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.

Flipping Bloom's Taxonomy- yes!!! Rewriting schemes of work every couple of years to fit in with the current 'trendy' thinking. What a waste of time.

This nonsense is in many professions though. As a manager in the Telecoms industry, I had to sit through interminable courses on 'Learning Styles' and how to speak to customers depending on their style ('I hear what you're saying Mrs X/I ^see why you're upset Mr Y...). Or having to decide which 'Colour' all my staff were then tailor their coaching and performance reviews depending on whether they were a Red or Green... Then on to the next fad we'd paid consultants millions to train us in a year later!

Oh God, this.

There is so much non-evidence-based nonsense in business management as well.

Often very similar garbage too.

Example: an obsession with open-plan offices to promote "creativity and the exchange of ideas," even though basically 100% of the evidence shows that open plan offices are bad for both productivity and creativity (because they are too noisy and distracting for anyone to actually think clearly).

Sound familiar?

TuftedLadyGrotto: PISA has almost no actual "maths" in it. It's "critical thinking" problem solving exercises. You can't actually teach to it.

We are not a school we are a learning community.

Pity the poor teachers who have to teach in open-plan classrooms! I understand that loads of new build PFI schools were built open-plan and they're now having to pay loads of extra money to have walls put in after it turned out to be a stupid idea (guess they didn't ask any teachers before building them )

My pet hate is the none correction of words spelt wrong.. I feel this just tells a child they have spelt it right.. so the child spellls it that way every time!

SOLO taxonomy

And I can't believe I'm the only one to write this... it's the most ridiculous waste of everyone's time. Even the name tells you it's a tick box exercise: Structured Observation of Learning Objectives

It's been regurgitated from the early 80s. Maybe they should bring back Wham too!

I was a school governor and my eyes goggled when I discovered that playtime had been abandoned. If a child needed a break they could go outside (there was an enclosed tarmac area outside each classroom).

I could sort of see the point, in that I was a child who hated playtimes when I was very small as I was scared of all the bigger children. However, this school had different playgrounds for different ages, so there were no thundering big children mowing down the littlies. And, what about children who enjoy playtime? There was no chance for more boisterous ones to let off steam together. In fact there was no running, ball playing, socialising... It seemed a bit as if they were prisoners in solitary confinement allowed out for a lone fresh-air break every so often.

As usual the head presented the governing body with a done deal and again I was the lone (very unpopular) voice trying to point out this was nuts.

The first thing that sprang to mind when I saw this thread was the ITA. Like WanderingStart, my poor brother had to go through this mid-70s experiment that buggered up everyone's spelling and reading. I just missed out and was very glad I did. My DB had to learn to spell the ITA way and then all over again properly. Bless him, his spelling was always crap, and my (teacher) parents were convinced it was due to the ITA. Our local library was full of normal books and books written in the ITA that were indecipherable. I'm pretty sure that a bunch of Brummies (at least) in their late 40s who had to endure this still can't spell.

More recently my DCs have gone through open plan classrooms, plus no formal chairs (bean bags / squishy cushions / floor / sofas / anything goes, including unicycles) in class at their intermediate school (yr7/8). I was a bit sceptical about how much learning went on, but it seemed to work for most, and they acknowledged that it was all just a big experiment anyway! Still going on, several years later.

The child that learns ten words by sight has learnt ten words, while the child who learns ten phonemes can read hundreds. I absolutely accept that for the children that it works for. For children like my GC they don't learn the ten phonemes in 4 years, he really didn't, but in 18 months of look say with phonics introduced as he got more confident he caught up.

I volunteer at the local primary and teachers have told me they have all had children like my GC and that they aren't allowed to try other methods. That is what I object to, surely if it doesn't work you try something else?

