The Teaching Delusion: Why teaching in our schools isn't good enough (and how we can make it better)

Product Information

When it comes to teachers receiving high-quality feedback that helps them improve their teaching, we have a serious issue in our schools.

The Teaching Delusion

Learning intentions and success criteria - this is an interesting one, and one of the few things where I disagree with Robertson. There is an argument that giving a good explanation is what separates a teacher from a subject expert: they both know their stuff, but not every expert can explain this to others, especially kids.Ideally there is a mix of leaders and teachers in this group, and my plan is to open it up next term. Those who’ve been giving feedback telling teachers to ‘differentiate more’, ‘talk less’, or ‘let students lead their own learning’ have a lot to answer for. Next Robertson moves on to think about planning schoolwide improvement, and the quote above is given in that context. We’re not dealing with a ‘chicken or egg’ situation that is up for debate: the fact is, specific knowledge must be taught beforespecific skills can be developed. If we want them to be able to perform a particular dance (a different skill), they first need to learn specific procedural knowledgeabout this dance.

The Teaching Delusion A 3-Minute Discussion of: Independent - The Teaching Delusion

Whilst there are things we can do to push students to work hard, ultimately that is not in our control, so Robertson focuses on the former. It is based around the idea discussed at the start of this post, that all teachers can improve their practice, and so should be doing so.Success criteria is more interesting, and whilst I once again disagree that they need to be made explicit to students (in my subject anyway), having a clear question that can be asked to evidence their performance against would be useful. Without being clear about what you are looking for, meaningful assessment and feedback is not possible. In checking that students understand what deforestation is, the teacher would be looking to see evidence relating to each success criterion. When performing a skill, you are applying specific knowledge of things you know about (declarative knowledge) or how to do (procedural knowledge). I do not believe that students need to be shown the learning intention, but I certainly agree that they should be at the forefront of teacher planning.