allsorts

I’ve been contributing to a very interesting discussion on the TES forum about teacher training and the theory/practice balance. Read the sometimes heated debate here. Ragpicker and Raymagnol I take to be ITE tutors. I read in both ragpicker’s thoughtful and raymagnol’s very assertive comments the same element of search for a way to integrate effectively theory and practice in the preparation of new teachers not just for teaching itself, but for the life of professional and personal development that awaits them. Both of them put forward the idea that theory and practice are interdependent. The plan-act-reflect cycle all effective teachers use every day, week, term, year is the same process but at a personal level.

 I didn’t think anyone who contributed to the thread was advocating no theory was necessary. Some people just seemed to be saying that the theoretical diet being offered to them by their ITE institutions wasn’t meeting their needs as learners. I think that often the lecture format is a poor method of teacher education, on the whole incapable of delivering anything other than an impersonal  wadge of information to be more or less instantly forgotten by most of its audience, unless it’s an exceptional lecturer, but then the very fact that it’s exceptional means that most aren’t! And as I said, to tell someone something before they know they need it, even if, as someone who’s been there, you know they’ll need it eventually, is a waste of time.

Ewan McIntosh said (on my blog!)  that he is trying to get away from the idea of the “expert” in the learning centre – he said that “As far as I am concerned any successful teacher, who has motivated kids getting the best success they can manage, is an ‘expert’ in their trade.” That gives the practitioner the respect s/he deserves on a par with the academicians. (It doesn’t mean that practitioner has never read any theoretical texts)

I teach sometimes in ante-natal classes. I do 2 sessions in a course of 8 evenings, one of 30 minutes and another of 2 hours. I aim to impart information and skills about breastfeeding in an interactive way, that will be memorable after the couple have their baby. I am now no longer surprised that after the babies in the group are all born and we have our reunion, there’s always someone who complains “You never told us x….” Of course, I have told them x, but ante-natally, they weren’t at a point where they could hear it. Antenatal parents are often very selective about what they take on board about life with a real baby, and, to be honest, I sometimes wonder why I do these sessions. But then there’s always more than one who says quietly in a one-to one at some point, “It was good to know you were there to call on after the baby was born.”

 I think that’s because I don’t set myself up as an expert, but just as someone who’s been there, done that and reflected on the experience. I do have a good deal of theoretical knowledge I can point them to if necessary but there’s no sense of them having to “do it my way” in order to succeed. How many teachers would feel like contacting their ITE institution for help after they’d started out on their first job? Precious few I imagine.

Here’s an excerpt from a poem I found. You can read all of it here.

O negligent female, imperfect housekeeper,

Though faultless in figure and charming of face,

In ruffles of ribbon and trailings of lace

Usurping the part of a common street-sweeper,

You never can pose as a type of your race

In frowsy appearance mid things out of place.

O fashion-bred damsel, with folly a-flutter,

Until you have learned how to manage a broom,

If never you know how to tidy a room,

Manipulate bread or decide about butter,

The duties of matron how dare you assume,

Or ever be bride to a sensible groom?

I covet no part with that army of shirkers

All down at the heels in their slipper-y tread,

Who hunt for the rolling-pin under the bed,

Who look with disdain on intelligent workers

And take to the club or the circus instead

Of mending a stocking or laying the spread.

Oh, I dream of a system of perfect housekeeping,

Where mistress and helper together compete

In excellent management, quiet and neat;

And though in the bosom of earth I am sleeping,

Shall somebody live to whom life will be sweet

And home an ideal, idyllic retreat.

I can’t claim to be faultless in figure and charming of face, but I did laugh at the picture of hunting for the rolling pin under the bed…

I admit to some guilt that I don’t feel regret at not wanting to learn how to manage a broom. I do notice that the mistress is assigned a helper though, so all of this admirable domesticity was not achieved alone. Perhaps that’s the secret!

At least fellow suffers from my condition have been known about since 1904.

I’ve just been reading about the STNE – the new training model for teachers. A breath of fresh air compared to the old models. Taking longer seems good; going back to the 2 year probation system also seems good to me; greater collegiate support also has potential though I guess it will take some time for the in-school supporters to be uniformly effective, as formative assessment techniques are not yet automatically used in all contexts.

But I’m also concerned about some of the phraseology. They talk about “clinical” practice and how to recognize effective teachers. They quote American studies such as Sanders and Rivers which claim that the “best” teachers raise pupils’ attainment whatever the economic or social circumstances they work in.

I skimmed some of the summaries of this paper and others like it. They all measure attainment in terms of academic subjects, as you’d expect in our current culture of valuing that which can be counted and dismissing that which can’t. They don’t appear to ask about the pupils’ personal response to the teachers or their learning or the longer term effect for them of the emphasis on academic success.

I know that the happiness of my primary pupils is only to some degree dependent on their academic progress, and some of that relates directly to how pleased their parents will be with their acquisition of the next National Assessment level, so it’s not entirely an intrinsic thing. Our tracking system in school reassures me that pupils in my classes continue to make progress at different rates. There’s no way of measuring what I hope I build in them, which is a confidence in themselves as people, a growing awareness of, and skill in using, a repertoire for interacting with others, and a recognition that, long term, these are more important for life than getting the next National Assessment Level.

The outline of the STNE model appears well-structured and forward looking, but I think because of the exclusive focus on attainment as a measure of the effective teacher, at the moment it doesn’t communicate the warmth that reflects the very human activity that teaching is for me.

This was on Krista’s blog too. I liked it.

Thanks Andrew for the nudge. Turns out I did know..just needed to be reminded!

Man Saves Own Life

Aaron Anstett

In the morning, before breakfast, I save my own life,
then walk around the house all day a hero.
Friends come by and ask how it feels.
I say it just happened. I couldn’t help it.
They’d do the same in my shoes. I don’t tell them how,
before I knew it, something raced down my fingers
and my feet. Something made me strong.
It crowded itself in my arms and my heart
and filled me up with as strange and kind a feeling
as I could remember, and suddenly I knew nothing
but I had to help that guy. It wasn’t words. No voice
told me. It was more like light behind my eyes, weight
pressing in from every direction. High notes pierced me,
and it was clear what I had to do.

An amazing poem I found on this blog.