Michael Gove is comprehensively destroying the teaching unions

[longfingernails]

Just look at the wailing and gnashing of teeth over at the Guardian!
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/23/gove-struggling-schools-education-policy

Crap schools should buck up or close. Good ones should expand. Headteachers should sack crap teachers, and give raises/bonuses/promotions to good ones, irrespective of seniority. It's that simple.

I wonder how many Guardian writers send their children to bog-standard comprehensives? They regularly censor any comment which lists the former schools of their most prominent commentators, which show how pretty much all of them have been privately educated themselves.

Anyway, the effective loss of of national bargaining for the teaching unions is a tremendous achievement. Congratulations, Mr Gove!

LFN, I would count on it, I can just imagine it:

Parents, Please Mr Gove can we have 10 million to start our own school

Gove, Is your name Toby Young and are you a smug middle class git? your not! then please leave my office.

Do yopu really think there will be places in schools waiting for a bunch of right wing malcontents to relocate from other schools or that every Tory supporting tosser will be able to start another school in an area with no need for futher provision. You also seem to miss the point that THE TEACHERS IN ANY FUCKING SCHOOL CAN BECOME UNIONISED AND HAVE TO BE RECOGNISED REGARDLESS OF THE WISHES OF THE HEAD TEACHER OR GOVERNORS "Free schools or not.

LFN you are living in a fantasy world of your own making.

jade80 I agree with you. That is one of the ways in which South Korea and Finland excel, and another way in which the ossified union mindset is holding Britain back.

Whenever moves are made to make teaching a more elite profession, the unions cry foul. They have an endless stream of anecdotes about the teacher with a third-class degree who magically inspires, whilst the Oxbridge first holder inevitably descends into a state rarefied irrelevance.

However, all the evidence from abroad shows that if the best graduates go into teaching, then teaching improves. The trouble is that the vested interests just don't want to meritocracy instead of seniority as a yardstick.

newwave The sort of teacher who would want to teach at a free school would hardly be the sort of teacher who wanted to be part of a teaching union!

That is the whole point, in many ways.

It's the same reason that you don't see Google employees in unions. They know that if they work in a meritocratic organisation which rewards performance, then they are better off without.

Thanks LFN.

I have to say that my opinion is influenced by the dire state of numeracy and literacy skills I have witnessed among PGCE students at a good (redbrick) university. Not knowing how to convert percentages to fractions, how to multiply by ten or 100 quickly, and no understanding of use of apostrophes. I was flabbergasted. They will be teaching the next generation of students!

LFN - Oh! I see where you're coming from. Yes - just chuck any would-be teacher in with a bunch of kids and let them get on with it. How long would you give them? 6 months? A year? Sod the poor kids whose education is completely fucked up because their teacher was unqualified, untrained, had no experience and was actually just giving it a go to see what happened (luckily she had a degree though, or was an ex-businesswoman/soldier/farmer)

It's such a good idea that I think it should be rolled out to other public sector jobs - GPs, maybe, or surgeous. Top thinking LFN - go to the top of the class! Mr Gove will be along shortly to shake you by the hand and offer you a spanking new academy to run.

newwave The sort of teacher who would want to teach at a free school would hardly be the sort of teacher who wanted to be part of a teaching union!

And you know this how and because? just remember that the teachers they recruit will probably be union members already and I believe it would be illegal to inquire about their union membership (and religion, politics and sexual preference) at an interview.

LFN

I said:
Quotes from the ofsted report into school based teacher training (GTP)
DRB stands for Designated Recommending Bodies who are the managers for the various GTP providers.

"In 19 of the DRBs, there were significant weaknesses in identifying and meeting individual training needs and providing a suitable range of teaching experiences. The potential of the second school experience as an integral part of the training was often not fully exploited. "

"Around a third of the DRBs inspected has had significant weaknesses in subject-specific training for secondary trainees. This contrasts with PCGE provision where trainees are usually given a good grounding in how to teach their specialist subject."

a more recent report also showed that the PGCE route was often better at training teachers than the GTP route.

