to think Gove's ideas on education are hilarious?

[NonnoMum]

So, putting all the kids in blazers and ties is a brilliant idea (why stop there, Mike, how about boaters too?) And training up ex-squaddies to be teachers - that'll instill discipline, won't it now? Who wants James Blunt as their RS teacher (just remember kids, "you're bootiful")
What a load of tosh...
Who voted for these muppets?

Oh, yeah, and they're scrapping school sports too - woopie!

Thanks chibi, that's interesting.

I agree that memory is important , as a teacher I wish I had a better one. Every time I stand in front of a class I rely on information I have remembered and understood.

echt, I was not actually talking about batteryhumans post.

I was trying to suggest a reason as to why Gove, especially thinks ex-army in schools is a good idea. I am not saying anything about batteryhumans post.

I am trying to fathom a reason as to why he singles out ex-army as oppossed to ex-nurses for instance.

If ex-army people want to teach then that is fine and if they can do the job that is fine. However, there is a reason as to why he has singled out this occupational group.

Final exams testing just memory?

No. Surely modular tests are more liable to that.

If you have tests at the end of short modules you can cram it into short-term memory and then forget it. To do well in a final exam its impossible to learn it all unless you have a thorough understanding of it. You have to be able to put it all together.

My degree was modular, in that I did exams every January and June, and they all counted towards my final classification. And I had coursework too of course, in the form of my final year project.

Our new Science specs start in September (if they are ever approved!). Still modular, but with the resit and the 40% rule, resits will really be largely a thing of the past. And we too will have controlled assessments. Yikes.

I think final exams should be testing students ability to make links between units rather than testing on things in isolation. I agree with Grimma.

SGM public speaking isn't glossed over - Speaking and Listening is 20% of the English GCSE. At my last school every last child took part in a Public Speaking Competition.

I agree, it's a super-important life skill.

However, there is a reason as to why he has singled out this occupational group.

well, there are 2 pragmatic reasons - we may want to shrink our army, whereas we always want lots of nurses, why encourage them to be teachers?. The military is by definition a young man's job except at the highest levels so there are always going to be more ex-soldiers as a proportion than just about any other profession.

yes memory is important, the ability to remember is important but it isn't the ONLY thing worrth testing, by a LONG way.
doctors and lawyers may need to show that can remember stuff, but (and this is the key really) the reason why O levels were phased out was that they were not appropriate for testing the huge majority i.e. the ones who aren't going to be doctors or lawyers. We need exams not just to single out the top 'elite' but to test and show the achievement of, if not all, then the vast majority of the school population.
O levels didn't do that, because many people failed them - what purpose did that serve, other than wasting time, money, energy and resources and leaving the student with a sense of failure to set them up for life.
modular courses are more realistic, more helpful, less wasteful because they suit many more people and measure what they CAN do rather than penalise them for what they CAN'T do.

I think Canada is in the top three... Is Finland no.1?

I can't remember. good job it's not an exam

by the way, for what it's worth, I did very well indeed in the old-fashioned O level/ A level system, through university and postgraduate studies, only taking exams. the first piece of 'modular' work I ever handed in was my dissertation.
I perform very well under exams conditions because I have a good memory and work well under extremes of pressure.
I became, as it happens, a lawyer
modular testing favours those who work hard and apply themselves consistently. which is a good thing to reward and very useful in later life

lego Oh, I see. Yes, trying to fathom Gove's reasoning, if he has any, is no easy job. :)

I'm off to work now; no teaching today as it's Activities week, the brief respite before the new academic year begins next week.

re: the test for 6 years - which should actually be the 'test for Y1 pupils' as about a 12th of pupils won't be 6 when they finish Y1, but still.....

Anyway, in a decent school, the test will be an irritating waste of time because the staff will already know how their pupils are progressing with phonics. In a crap school, it will probably still be a waste of time, because if the staff don't know how their pupils are getting on, I don't have high hopes for what they'll do for their struggling pupils......

Yes cb. Total waste of public money as well. Someone's got to design it, test it, print it, distribute it.

Demented.

I would argue that to do well in exams you also need to apply yourself consistently. It is the method I have always used, learning and remembering as I went along.

stressheaderic: "can't see many teachers volunteering their weekends for that kind of thing."

I see teachers do this all the time! I did DofE myself last year, my partner did World Challenge, I've supervised theatre trips, school discos, additional study classes, gone on sponsored walks, bag packing, competitions - all in my own time. I thought all teachers did these things.

The majority do freerange.

I have a lot of doubts as I keep hearing soundbites but not much substance - in other words, I don't understand what he actually wants to do in practice.

There seems to be a lot of unnecessary and expensive changes. I would have been happier if he'd just done two things:

• reduce class sizes from 30 to 25 - scrap SATS
• give teachers more freedom over the NC

And leave it at that for the time being.

I personally think all the talk of blazers and adding more exams doesn't scrape the surface. And adding a modern language is only effective with a specialist teacher. Otherwise it's another soundbite.

Also, Gove is a loony and I thank God every day that Scotland is SNP. And I'm an atheist

Lots of lawyers here. Me too. Except for one subject at university all my exams at school and university were end of the year things so I did no work at all until shortly before the exams.

The area of law in which I practise was not taught in those days either at university or the Solicitors' exams, so pretty much everything I was taught I have been allowed to forget and my desire to forget dull dull dull subjects like Land Law, Conveyancing, Tax etc could not come soon enough for me. Modular teaching would, I believe, have meant that I would have retained the information for longer. I'm not sure that I would have liked that, but if retention is the aim, modularity is the way to go.

I still remember more of the dissertation I did in the one modular subject than the ones where there was only an exam. I have also since done an OU degree in a different area and, again, the retained knowledge from the essays is greater than from the end of the year exams.

What I don't get about the plans is where are the jobs coming from. There doesn't seem to be the jobs for people qualifying now where are all the ex-military personnel going to work when they qualify as teachers.

'I would argue that to do well in exams you also need to apply yourself consistently'
well it HELPS to apply yourself consistently, but it isn't NECESSARY ime. Many children can/do cram to get through exams, and always have
(I am a teacher now btw, but I experienced this at school/college/university too)