Pedagogy is a difficult word, and not just in terms of pronunciation. The quality of classroom teaching is the most important aspect of any plan to improve education standards. But, in the UK at least, it has been the hardest factor to prioritise.

教育学(Pedagogy)是一个比较难的单词，不仅难在发音方面。课堂教学的质量是旨在提高教育水平的任何计划的最重要方面。但至少在英国，教育已成为最难优先考虑的因素。

Data released on Tuesday by the OECD, the Paris-based club of mostly rich nations, revealed that the performance of the UK’s schools is “flat in a changing world”. The Pisa survey shows there has been little change in the UK’s ranking during the three years since the last international test results were published, which are taken at age 15 in order to compare standards across the world in reading, maths and science.

总部位于巴黎、成员多为富裕国家的经合组织(OECD)近日发布的数据显示，英国学校的表现“在一个不断变迁的世界中无明显提升”。“国际学生评估项目”(Pisa)此次调查显示出，在上次国际测试结果公布之后的三年间，英国的排名几乎没有变化。该测试的对象是15岁的学生，目的是比较世界各国学生在阅读、数学和科学方面的水平。

In science, the UK managed to improve, climbing from 21st to 15th place in the table of 70 participating nations, but stagnated at 22nd for reading, and 27th for maths is disappointing for a nation with a successful education exports industry (think of the overseas students sent both the UK universities and private schools, swelling the coffers of both).

英国在科学方面的排名有所提升，在70个参与调查的国家中从第21位升至第15位，但其阅读和数学排名仍分别停留在第22位和第27位，对于一个拥有成功教育出口产业的国家（想一想那些被送到英国大学和私立学校、给这些学府带来大量收入的海外留学生）来说，这着实令人沮丧。

School standards are rarely out of the headlines and each incoming set of ministers says it is determined for a renewed zeal for improvement. So why does each successive effort fail? Part of the answer lies in a UK score that masks serious differences between schools in England and those in Scotland and Wales, where education policy is devolved and standards have actually been falling.

学校教育水平几乎一直是头条新闻，所有新任大臣都表示，政府决意再下大力气进行提升。那为什么这些努力都相继失败了呢？部分答案在于，整个英国的评分掩盖了英格兰的学校与苏格兰和威尔士的学校之间的极大不同，后两者在教育政策被下放后，教育水平实际上在下滑。

In England, meanwhile, the emphasis on testing and inspection introduced by the Labour government in the 2000s seems to have contributed at least to preventing a serious drop-off in achievement. But Russell Hobby, leader of a headteachers’ association, accuses successive administrations of “an obsession” with structural change at the expense of focusing on classroom teaching.

与此同时，在英格兰，工党政府在本世纪头十年引入的对考试和督查的注重，似乎至少帮助防止了学校教育水平的严重下滑。但中小学校长联合会负责人罗素.霍比(Russell Hobby)指责历届政府“痴迷”学校结构改革，却忽视对课堂教学关注。

Theresa May’s government wishes to expand grammars, the academically selective secondary schools, and faith schools, in spite of controversies about social segregation that attach to both. Before that, former prime minister David Cameron’s government bribed most secondaries out of local government control to make them into autonomous academies, started a new category of parent and charity-led free schools, and wanted to force the academy model on all schools, including primaries (this plan has now been dropped). And before that, Labour began the academies programme in government and the current war of attrition against local education departments.

特里萨.梅(Theresa May)政府希望扩大文法学校（择优录用的中学）和宗教学校的数量，尽管对于这两类学校会造成社会分化存在争议。在此以前，前首相戴维.卡梅伦(David Cameron)政府借助实际利益促使多数中学脱离地方政府控制，使它们转型为独立学院，并开启一个新的类别：由家长、慈善机构主导的自由学校，还希望将这种学院模式应用于所有学校，包括小学（该计划已被取消）。在此之前，工党在执政期间启动学院项目，引发了当下这场与地方政府教育部门的消耗战。

These schemes have been devised against a background of recruitment and retention problems in the teaching profession that has now become serious enough to be called a crisis. Andreas Schleicher, education director at the OECD, today said teacher shortages were seen as a “major bottleneck” in the attempt to raise standards. So Mr Hobby’s point should be accepted even by ministers seeking to put the best possible gloss on the survey’s findings.

出台这些改革努力的背景是，教师队伍的招募和保留如今已经严重到了足以被称为危机的程度。经合组织教育主管安德烈亚斯.施莱歇(Andreas Schleicher)表示，教师短缺是提高教育水平的一个“主要瓶颈”。因此，即便是那些寻求粉饰调查结果的教育官员，也应该接受中小学校长联合会的霍比的观点。

Plausible solutions include building on the success of Teach First, the groundbreaking operation to recruit the highest-achieving young graduates into the classroom, which went nationwide just over a year ago. The Financial Times’ Lucy Kellaway, for example, has started Now Teach, a programme to get later-life career changers into on-the-job training for shortage subjects including maths and languages.

可信的解决方案包括在Teach First（先教书吧）成功的基础上继续推进，该项目开创性地将最优秀的年轻毕业生招募到教室，在一年前推广至全国。例如，英国《金融时报》的露西.凯拉韦(Lucy Kellaway)发起了名为Now Teach的项目，旨在鼓励中年改行的职场人士接受在职培训，以便教一些师资短缺的学科，如数学和语言。

Experts also see continuous professional development for teachers as key, with well-understood, merit-based pathways to promotion. More imaginative measures to retain teachers would also help — for example, with housing costs — as well adoption of better pedagogy where it is backed by evidence. For instance, it has been effective to encourage England’s schools to adopt “maths mastery” techniques modelled on schools in the Asian countries that regularly top the Pisa tables.

专家们也认为，面向教师的持续职业发展是关键，要具备大家都懂、任人唯贤的晋升渠道。留住教师的更具想象力的措施也会有所帮助——如住房费用补贴，或者采用有证据支持的更优秀的教学法。例如，鼓励英格兰的学校采用效仿亚洲的“掌握数学”方法就很有效果，亚洲国家的学校总是在Pisa榜单上名列前茅。

But a culture war still rages between ministers who believe in testing knowledge, and experts who believe the jobs of the future demand more skills-based education. While this continues, the UK can expect to continue to tread water.

但是，在信奉用考试检验知识的部长级官员与认为未来就业需要更多技能教育的专家之间，一场文化论战仍在激烈进行。只要这种论战持续，英国很可能将继续原地踏步。