You said:
Donki That's what you get if you only have mediocre teachers, who insist on everything being prescriptive. I can imagine very different results if limited to those graduates in the Teach First programme, for example.

I don't understand how your comment is in anyway a response to the above. Please elucidate.

Donki My point was that this sort of result is inevitable given the poor quality of trainees.

If you choose to limit the survey to the sort of people who should become teachers - namely, those who have a history of succeeding independently at undergraduate level, with rich, varied CVs - rather than a sample overpopulated with third class dropouts who see teaching as a fallback - then I suspect the results would be very different.

What is learnt is not only a function of what is taught. It is also a function of the ability and dedication of the trainee.

Err actually LFN the GTP route is much more likely to be taken by those who are career changers rather than recent graduates.

Also LFN how many weeks during a PGCE do you think are spent in a classroom?

Maypole - you are simply dim beyond reason. I hate to break it to you but many barristers don't have a law degree as it is similar to teaching in that there is a postgraduate conversion you can do.

LFN
From OFSTED:

2009/10 marked the second year of the current cycle. In total, 151 initial teacher education programmes were inspected, including 41 primary, 45 secondary and 26 further education programmes. These programmes were delivered by 39 higher education institution-led partnerships which mostly offered training in more than one age phase and 22 inspections of school-centred initial teacher training partnerships all but one of which offered training in a single age phase. In addition, 39 employment-based
routes were inspected, of which 23 were linked to a higher education institution and 16 were linked to a school-centred initial teacher training partnership.

KEY FINDING..........''There was more outstanding initial teacher education delivered by higher education-led partnerships than by school-centred initial teacher training partnerships and employment-based routes.''

In any case, I suspect the sort of "subject specific skills" they are testing for are precisely the sort of doctrinaire subject specific "skills" designated by the PGCE mandarins as vital. Ofsted was a wonderful institution in the days of Chris Woodhead, one which commanded real respect - but since - especially with Christine Gilbert in charge - it has become a typical quango, spouting endless reams of patronising left-wing nonsense about "inequality".

LFN
"I suspect" is not evidence, not even anecdotal evidence. What is your evidence for what you are saying?

Who do you mean by the PGCE mandarins? The TDA?

nonsense about "inequality".

Hmmm do you think inequality is acceptable then ?.

Then again as a Tory the joys of entrenched privilege and acceptance or rather approval of inequality is probably part of your DNA

Laughing my head off at the thought of Chris Woodhead commanding respect...

I don't believe the evidence - partly because of my inherent bias, but mainly because I have met the sort of social scientists who perform this research and they are universally stupid.

One (who I shall decline to name, but who is a lecturer highly cited by left-wing educational theorists) didn't know about rudimentary statistical hypothesis testing. I am talking really basic stuff here - confidence intervals, etc. - stuff any moderate A-level mathematics student should know.

I have no faith whatsoever in Ofsted, as they have been co-opted by the forces of status quo.

OK LFN You don't believe the evidence. Do you have any counter evidence (rather than belief)?
You will find it hard to convince other people like me without it.

Why should I have to convince people like you? The people to convince are the majority of parents. I'm only arguing so vociferously here because it is so much fun to see left-wingers in such a state of distress.

They have lost this one completely, and their alternatation between denial, resignation, and anger is fantastic to behold.

I believe, in my gut, that the Gove reforms will thoroughly improve the standard of education in this country. I regard education reform as a moral duty - to be failing so many of our children simply because of malign left-wing influence is unacceptable.

In any case, I must sleep now - a busy day tomorrow! It is always great fun eviscerating the left for the total moral vacuum at the very heart of their creed.

LFN
You don't have to convince me of course - but it was me (amongst others) with whom you were debating...

It seems a shame if you are using such an important subject just to wind people up!

Gut feelings are an unreliable guide to formulating effective policy - reasoned and rational thought is usually a better guide. (Although sadly rare - we are all, me included, often blinded or misled by our own biases)

I would agree however that education is vital.
I just don't see Michael Gove as an effective reformer (in the sense of producing improvement).