Miaow mentioning walls... corporate wall displays where each classroom has themed walls, sorry, interactive learning spaces with corporate colours and banners. The literacy wall was quite handy for topic themed stuff, but the Challenge Walls remained empty for two years while people worked out what they were supposed to do with them. Some people put extension activities in folders on them, but in some classrooms the layout just didn't allow for access up to the boards.

Minimalist classrooms, too small, not enough space for essential resources.

I think a personal classroom is more stimulating as a learning space. I remember the collection of National Geographics along the walls in my y6 room. Wall displays of work are stimulating and interesting. What's the point in looking at the walls in any room if they are all identical?

Oh and the no-homework-in-primary school which I totally agree with. I was really pleased my DCs' primary school banned homework when my DTs were in year 3. I hope that fad sticks. Still convinced that homework, apart from reading, some spelling and some basic maths facts, is useless at primary level.

My DDs' school has even banned homework for year 9s and 10s (apart from finishing off classwork and studying for end-of-topic tests) as the school is concerned about a big spike in MH / stress-related issues that typically seems to begin around then in girls, and the school wants to reduce the stress on them. My youngest DD is in the first year of this experiment and will be doing external exams next year - I am slightly concerned about that!

I mentioned print Vs cursive about 7 pages ago. It's the imposing cursive too early before children have mastered printing that I find problematic. When a child is confident and competent at printing, then I have no issue with cursive as an efficient and aesthetic style.

As an adult, I find that I naturally do a mix of print/ joining which got me through exam essays with a clear, neat efficient writing style. (And repeat marking of books/essays )

I can't see handwriting losing importance for communicating in schools/ public exams in the next decade. There certainly isn't the budget for it, and I don't think an expectation for families to provide laptops/ tablets can be imposed for a variety of reasons, cost, security, compatibility. Handwriting has a value in developing fine hand-eye coordination which supports other subjects, so although its value is greatly diminished in the adult world, its still most practical for schools to use pen and ink.

Our primary school doesn't have years, it has teams. I've never heard of any other school that does this.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned but I hated imposed 'Learning Walls'. At one point we were not allowed any children's work on the walls, everything had to be learning related. While it can be really useful to have word walls (key topic words/vocab/synonyms etc) etc children love seeing their work put on display (as do parents). Also - we were banned for hanging things from washing lines across the classroom or from the ceiling - boo!

Yy legspinner, I know a y6 girl who's not getting enough sleep because of all the homework and studying for SATs.

Lots of interesting replies and I'm seeing a theme of particular irritation for how quickly some of these educational initiatives are adopted and then dropped again. No wonder teachers and parents get so fed up and the poor kids must be baffled.

I agree with those who say the ‘rights respecting’ agenda is a fad and that it does nothing to support those children in other counties who really aren’t having their rights respected, such as girls who aren’t allowed to go to school. There is a reason children are not adults and I would actually say we’re failing in our own duties to let children have the same responsibilities and decision-making capabilities.

I think I agree with those who are saying ‘inclusion for inclusion’s sake’ but would be interested to know more if anyone would care to elaborate? Is it about the effect/implication it has on those who are very able?

To let children have the same responsibilities and decision-making capabilities as adults, that should say!

"Still convinced that homework, apart from reading, some spelling and some basic maths facts, is useless at primary level. "

That kinda does sound like homework, to be honest!

Surely a better way to put that would be, "Homework should be brief, should be to the point and should be practicing content already taught in school (ie. not weird internet research, junk modeling, posters, make a costume....)"

Totally agree about the rights respecting school thing. More bloody wasted time. And children don't have the same privileges as adults for good reasons. I don't want children saying what should be on the curriculum.

I think the inclusion for inclusion sake is more about money. So including children in mainstream schools that the parents and teachers know can't cope with a mainstream school, so everyone works hard to try and make it less bad for the child. Some children need specialist schools, but these are more expensive. So I don't think it is a fad, it is simply that inclusion which is a positive thing, has been ceased on as a way to save money no matter the needs of the child.

WTF Euphemia?