[quote Tallybeebloom]@kurtrussellsbeard
Btw I'm not saying I'm a genuinely talented professional in case I'm accused of sour grapes here. smile As mentioned in a previous post I just about shit myself daily at what I still need to learn.
It definitely doesn't come across that way at all. In my experience the best teachers have often been those with the attitude you describe, knowing they always have more to learn and questioning practice which means they are constantly learning and developing as teachers (and learners themselves). The problem is that often these teachers don't think they have the knowledge or experience to go for leadership roles, and instead they go to those with less experience but with an attitude and air of 'I know what I'm doing', even when it's far from the truth. The problem is when these people get leadership roles, they automatically see themselves as the expert and don't see the gaps in their own knowledge. One of the teachers I mentioned before (who had been teaching less than 5 years before becoming a head teacher) led a staff development session for a group of teachers, someone asked a question which he answered completely incorrectly with absolute confidence. When I asked him afterwards where he got his information from he told me, "oh when people ask you questions like that you just make up the answer on the spot".
@starryeyesurprise
Ok, they must have been class teachers before promotion though. It's near impossible I'd think to become a PT with no teaching experience ( in Scotland).
They need to have classroom experience but someone moving into leadership roles with limited experience is problematic as we then end up with people at the top, making key decisions, without the fundamental understanding that's required to make such decisions.[/quote]
Of course people should gain experience before gaining promotion. It's the same in any industry and the teaching profession is much more regulated in Scotland than some of the other UK countries hence my fear over the Internal Market Bill / Academies being introduced here. .
Re improvements- I'd love to use my six sigma training to streamline and amalgamate a lot of what teachers do. Education should be more centralised- councils have too much autonomy.
There are brilliant resources that aren't communicated to us very well so teachers continually re invent the wheel. The Education Scotland website needs to be made much more user friendly. - we tend to hear about resources via e mail from our HT.
Glow is good, love Tig Tag for example but take it a step further. Have our progression frameworks on there for all curricular areas alongside resources .
There's a lot of CPD so that's good but I find it hard to fit it into my own time so going back to releasing teachers for courses would be good.
Re assumption of mainstream - doesn't work and I know of families where the nursery and family didn't want mainstream for two autistic boys yet child psychologist ( who doesn't know the children) decided on mainstream places. The nursery had to quietly say to the family to take the council to court. Again, the Government needs a better, centralised structure in place and to force councils back to opening units for ASN children. The leader of education at our council is quite harsh to say the least.
Oh, more music specialists in schools. Pupils should have access to this from a young age. I've had one in some schools and not in others.
School lunches- I feel these could be improved. I was in school.today and I thought that for one wee soul, it's probably all he's getting. Go back to school cooks * I know some schools still have them but ours doesn't.
Scotland's education isn't terrible, it's good and I certainly don't think the standard of teaching has declined. I remember higher chemistry - my teacher literally just sat and read a textbook aloud. I got an A but I was studious. I can't believe all the bells and whistles teaching that goes on.
Re maths - I don't remember having the concrete materials we have nowadays to support learners. We still use textbooks- Heinemann, TJ and now Leckie and Leckie are all fantastic. The biggest change I see * re the teaching the different methods. The whole point of this is so that the children understand why there are doing something and to find a strategy which works for them. Those that are naturally good at maths will work out a problem by for example adding on two to get to the nearest ten and then taking the two off the other number but most won't think to do this unless shown. I also tell children what carrying and exchanging means in column subtraction ( ten units can be exchanged for one tens etc) yet I was never taught this and just carried out the steps. I got the right answers but had no understanding behind it.
In summary, it's all there- the Gov just need to join the dots a little better.
Apologies for waffling!!