It is late and I should be asleep, but I read this with increasing disbelief.

I have spent three years training to be a primary school teacher and I've worked bloody hard, in the classroom and out. I'm certainly not in it for the money - british teachers are the lowest paid teachers in Europe, paid half as less than in a number of other countries. I'm doing it because I believe it is a worthy profession that I am passionate about.

The out and out teacher bashing on here from some posters sickens me. I assume that you home school your children in order to avoid subjecting them to people like me?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was LFN who on the one hand said that PGCE courses are full of theoretical twaddle, while on the other said that people should have a degree in child care. What makes you think the theory in that degree would be any less valid than in a PGCE? what makes you think scholars such as Piaget and Bruner and Vygotsky don't have any place ina teachers bank of knowledge? Don't you think teachers should have as much knowlege as possible?

Wales is in the middle of great changes in their education system, using scandanavian countries as a model. These countries, incidentally, have the highest literacy rates in the world. The focus in Wales is on skills, so all children, academic and not so academic, can be good at something.

Gove wants to focus on academia, using china and japan as models. That willsit comfortably with a percentage of children who are naturally academic. I hope your child is one of them, because if Gove gets his way, children that are sporty or good with their hands or can paint wonderfully, they will not be allowed to flourish. That is the vision of the man you are celebrating.

It is late and I should be asleep, but I read this with increasing disbelief.

I have spent three years training to be a primary school teacher and I've worked bloody hard, in the classroom and out. I'm certainly not in it for the money - british teachers are the lowest paid teachers in Europe, paid half as less than in a number of other countries. I'm doing it because I believe it is a worthy profession that I am passionate about.

The out and out teacher bashing on here from some posters sickens me. I assume that you home school your children in order to avoid subjecting them to people like me?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was LFN who on the one hand said that PGCE courses are full of theoretical twaddle, while on the other said that people should have a degree in child care. What makes you think the theory in that degree would be any less valid than in a PGCE? what makes you think scholars such as Piaget and Bruner and Vygotsky don't have any place ina teachers bank of knowledge? Don't you think teachers should have as much knowlege as possible?

Wales is in the middle of great changes in their education system, using scandanavian countries as a model. These countries, incidentally, have the highest literacy rates in the world. The focus in Wales is on skills, so all children, academic and not so academic, can be good at something.

Gove wants to focus on academia, using china and japan as models. That willsit comfortably with a percentage of children who are naturally academic. I hope your child is one of them, because if Gove gets his way, children that are sporty or good with their hands or can paint wonderfully, they will not be allowed to flourish. That is the vision of the man you are celebrating.

To get the best out of any child, teachers and parents need to work together. I was starting my career believing that I would be supported by parents because I have their Childs best interest at heart. You have shown me that there are people out there who will dislike me just on principle, even though I will be working to ensure their child develops into a well rounded person who is aware of their strengths. Obviously, because I have always known that I wanted to teach, I will be an awful teacher. Had I been a secretary or a chef or a cleaner and then decided on a career change, I would automatically be better. No matter that I spent six years volunteering with children with special needs, or that to put myself through university I have worked two jobs or that I now volunteer my own time to work with stroke victims. No. Because I felt I had found a vocation in teaching and made sure I went out and fought for it, I'm no good.

I can't remember the last time I was this angry.

SO

LFN said that her aim was to wind people up......
"I'm only arguing so vociferously here because it is so much fun to see left-wingers in such a state of distress. "

Don't give her the satisfaction....

Very good post, SlightObsession. Keep up the excellent work. Teachers like you are gold dust, and any parent would be thankful to have a good teacher like you instructing their child.

Donki Just because I like riling lefties, doesn't mean I don't believe what I am saying!

Slightobsession, I have never said I think degrees in childcare are worthwhile. When do you think I said that? Also, many of the new academies will explicitly have a non-academic focus, combined with a minimum academic programme so that the basics of English and mathematics are well taught. Some will be technical colleges, other musical, others sporting. You are simply wrong on that front.