Trends and fads in education come and go and we need to be cautious of not becoming overly influenced by the latest craze doing the rounds on Twitter.
Experience should tell us that instead of jumping in with both feet when a new concept is introduced, we should analyse it with a critical eye and consider carefully whether or not it would be beneficial for our staff and the students we teach.
We should also be mindful of sources – from where has this educational concept originated? Is it founded upon a solid base of educational research from a trustworthy organisation?
It is easy for a convincing blog to have an influential sway on the opinions and practice of teachers. However, we should always treat these with a degree of caution and not expect them to be “out-of-the-box” solutions for our problems. I live by two quotes:
The first from Stephen Covey: “Everything works somewhere, but not everything works everywhere.” The second from Michael Fullan: “Strategies only travel successfully with nuance.”
These resonate because I know that the context of each school is unique and it is naïve to think that just because a strategy has worked in one setting then it is guaranteed to have the same impact elsewhere.
For example, my approach to observing lessons has evolved over time and has been influenced by working in senior leadership positions in three schools. Each context has been different and therefore I have adapted the methods and rationale to suit the needs of the schools and teachers. Each iteration has uncovered new perspectives on why, when and how observations occur.
It wasn’t so long ago that most schools were using Ofsted judgements to make decisions on the quality of teaching in one-off observations (even now some schools are still to move away from this). However, for some time now, the focus on my rationale has a more developmental approach (the myth-busting work from Ofsted has contributed significantly to this).
More than ever in education we have unprecedented opportunities to collaborate and communicate with fellow professionals and this exposes us to many different approaches.
I read with interest a number of blogs recently that celebrated the complete removal of lesson observations from the quality-assurance processes of schools. Rather than a constant cycle of checking, they would trust the professionals in their classrooms and provide them with a level of professional freedom.
I love the idea of engendering high levels of trust among the teaching staff in schools, as much of this has been eroded away through an obsession with quality-assurance and the high-stakes, high-accountability culture that has plagued our profession.
However, could we adopt this approach in all schools? Would this work in a school where the quality of teaching is substandard, where behaviour is not good or where students are not achieving well? How can we expect teachers to become more effective if they receive no feedback or coaching that relates to the core purpose of their profession?
When it comes to challenging questions like these, the “parent test’ always provides me with a strong guiding principle. If my child was in the class of a teacher where the quality of delivery was poor, the relationships with students were not conducive to learning, or where behaviour prevented learning from occurring, would I be satisfied with this teacher not being supported to improve? Would I be happy for the situation to be left unmonitored by the school?
Ultimately, I think it is important to keep things as simple as possible and keep the core focus of our work as the core focus. We are employed to educate young people and we must invest the majority of our time, resources and energy into becoming even more effective as teachers. Yes, we should use educational research as a strong foundation for our strategies and we should also engage in dialogue with professionals and experts outside of our schools to ensure we do not become too insular. But we must cast a critical eye over all this information and ensure we apply it effectively to the context of our schools to ensure these nuanced strategies travel successfully.
- SecEd’s headteacher diarist is in his fourth year of headship at a secondary school in the Midlands.