Everyone thinks this is a terrible idea. They say that learning can’t happen without a teacher.

Hmm… http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html

I had the same class later that same day. They came in, and I said that if they worked hard for five minutes, I’d put the radio on. I rather generously put it on after about 20 minutes or moderate work, and turned it off about three minutes later. Come period 5, the year nines couldn’t have cared less if I put the damn radio on or not.

The missing ingredient should be pretty obvious: ownership. In the first lesson, it was their idea, of something they actually wanted – and there was the peer pressure of the fact that one of their number had suggested it, and would be annoyed if someone else spoilt their chances of getting it. Behaviour management is in many ways all about this simple idea: rewards are things that pupils want, sanctions are things they don’t want. And things they (don’t) want now. Finding what those things are is the challenge we must all face.

Half of the class asked to just do the exam questions and skip the fun stuff. They worked diligently and calmly. Those who were doing the other activities were disengaged and noisy. The next lesson, I gave the whole class past paper questions to do, and they produced the most on-task behaviour I’ve ever witnessed with them. The lesson after that, I tried doing a slightly more interesting activity, and they ran wild. I’m pretty sure this isn’t a behaviour management issue, and I actually have direct quotes from pupils who were involved in my research project saying that they don’t feel like they’re learning as much when they’re having fun. About 8 other student teachers at my placement school reported the same thing.

I think the fact that teachers often seem to feel the same way is troublesome. When I’ve commented on this phenomena to other teachers, they have almost universally expressed positive feelings about the students desire to knuckle-down to ‘proper’ revision. But while I can absolutely see the arguments here, I do feel uncomfortable with this idea that the most sensible way to revise is by answering exam questions. It’s no doubt a sad reflection of the complete infatuation we seem to have with examining pupils to death, such that we can stick a ‘failing’ badge on any schools that don’t exclusively focus on producing exam-passing machines. Still, I shan’t rant on that too much right now.

I refuse to allow my teaching to descend into a meaningless state in which ticking boxes is more important that real learning. I see this culture of children becoming receivers rather than producers of knowledge as an outcome of an educational environment in which the statistics say everything is OK when the pupils pass the exams. But it is most emphatically not OK with me. I’m not, of course, saying that I intend to ignore the unquestionable importance that exams have in school life. But they will always be a means to an end; not an end in themselves. I intend to use every opportunity I have to reverse the roboticisation (to coin a phrase!) of our children, to encourage them genuinely care about science and learning, and to use that to help them pass the exams.

Interesting discussion here about Richard’s Branson’s comments to the effect that education doesn’t prepare people for being entrepreneurs. I wonder a lot about this; to what extend are we succeeding in equipping kids with the necessary skills for life?

To take one example, I was not taught one minute of anything about bank accounts or credit cards, or pretty much any kind of personal finance for that matter. But it was deemed essential to know how to work out the internal angles of a triangle. I’m sure that angles are important, but have we got our priorities right here?

I’ve been watching The Unteachables this evening, and it’s got me thinking a lot about making sure all my lessons are as innovative as can be. Hmm…

Anyway:

• When it snows, all the schools close (I make a rhyme every time; I’m a poet, and I didn’t know it!) – why?
• Why are Brits going to study in America?

Brief, I know.

Martyn Steiner 2010

The Lib Dems have given up on caring and decided to just do whatever their Blue bosses say. Great news.

On this subject, The Economist recently made the point that a graduate tax already exists, because graduates tend to pay more income tax. So there.

Four-year-old girls already think they are cleverer than boys, which boys agree with by the time they’re seven and adults agreed with all along.

Sigh.