:10.1111/ejed.12273

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Honorary Graduates". University of Surrey. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Honorary Fellows: Professor Paul Black OBE, CPhys, FInstP". Institute of Physics. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Paul Black". National Academy of Education. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Paul Black, Professor". British Education Research Association. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  5. ^ a b c "Blair adviser condemns A-levels". The Independent. 18 December 2013. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  6. ^ Andrew Pollard, Jill Bourne (26 September 2002). Teaching and Learning in the Primary School. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415102582. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  7. ^ "Professor Paul Black OBE". King's College London. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  8. ^ "Paul Black and Jon Ogborn, Nuffield Advanced Physics Project". Chilton Computing. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  9. ^ "Citation for the Presentation of the ICPE Medal to Professor Jon Michael Ogborn of the Institute of Education, University of London Tokyo 2006". International Commission on Physics Education. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  10. ^ Black, P. J.; Ogborn, Jon (January 1977). "P.J. Black & Jon Ogborn (1977) Inter-university collaboration in methods of teaching science, Studies in Higher Education, 2:2, 149-159, DOI:10.1080/03075077712331376453". Studies in Higher Education. 2 (2): 149–159. doi:10.1080/03075077712331376453. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  11. ^ "A Short History of Curriculum Development at the Nuffield Foundation". Nuffield Foundation. 18 November 2017. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  12. ^ a b c "Citation for the Presentation of the ICPE Medal to Professor Paul BLACK, King's College, London, UK Barcelona – Thursday, August 31,2000". ksu.edu. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  13. ^ a b Comment - The College Newsletter, Issue 153, May 2004
  14. ^ Ann Childs, Jo‐Anne Baird (10 January 2021). "General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the assessment of science practical work: an historical review of assessment policy, The Curriculum Journal Volume 31, Issue 3 doi.org/10.1002/curj.20". The Curriculum Journal. 31 (3). British Educational Research Association: 357–378. doi:10.1002/curj.20. PMC 7566739. PMID 33100601.
  15. ^ "The annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Southampton:"Hurried changes to curriculum will harm pupils"". The Independent. 25 August 1992. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  16. ^ "Science curriculum "should be scrapped"". TES. 22 March 1996. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  17. ^ "Teaching guru is optimistic about education". The Guardian. 18 January 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  18. ^ "Select Committee on Education and Employment Fourth Report". parliament.uk. 8 February 2001. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  19. ^ "Lawrence Bragg Medal and Prize recipients". Institute of Physics. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  20. ^ "Paul Black honoured". TES. 14 January 2005. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  21. ^ "The 2009 ISDDE Prize for Design in Education (The Eddie) Lifetime Achievement Award: Paul Black". International Society for Design and Development in Education. Retrieved 5 February 2021.