Teachers - your thoughts on this? (Essay help!)

[badgermonkey]

I'm planning an essay for my Master's course, and I want to write about the barrage of new initiatives that teachers face and how we have to adapt every time. I'll be looking at the last 20 years or so, since the start of the National Curriculum, I think, and I want particularly to comment on ideas that have been brought in with great fanfare and dropped later on, especially if they've been disproven or shown not to work (ahem, Brain Gym...). I'll also be writing about new schemes that are coming into play at the moment, like APP and topic-based learning.

I've been teaching 7 years and I can think of quite a few things myself, like the Lit + Num Strategies, learning styles, peer assessment, and, obviously, SATs, but I would really welcome examples from other people. I'm a secondary English teacher so often 'experimented' on with new ideas but I don't really get to see what goes on at Primary level. Any examples or opinions gratefully accepted!

have you mentioned APP?

If you want a BIG initiative, on which loads was spent, try looking at TVEI and TVEIE!!

Then there was NAF NOF (New Opportunities Fund) training.

(Sure I'll think of some more since I started teaching in 1982).

Never heard of TVEI, but I guess you don't do too many vocational initiatives with 7 year olds! (Googled it!)

What about Teachers TV?!

I love teachers tv as well, I regularly use it.

Was NOF to do with music or am I thinking of another initiaive that turned out to offer free whole class music lessons that schools had to pay for?

Anyone have hours of training on RM computers AND get a certificate to tick another box?

It's no wonder older teachers get cynical. The 'best thing since sliced bread' soon becomes 'so yesterday' ( therefore was evidently crap, actually) and we move on to the latest 'initiative' ( which, co-incidentally, is probably a nice little earner for someone- Brain Gym, VAK etc).

I take the line of least resistance nowadays and let much of it wash over me. The last thing you need as a teacher is formulaic, prescriptive models for evermore.It's just that someone saw fit to imagine that teachers didn't have a clue and that education was all about producing little drones.

Unfortunately some teachers are too easily influenced into believing some of the pseudo-science about learning.I had to sit through a training session which began with the nonsense that we only use 10% of our brains ( and drinking lots of water would help!) and that 20 years ago we had no understanding about learning.

And, no, it wasn't Ed Balls.

I would agree that learning styles is a very good example. In the past 7/8 years I have seen Gardner's Multiple Intelligences come and go, Honey and Mumford's learning styles and now of course, VAK has just gone. Professor John Geake did some excellent work on VAK (and how he considered them to be VAKuous) way back when I was doing my Masters circa 2003. He might be a good start - but my institution has recently dropped all the VAK stuff (thank God!)

Ah - the water / fish oil theories. Didn't Durham LA introduce fish oil in secondary schools to improve the children's brains?

Two speakers at recent insets have talked about making children use their 'brain muscles'....

It was in Primary that the Durham LA introduce fish oil. Don't know anything about outcomes though.

Durham gave fish oils to 3000 secondary pupils in their GCSE year
www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/3702388.___Proof________fish_oils_make_you_smart/

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/3702440.Food_for_thought___/

NOF was computer (ICT) training

i like teaschers tv too

I'd forgotten about that mrz. I think it was the fish oil thing that introduced me to Ben Goldacre!

I guess NOF was my RM training then!!

The music thing was 'wider opportunities'!

Shaz10- same here!

You teach WILF in schools? Sounds like an excellent initiative to me .

Am fucking horrified by this thread though. I teach in a university and I feel for you. Met an FE lecturer last week who regaled all the teaching to target grades they have to do. No wonder they rock up at university knowing NOTHING about how to think for themselves.

It must be very dehumanising for teachers who started out with a vocation. And it's getting worse at our end: I recently had to defend a new module proposal to a colleague because I hadn't cut and pasted the learning outcomes from a generic guide and instead had, um, thought about some LOs relevant to the module. FFS.

I started with and still have a vocation and have never felt dehumanised ever.

I am glad, tsap. Even with all the bullshit?

I just don't deal with bullshit. As I said if a new initiative comes along and I find it beneficial I incorporate it into what I am doing otherwise I ignore it.

We all have admin staff so I don't do a great deal of paperwork.

Agree with twinset. There have been many, many badly thought out initiatves but I still love my job and see it as a vocation.

I let most of the ridiculous initiaves wash over me and just get on with the business of good teaching. What goes on in my classroom now really isn't that different to what went on five or ten years ago.

I don't have admin staff! Can I have some?

(But I do like my job, and I think it's VASTLY different to what it was 5 years' ago.)

I feel fortunate to have a job I love in spite of all the initiatives and lack of admin staff

That's interesting Feenie! I'm still being paid to do it to the end of this year, and in the meeting with the LEA they said funding is secured for next year too

Not at all surprised it's going though - v expensive!

Thanks Badgermonkey!

I am a 'mature' student discovering the 'joys' of teaching studies. I too have posted a request for research help (New Secondary Curriculum).

I am using several messages from your thread as

a. They show changes from a teachers perspective

b. They generally highlight that new initiative tend to be short lived (we are still learning about Garner, VAK et al!!!!)

c. It made me laugh out loud several times at 6.15 in the morning - no mean feat I can tell you!

Good luck with the essay!

PS I have a new one.....'How to solve a problem like?????' HA HA

how was it?