Available online
Description
More or Less this week is proud to announce that it is number one in the world league of numbers programmes. OK, that is a lie. There is not, yet, a world league of numbers programmes. But if prese...nt trends continue, it cannot be long. There has been a proliferation of world rankings in the last 30 years, and not just in sport. Every time you pick up the paper or turn on the news, it seems, we find that Britain is third at this or tenth at that. Comparisons of public services, health, education and of crime, transport or governance are becoming increasingly common. They make big news and, depending where Britain is placed, they can cause political rows or bouts of self congratulation. In Germany recently, an international educational league table caused a national scandal and the reform of maths teaching. So you would want to know that they were telling you something useful. Are they? The Economic and Social Research Council is currently conducting research into international rankings. It is led by Christopher Hood of Oxford University. We delve into some of that work and talk about what the league tables really tell you. Welcome to Ranking World.
More or Less this week is proud to announce that it is number one in the world league of numbers programmes. OK, that is a lie. There is not, yet, a world league of numbers programmes. But if prese...nt trends continue, it cannot be long. There has been a proliferation of world rankings in the last 30 years, and not just in sport. Every time you pick up the paper or turn on the news, it seems, we find that Britain is third at this or tenth at that. Comparisons of public services, health, education and of crime, transport or governance are becoming increasingly common. They make big news and, depending where Britain is placed, they can cause political rows or bouts of self congratulation. In Germany recently, an international educational league table caused a national scandal and the reform of maths teaching. So you would want to know that they were telling you something useful. Are they? The Economic and Social Research Council is currently conducting research into international rankings. It is led by Christopher Hood of Oxford University. We delve into some of that work and talk about what the league tables really tell you. Welcome to Ranking World.
| Series: | More or less; Series 3 |
|---|---|
| Episode | 4 |
| First transmission date: | 2006-01-12 |
| Published: | 2006 |
| Rights Statement: | Rights owned or controlled by The Open University |
| Restrictions on use: | This material can be used in accordance with The Open University conditions of use. A link to the conditions can be found at the bottom of all OU Digital Archive web pages. |
| Duration: | 00:26:47 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Michael Blastland |
| Presenter: | Andrew Dilnot |
| Contributors: | A. W Dilnot; Christopher Hood |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Subject terms: | Mathematical statistics; Social sciences--Statistical methods |
| Production number: | AUDA115B |
| Available to public: | no |
