Teachers, what is wrong with the education system?

[ColourMeGreen]

England, Wales, NI, Scotland and anywhere else across the world. What's wrong with it, what does it need, how could you reach every child?

[fedup21]

My DD's school have just shortened the infant playtime so they can spend more time on formal learning. They also have to have a mindfulness time every week now because the children are so stressed by all the formal learning they have to do

It’s just getting ridiculous!

[absopugginglutely]

First thoughts... No money + no resources= no power to help children with a range of barriers.

[noblegiraffe]

I don’t think Kazzy is thinking of visualisers when she bangs on about teachers getting with the edtech program.

[whydoibover]

I love my visualiser too! I don't know how I would manage without it. My DD's school have just shortened the infant playtime so they can spend more time on formal learning. They also have to have a mindfulness time every week now because the children are so stressed by all the formal learning they have to do

[Theoverstretchedmultitasker]

Haven't RTFT, but have a look at my thread (it's only day 3 and I've cried already). And politicians should only be allowed to implement changes after extensive consultation with people with actual, recent classroom experience. Why the fuck they thought a one-size-fits-all approach was a good idea for GCSEs God only knows! Put the privately educated twats in a school in a deprived area for a while and then see what they think!

[BelindasGleeTeam]

Love my visualiser. It's my absolute favourite.

[noblegiraffe]

Not entirely sure why I should be excited about writing in a book instead of on an board.

Good for showing pupil work I suppose.

[Piggywaspushed]

Visualisers are all the rage in some schools. I like them but they get in the way on my desk and the novelty wears off after a few uses.

[noblegiraffe]

My department did have interactive whiteboards and we got rid of them. No one was using them interactively, just as a projector.

Couldn’t teach without my projector though, that’s a piece of tech that has definitely improved my teaching. Before then it was OHPs!

[Piggywaspushed]

I think the telling thing about how little teachers feel tech adds to that actual act of teaching is how many schools survive without interactive whiteboards. In my school there is one . Not one per classroom. One.

I'd rather have a decent working, environment, heating that works in the winter, and aircon in the summer than legions of ipads.

The last thing I recall our school investing in was those handheld spellcheckers! So that must have been 15 years ago at least!

[noblegiraffe]

But those are not examples from my subject, anyway.

I know! Kids at my school are always going on about kahoot, that’s not subject specific.

The ones I listed for maths are for at home.

[Piggywaspushed]

No real difference from old fashioned flashcards !

But those are not examples from my subject, anyway.

Anyway, my central point is many schools do not have the money even for basic tech.

[noblegiraffe]

I haven't seen better tech than 'that'.

Maths has great stuff like TimesTables Rockstars, Diagnostic Questions or Hegartymaths. Good for practice outside of lessons.

Languages has got all sorts for learning vocab, flashcards and the like.

[HerRoyalNotness]

In our case if a child doesn’t attain 70% average they’ve failed. That’s right 70%. This leads to teaching to pass tests. Mine have quizzes and tests every week for every subject, tests counting towards grade. If you fail a test you get another opportunity to pass, if you still fail, you get to have a lunch time relearn and test. Not all children are capable of this level. Instead of teaching a love of learning they’re teaching how to regurgitate material to get the grades. Failing leads to summer school or a repeat of the year.

It’s ridiculous and puts undue pressure on the DC. Class sizes are good (23 max), new schools built to accommodate growing communities etc.. but the method of teaching and grading needs a big overhaul.

[Piggywaspushed]

I am fairly sure policing (at its core) and social work have not been utterly transformed by tech. I am not sure frontline NHS /midwifery has either, beyond the essential life saving equipment. Or legal practice, either. Tech is used as a communication tool and to enhance admin in most of those jobs, as it is in schools.

I am extremely sceptical as to what tech adds to or enhances the art of teaching. I accept children are moving into a more technological world but we also need to preserve the human skills of interpersonal communication, writing and reading books.

[BelindasGleeTeam]

Can't afford enough bloody glue never mind tech 🤣

[Piggywaspushed]

I haven't seen better tech than 'that'. In fact, I haven't seen an online text book.

We can't afford it!!

[Pieceofpurplesky]

Also we deal with human kids - unlike other businesses.

[Pieceofpurplesky]

@Kazzyhoward I worked in tech before teaching. The reality is to most teachers we have too much to do to 'play' with the tech on offer. It would be amazing in some instances but with all the content to deliver it's back to the old fashioned way of delivery ...

[noblegiraffe]

Of course teachers have seen better tech than that, there’s some fab software out there.

But not to replace a teacher.

[Kazzyhoward]

they’ve seen it all before.

No doubt because all they've been exposed to is bad tech, like all the other flawed big education initiatives. But have they actually seen the good tech, tech that actually works, tech that is actually useful and adds value?

I'm not convinced that schools are some special case where decent tech can't make a massive difference. I can't think of any other industry, trade, profession, business, organisation, or workplace that hasn't been utterly transformed by tech over the past decade or two.

But, as I say, if some teachers havn't seen anything better than an "online text book" which is nothing more than a pdf of the paper version, then I'm not surprised they're not impressed!

[noblegiraffe]

I saw Daisy Christodoulou talking about EdTech on Saturday. She said it’s a constant cycle of hype followed by disappointment and failure to deliver.

So Kazzy, when you are demanding that teachers be open-minded about tech, remember, they’ve seen it all before.

[Kazzyhoward]

Utter waste of time

Glad to see you're open minded.

[TheWorstWitch11]

Urgh. Technology in lessons. Utter waste of time beyond the basics. As if kids don't have enough access to screens, let's plug them in all day at school too.

[Kazzyhoward]

I think a huge problem for education is that lots of parents are too busy working to be able to have the time, energy and brain space to raise school-ready children.

Sounds a good theory, but not borne out in practice. Most of the failing schools are in run down areas with high unemployment, so the chances are that the parents aren't working, but still aren't spending the time to rise "school ready" kids.

Yet, most of the best schools are in more "normal" areas where both parents are working, so somehow, despite working, the parents have the time to get their kids "school ready".