To think children should be educated, not just fed facts for regurgitation?

[DrSeuss]

A friend teaches maths in a "good" (according to OFSTED) school. He recently had to teach an observed lesson on shapes. He wanted to start with a short exercise on the roots of these words, eg octo means eight, encouraging pupils to name other words eg octopus. His head of department said that this was not acceptable. He was to teach that an eight sided shape is an octagon, nothing more.
I am a Languages teacher and so words and the links between them are my bread and butter. Therefore, I am biased but I think this would be a great idea. He only wanted to do a quick starter exercise on it, he wanted to encourage the kids to acquire transferable knowledge and I would have been happy for my children to be taught this. My son in particular would have loved learning the words and the links.
My friend's boss said that he agreed in principle that they should be educating children in an all round fashion, for the lesson to be passed as good or better, my friend must teach straight facts.
AIBU to think that education should broaden your outlook?

I won't profess to be teacher of the century but I've never once heard that a good lesson should just teach facts - the opposite in fact!

Your friend's boss has weird ideas and he is wrong about what Ofsted require to get a good observation. Perhaps your friend could should him the latest Ofsted advice, and tell him about literacy across the curriculum.

I was recently complimented on an observed lesson where I talked about the meaning of 'iso' in isometric paper.

I thought it was complete crap, too! Oh yes, let's narrow their knowledge, not extend it!

It should, but unfortunately governments value statistics and exams passed and results to wave at the electorate and teachers have to teach what and how they are told to teach.

It seems like being educated is of less importance than passing tests. So children are taught to pass tests that are then used by governments to show that children have a good education that allows them to pass the tests.

Meanwhile, what they actually know and understand is getting less and less and less.

My school loves the teaching of root words in lessons. That would definitely get a lesson graded higher for me.

x post with everyone. This is lovely to read. If I am wrong and just being overly cynical that would be fantastic. I hope I am.

I agree with you but this would be better in phonics or literacy because you've only got to get one bright spark saying that October is the tenth month and by the time you've explained why and fielded other related questions, your oral and mental starter has gone over time and you will be desperately trying to get back on track! Such is the pace of observed lesson plans nowadays

As someone who has taught university students I definitely agree. It's frustrating when bright students panic and refuse to think about questions which they have the tools to answer because they don't fit rigidly into exactly what they've been taught.

My head teacher would have liked us mentioning it and discussing it - he's all about 'cross-curricular' learning.

But would maybe have criticised the maths mental starter having a history/ literacy focus.

But the children would have loved it and learnt from it!

Until governments remove league tables, teachers will only be able to teach to pass exams, the root of oct is not in the exam so won't be deemed a good lesson,

Head of Department sounds a little "off" to me - all teachers have a responsibility to bring literacy and numeracy into their lessons from a P.E. teacher showing kids how to spell words like "lactic acid" or work out average heart rate from a small group of readings and at the most extreme Maths teachers including literacy (exactly as your friend was planning to) and English teachers including numeracy (one exercise can involve rolling a dice to specify the number of letters a word can have or number of words a sentence or line of poetry can have - yes I know it´s rather convoluted!)

However possibly your friend has a reputation for wasting lesson time or going off topic which is why the HoD squashed this particular idea, or maybe it was a revision session or there are particular issues with this group of students, although the HoD should have explained WHY he didn´t want the teacher to use that idea.

Euphemia "Will this be in the exam.?" turns me into a bull seeing a red rag! CHARGE!!!!!!

one of my mates is a high school teacher in England,...she was saying that they are now told not just what to teach but 'how' to teach...all Gove directives (OK he has gone now but it takes a few months to filter through).

She is considering leaving teaching after 20+years as she finds this so awful. I can believe that they are not allowed to teach beyond their prescribed subject.

As a parent, this is the sort of stuff we are always talking about at home. Conversations that start off in one place and meander to another via various interrelated topics. I think it is lovely when it happens in school, but I realise it is time consuming however it is a shame if a head of dept. genuinely believes there is no place for exploring these ideas. I love seeing the cogs start to turn as ideas take hold.

I think that you have to treat observed lessons differently for your own sake as a teacher.
Toe the line when observed or you will face all sorts of 'punishment'.
Include elements of what Ofsted want in other lessons but have more freedom to meander when not observed.
Schools are scared shit of Ofsted and this will not change.

Bloody Gove!

I was a lecturer in International Finance at a top University

I used to bring in my dc's toy boat and some play mobile people and a little scroll to illustrate how letters of credit/documentary credits worked

All my students passed, not one fail

Anyone can teach anything as long as you have the knowledge and the passion to pass it on!

It's not right your friend is being quoshed in his teaching methods...it sounds like he knows how to engage the children and make them eager to learn

I've always explained 'Oct' when doing shapes and it usually leads to a good conversation about October and Romans and and and..... This is where I also learn interesting facts from the children which I then share the next time with new children.

The children still know the shapes at the end of the lesson and they remember them better as well because they know why there is a link between an octagon and an octopus, triangle and tricycle, decagon and decathlon etc.

she was saying that they are now told not just what to teach but 'how' to teach...all Gove directives

Wilshaw is desperately trying to reverse this trend in Ofsted. The latest is that Ofsted should have no opinion on the best teaching method, so long as the learning is achieved. So previously where the teacher talking to passive kids was slated, they now aren't supposed to, so long as the kids are learning.

As a teacher, I was under the impression that lessons should have a literacy / numeracy focus where appropriate. I often explain the meaning of words. As an example, a lot of the resources for my subject are very old or American so have words like 'retard' in them. Rather than never using them, I always briefly explain the actual meaning of the word, and why we don't use it but some countries do. My students are always quite interested.

Id want my dc to be taught by your friend.

October is the 10th month though?

And December the 12th?

I don't think it was in the roman calendar originally, I'm not precisely sure how it works.

Julius (July) was named after Julius Caesar who reformed the calendar and august after Augustus Caesar. But then you've got September (7th) October, November and December which are seven, eight, nine, ten.

But they aren't in our calendar!

It's confusing!

I wasn't there so obviously can only give limited comment but that sounds like a really good activity. It brings literacy I to a subject where it is naturally missing so addresses key skills and sound like an excellent way to help kids remember the fact (they know what an octagon is so can remember it). I'd be pissed if my lesson was marked down for such a spurious reason.