Educational fads of the moment

[FuckYouDailyMail]

Ex-teacher here and the changes to assessment and streaming at DD's school 'to ensure the school is following the latest research' have brought back memories of the numerous new initiatives I had to adapt to using over the years.

AIBU to ask you to tell me about your favourite and least favourite teaching fads? Which ones were a waste of time and which have proved their worth.

Interesting article, Eagle. I think a lot of educational directives are driven by myths rather than evidence. Homework is another one. Teachers set homework because parents expect it, or SLT insist on it, or the government says so, or even because they themselves believe it to be beneficial. But is there any actual evidence in support of the idea? I've never seen any, and my personal feeling is that it doesn't help much, or at all. But if anyone knows of any evidence, I would be interested to see it.

I have a historical teaching fad I hate.

I.T.A. - Initial Teaching Alphabet.

So instead of learning to read "normally" in the 60's & early 70's we were taught to read and write in a slightly warped version which was allegedly easier for our tiny minds to grasp.

Half of us learned to read it then learned to read normally.
A few struggled, having learned once, to learn to read normal books rather than the ITA ones. We were supposed to be free of it by the time we were 7. Some of us were through it by the end of our first year (equivalent of Reception class now). Some didn't manage to be free of it properly until later.

And those who had already learned to read were told what we knew was "wrong" and to do ITA, then told that was wrong and to read normally again.

basically, a total shambles.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_Teaching_Alphabet

and I'm told there are some who want to bring it back?!

RainyApril

Leonard. If you google 'benefits of cursive writing' you will find a lot of information, but I quite like this article by the New York Times heree

Well, I presume you like the article because it agrees with you.

It doesn't cite any actual evidence, though.

Notes are unnecessary because textbooks exist.

Don’t know about other schools but my school can’t afford textbooks. We don’t have any for the new GCSE and the KS3 ones we have are crap.

You have my sympathies regarding this. But, it's a fundamental problem with the way schools are funded, whereas my comment was to do with the effectiveness of note taking as an educational method.

I think a lot of educational directives are driven by myths rather than evidence

I'd agree.

www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/HWK01/HWK01.pdf

Over view document about home work research - so there is research out there though no idea how well designed it is.

Where there is good research such as phonics it's not widely accepted or not for a long time and you get fudges such as mixed methods and multi cuing masquerading as phonics teaching.

Crap homework has little effect, this is totally obvious.

However, that's not to say that homework is useless. A lot of people say 'oh the research shows homework has no effect' but a lot of the research is rubbish and doesn't distinguish between types of homework.

No one could possibly argue that reading with your child at home or getting them to practise their times tables with you is useless, so this would be an example of good homework.
Likewise, there are effective ways of studying for exams that improve results, so if those sorts of things are set as homework in secondary, then they would be an example of good homework.

Making a volcano out of cupcakes is just a waste of time and resources. That would be crap homework.

Oh yes, the fucking summer project! 😠 Make a WWII propaganda poster before you've even started the topic.

I’m not a teacher. Back when I was in high school the headmaster decided to run the school on the basis of Stephen Covey’s book, “The seven habits of highly effective people”. That was an interesting two years.

noblegiraffe - that would be my take on it as well and I’ve no idea how researches can account for good homework and not.

The bane of my life at one point was the weekly spelling test homework of ten random words and a look and cover sheet.

The older two DC however hard they practised could never get a good mark so lost break time till TA or teacher gave up with that week’s list. Everyone agreed they had no memory of words next week and it wasn’t helping their normal writing spelling but was destroying the confidence but we weren’t allowed to opt out.

At same time they didn't have resources to help my older two with a good spelling program they knew worked- as they had worse children- so they suggested I find time to do apple and pears spelling program at home.

It was annoying as hell that I was supposed to find time to do homework that wasn’t helping my kids and the support work that would.

Making a volcano out of cupcakes is just a waste of time and resources. That would be crap homework.

Worrying thing for us is when we, DH and I, started secondary that stuff all stopped - it hasn't for my secondary school child - there a shit load of model making and cutting and sticking still.

On plus side she old enough to do it herself - downside I think the focus should be more on the actual vocabulary and facts of the subject rather than displaying a minimal grasp of absolute basics via “fun” models.

Ok so I’m not there yet but from what I gather ‘Look see’ is the old way of learning spellings word by word and Phonics is the new way that breaks down syllables by sounds (ish? This phenome business that I know absolutely nothing about). So ‘look see’ is memory based and phonics involves learning a rule and applying it.
I’d be interested to know what impact the two methods have on a child’s developing memory? Does anyone know/have links to a study?

