Hi Caroline,

Are you aware of the work of Becky Turner (and colleagues) at Uni of Plymouth? If not, I suggest you have a look at her papers!

http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/r1turner#

When you say in a 'mixed programme', do you mean HE in FE / CBHE?

Regards,

angus

Training may be job or task specific, I believe it is a subject oriented where by individual who are engaged in the teaching profession are being trained on a certain topic to carry out the task effectively in their professional life, which we may termed as a training for the teachers.

Hi Angus

Thanks for the heads up I will be in contact with Becky as it sounds like she and the team at Plymouth are looking into very similar things !

Thanks Surjit

I appreciate your comments, I am looking at the way in which different skills/ knowledge and experiences impact on teaching and then looking at what organisations expect , identifying where there might be a difference. So your comments are very helpful

Hi Caroline,

When you say " the way in which different skills/ knowledge and experiences impact on teaching and then looking at what organisations expect , identifying where there might be a difference", are you investigating between institution types (HEIs, FECs, Schools, Adult Ed, etc?) or teacher training programme types (PGCE, Cert Ed, PTTLs/CTTLs/DTLLs or their replacement)?

Cheers,

angus

It goes a little beyond that - I am looking a professional courses such as CILEX, LPC , NALP with external criteria for professional status- and then thinking about who teaches on those courses., how they are supported in terms of their dual professional status teaching and in this case law - in order to maintain the rigour of the qualification. I am finding that traditional teaching methods often preferred such as the lecture are being supplanted by more adventuous pedagogy but that there is a resistance to change by those who have had no or little Teacher training.

Hi

Today we have many teachers with the required qualifications.

But they are not trained teachers.

According to me .... A trained teacher goes beyond the subject and curriculum.

Especially at level 4 - 6............ a teacher needs to inculcate values and inspire them along with the subject.

We can use hypothesis test to quantify the impact of teachers training after developing a proper set of questions during feedback.

Thanks for these commenta

HI Sasirekha

I am interested in your comment about required qualifications being not enough, do you mean subject specific qualifications and/or teaching - in relation to TT for professional / vocational subjects as well as theoretical ones - I am teaching legal ethics at the moment so this bridges most elements of values etc - does the TT that you have been involved with address the concept of role and responsibility in relation to life / employment as it relates to the subject ?

J , I am interested in all elements of developing teacher quality and certainly addressing impact is one of them - but I guess the issue also arises the impact for whom?

In terms of also of using hypothesis testing it is important as you say to develop proper questions which relate to teacher training but carrying out an impact study can also leave additional qualitative areas somewhat less explored. I am using for my research Q method to address both quant and Qual issues so I am hoping that this will allow me to capture as much data as possible!

Thanks again

Yes for quantitative study data set should be large, so that a steady pattern is observed.

Hi Caroline,

when I meant required qualifications .... I was mentioning about the academic and educational qualifications of a teacher. All the teachers do have the aca. qualifications.But certainly they are not trained.

What is more essential for a trained teacher is dealing with the psyche of children.

I personally feel that training on children psychology is the most required qualification for any teacher along with their respective subject.

Having taught for over 20 years, from what I can ascertain as the educational curriculum now, they are taught many subject areas, but they are lacking the classes we had to take back in the day. We were taught all the different ways people learn and how to use them simultaneously to capture ALL students attention. Only from experience can you learn all the different students behaviors and how to master the timing of certain classes. The truly sad part of the educational teaching process, are teachers do not have the support they once did from their superiors or experienced persons. Most persons who run the schools, they themselves have not been in a classroom, nor have they dealt with the issues that occur during class time, but yet they tend to dictate to the teachers how to run them. 2nd, the teacher having the information a lot of times cannot pass the information forward, because they do not know it well enough to express what they are truly trying to convey. This takes much research and daily learning on the teachers part to have the full understanding of what they are teaching and how to present. 3rd, as far a STARS testing or the Nationalized tests that are presented to our students in public schools as pass or fail, are ridiculous. It is not enough to pass out handouts with no books or much information on a worksheet, do it once and expect the student to do well in class, on test or in the world. I may have gotten to deep and cannot quite articulate this, but there are many layers to teaching and if admin wants to delete portions of programs, this is where the problem begins. Let's also not forget the fact of pay and raises, which is a whole other ballgame on its own!!!!

Great discussion. Is developed a better word than trained. I think of training dolphins or dogs, but acting as a guide to the side in a mutual mentorship approach to help teachers develop their unique talents for the work. Agree that knowing a topic is far from teaching that topic - and different parts of the brain are used for each:-) Best, Ellen

Christine, thanks for your detailed response to why we refrain from "training" here at the brain center.

I was interested to see you raised the fact that to know a thing differs deeply from teaching that thing. Yes -- we heartily agree. In reality these two functions operate from different parts of the brain. That fact in reality, as we see it strengthens our case to facilitate and help teachers develop skills to teach what they know by respectfully walking alongside in a more mutual mentoring approach, (rather then train them).

One way we do that is by developing active learning and assessment tools to support faculty talents. Another way to to coach and support teachers to teach in ways that human brain learn best. That includes dozens of prompts to help them run from lectures and engage multiple intelligences in higher ed. Students love it, faculty love it and grades are higher:-)

Thanks for your thoughtful weigh-in:-) Ellen

Hi

Thanks for these helpful comments, I am interested in where there is a dissonance between what teachers say and do - why they might strive for a constructivist approach let's say but then when it comes down to it they will choose to teach in a behviourist way? Is this because the organisation does not espouse the same teaching and learning approach or the assessment methods lead the teaching and learning process rather than doing what is right for student/ lecturer and beyond ?

Just a thought!

Hi Caroline,

Stating "assessment methods lead the teaching and learning process" orientates the discussion towards Ofsted being the driver of teacher actions, at least in England. This is very much what I am reading in Norfolk County Council's action plan response to a recent Ofsted review that was particularly poor on their performance. The main areas and effort of support being offered to schools by the Council are focussed at the leadership and Governance level of activity. Therefore, institutions' activities are dictated by top-down forces (institutional reporting structures) rather than bottom up (the 'best interests of students') - can the two align in harmony? Is this dominance of top-down forces to be the expected bottom line when education is managed by economic approaches at the institution scale?

Teachers I work with tell me they have few resources other than lectures that they feel can "cover curriculum," I developed brain based task cards that students can take to any lectures - and these active prompts help to transition teachers from talking or delivering to coaching and supporting innovative discoveries in class. It's fun when you take the leap -- but takes support until that time. Here's what I see as 100 reasons to run from lectures:-) http://www.brainleadersandlearners.com/ellen-weber/100-reasons-to-run-from-lectures/

Others likely have better reasons:-) Thoughts? Ellen