Tim Oates - making things line up

"You can learn a great deal from Finland, but you have to get into a time machine."In this episode, we speak to Tim Oates, CBE. Tim was an education researcher and evaluator of youth training schemes, then worked at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, before joining Cambridge Assessment in 2006, where he was the Group Director of Assessment, Research and Development for almost 20 years. He’s currently a fellow of Churchill College, working with governments around the world on curriculum assessment. Most recently that’s included the curriculum review for Northern Ireland and work in Flanders.His areas of expertise include:Assessment and international comparison,The role of textbooks,The successes of the Finnish education system and otherwise; and,What makes an effective curriculum.Between 2010 and 2013, he chaired the expert panel reviewing the national curriculum in England. We discussed:How confident we can be that students in England are learning moreWhy geography responded well to the National Curriculum Review, and how primary English became overloadedHow he came to chair the expert panel for the National Curriculum ReviewWhy reform of the geography curriculum worked so wellThe difference between borrowing policies and learning from other countriesWhat's working - and not - in Estonia, Finland, Singapore and SwedenThe "very un-British idea" that we might be doing something right in EnglandTim brought to bear an astonishing depth of experience and wisdom.