Quest must go on to solve the mysteries of teaching (19 October)

- In a conversation with one of Mr Donaldson’s HMIs, I was asked why I didn’t “take learning styles into account” in my planning. When I replied with a citation to studies that showed how ineffective and restrictive such planning was, I was marked down. I was then commented upon in feedback sessions and it went a long way to “the end of professional progress” because, as my line manager delighted in saying, “You are not a team player.” That is the reality of the system Mr Donaldson helped to build. That being said, a very good article.

cochrane1964

Number of teacher trainees with a 2:1 rises as entry bar is raised (12 October)

- The quality of your degree is affected by which university you went to. A 2:2 from the Russell Group is much harder to achieve than a 2:1 from some of the newer universities, as can be seen in drop-out rates and the depth at which topics are studied, as well as the academic quality of the staff in these new institutions. Typical PC to accept that all universities are the same when it comes to quality of graduate. I would rather my child was taught by someone with a 2:2 or 3rd who had to get good grades themselves at school rather than a graduate from a jumped-up polytechnic.

unclebas

Geography - plan to save wildcats (12 October)

- There are 129 cats rather than 192, but it still takes hours of fun to track them all down.

janetd41.