What makes a good teacher?

At the invitation of the Cambridge Assessment agency, a group of experts gathered at Westminster to pool their research knowledge and grapple towards a definition of a "good teacher".

Professor Patricia Broadfoot, a former Professor of Education and now vice-chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire, argued persuasively that the evidence from international studies showed that "the highest quality teaching and learning comes when we have the greatest autonomy for the teacher and the learner".

The good teacher, she went on, was someone who was "left to get on with what they think their students need".

This certainly sounded like a rejection of the prescriptive approach of the national curriculum and the numeracy and literacy strategies. Professor Broadfoot went on to propose a much more child-centred approach.

While insisting she was not advocating a "soft and fluffy" style of teaching, she argued that research showed that a good teacher had to engage with "the powerfully charged emotional relationship between teacher and pupil".

So, for Professor Broadfoot, the key ingredients of good teaching included: creating an atmosphere of mutual respect and fairness in the classroom, providing opportunities for "active learning" and humour to encourage pupil engagement, making learning interesting, and explaining things clearly.

More on this here

What's going on?

"Teachers in England and Wales will get pay rises above the 2% inflation target set by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The three-year pay deal will mean increases of 2.45% in September 2008 and 2.3% in each of the following two years, says Schools Secretary Ed Balls."

So is it an above expected rise, or a paycut?

It looks good when compared to other public workers (take the nurses at 1.9%, and the police at 1.9% effective too), but when you look at the retail price index of 4.3%  the rise still leaves us 2% below that - in effect cutting salaries. Of course, the government doesn't work on the RPI, but uses the consumer price index (this excludes mortages / rents) and claims that, with the CPI being 2.1%, it's  a pay rise we're getting.

You decide who you want to believe.

Back from BETT

Well it was a useful Saturday at Bett and I've come away with the following;
* Smart's airliner looks like a nifty piece of kit. No more blocking the board whilst writing on it.
* RM have a great looking micro laptop.
* Sherston's online  channels have potential to be awesome
* In the battle of the visualisers, Elmo were apalling at their sales talk, Geneevision wiped the floor with them (and secured an order).
* 2Simple have basic control software that even a chimp could operate. Just a shame that the lego part of it is so expensive.

Other things noticed were that Saturday is a better day to visit if you want to talk to reps at stands. There is room to move without being caught in Stampedes.

Olympia or Bust

Off to Bett tomorrow (Saturday, I know!) to take a peek at what is new in the world of education technology. I have several companies that I want to get to to ask certain questions, and then there are the other companies that I just know are going to catch my eye.
I am particularly interested in finding out more about;

• Short throw projectors built into whiteboards
• Wifi projectors
• Online content to use in the classroom
• Video conferencing hardware

as well as seeing the latest software from major companies.
I'm sure that something will catch my attention whilst there, and then I'll post it here.

So, early to bed ready to travel (first class :-)) ) bright and early.

Report to me NOW!

So I see that Jin Knight, schools minister, has announced that by 2012 all schools must provide "real time reporting" on every child. Now, I have nothing against technology - in fact I love the stuff - or against reporting as it can provide a valuable insight of a childs progress, but to turn the annual report to parents, and the face to face parents evenings, into a cold digit on a computer screen is wrong.

It's fine to use the "real time" technology to access a bank account online at anytime, but children are not bank accounts. They have good weeks and bad weeks, and their results can vary because of this. Speaking to a parent about a dip in progress can reveal unkown factors distracting the child. Explaining why a child has not progressed as well as expected in a subject can reassure a parent and avoid confrontations.

Take that away, and a black digit on a screen, given out of context with no explanation can do so much more harm.

Sometimes technology is not the right thing to use. This is one of those times.