I had beautiful cursive writing at 10.Then I went to secondary school and my writing went to pot.

Leonard,
Well yes, that is exactly why I like it. It would be unusual if I linked to something at odds with my opinion I think.

Psychology Today has several research-based articles if you are genuinely interested.

Note taking isn't unnecessary for all. I have quite poor concentration and I take notes for everything, it's the only way I can really focus on what is being said. At uni I would fill pages of notes, rarely read them again but have taken loads in just through the act of note taking. I am the same now at any talk I go to.

And also, as an English teacher, I have never used textbooks. Note taking is necessary if, for example we are discussing a poem as a class.

wornoutboots You beat me to it! I was coming on to say ITA. My DM always blamed it on my DB2's iniability to spell correctly. DB1 I think escaped this scheme and I think it was abandoned in my very early school years.

When lerning tw reed was a disaster
Ask any group of teachers for the most bizarre idea that took hold in classrooms and they'll all agree on one: ITA (Initial Teaching Alphabet).
Sir James Pitman, the grandson of the man who devised shorthand, designed ITA to help children get around the fact that 60 per cent of English words are not spelt consistently (learn/fern, steady/teddy, reed/read, red/read, etc).
ITA replaced the normal alphabet with 40 basic sounds or graphemes. Pitman used unique symbols to represent sounds such as the "oo" in book and the "oo" in moon. So the phrase "An Initial Teaching Alphabet makes the task of learning to read easier and more enjoyable" came out as "An inishul teeching alfubet maeks thu task uv lerning tw reed eezeer and mor enjoiubul". No wonder parents hated it.
However, research into ITA in 1963-64 found the average ITA pupil was on the fourth of the five books of the Janet and John reading scheme by the beginning of the fifth term, while the average non-ITA pupil had not advanced beyond the second.
ITA was a disaster, however. It transported children into an idyllic educational bubble of their own where the vagaries of English spelling could be ignored. No thought was given to life outside the classroom. Children who learnt ITA had to unlearn it to communicate with the rest of the world.

Just thought of another fad. Learning objectives that became learning outcomes. All must, most should, some could.
In maths it was ‘all must get some right, most should get the majority right, some could get them all right’

and seemingly my inability too

Making posters for homework.

At one point in every flippin' subject the dcs' homework was making a poster. And the fact was that from infant school right through secondary you knew that at least half the posters had been made by the parents.

I actually quite like outdoor learning. In a time of children being increasingly overweight and spending more and more time stuck indoors in front of IPads I can't see how it's a bad thing.
Also mindfulness. People inc kids are more stressed than ever these days.
The other fads I could do without. And British Values makes me gag. Some of them don't actually hold true if you look at our foreign policy and the others aren't exclusively British. How about good human values? Then you could get rid of the horrible Union Jack bunting trimmed displays in schools up and down the country as well.

So now, HumphreyCobblers, at least 25% are left to flounder because they don't, and never will, get phonics, because they don't think with the sound of words.

Research evidence from North Yorks study 2005.

At junior school in 1960 we were taught our times tables thus: teacher would write one of them on the blackboard and we were to copy it into our exercise books, then read it again and again to ourselves. Oh, the boredom. After a while we did what all kids do, stopped reading and started chatting, looking out of the window, etc.

When Mum visited on Open Days she'd ask, 'Don't the children chant their tables?' to be told firmly, 'oh no, Mrs M, that's old-fashioned.' Therefore I never really learned them with any confidence which has been a bit embarrassing ever since.

Surely it's better to learn in an efficient way than not at all?

Also, mnemonics (can't spell it) were frowned on. Again, surely it's better to learn something parrot-fashion than not at all? Those changes were made purely due to fashion and didn't serve us well.

As I've mentioned upthread, my village primary school was out of the ark, although it was the 70s.

In spite of a very mixed bunch of kids - all abilities and backgrounds -we all left with nice handwriting, good table manners (compulsory school dinners) and all knew our tables up to 12X12 off by heart.

You can't take those basics away. I don't know what's gone wrong, but it seems now that instilling the basics in children is up to the parents and if a child is from a disadvantaged background they stay disadvantaged.

Encouraging -forcing- girls in to STEM

And yes to inclusive education so as to be PC.

My brother was exposed to being taught to spell words phonetically first. He still can't spell over thirty years later. Being forced in the 1980s to be right handed to make my life easier! (My parents soon stepped in!)