retired_mandyg

What do you teach?

retired_navy0614

A-Level History/Politics most of the time. I have been shoved into Geography, GCSE Humanities and Psychology classes for shits and giggles occasionally though. Boy that was fun.

PGCE taught me nothing about methods, and especially not subject knowledge - although being a PC course it wasn't segregated into subject groups which may have had an affect in that regard.

retired_mandyg

Whats the main method you use for those? Lecture?

retired_navy0614

There is no main method, I vary it all the time.

retired_mandyg

ok, fair enough. I don't teach those kinds of subjects so I can't really comment but I would imagine you'd be more effective in the areas you know about.

retired_navy0614

There's the basic structure of tasks that allows you to essentially use the same task(s) over and over in different lessons, even subjects just by changing the information. And it's in vogue for teaching these days for very little emphasis to be upon teacher talk/lecture style, and to essentially take a backseat and let the kids get on with it (especially in group work.)

That's why you can afford to not be proficient in subject knowledge. Although I can very much see in a vocational/technical subject like IT you need to be proficient with computers, of course. But you don't need to be trained to be proficient, it's just an obsession with certification rather than letting people show how proficient they are in the practical interviews that are pretty much part of any job spec these days.

retired_mandyg

What sort of tasks they do? I'm interested because it's quite far removed from my subject area. Like you said, the vogue right now is that of facilitator which suits my area quite well as I can just demonstrate something on the whiteboard and spend the rest of the session providing help. It's not all I do but pretty much suits most lessons.

retired_navy0614

Well you've got the basic group structure, where you get them to do certain things in groups;

There's the home/expert approach, working on seperate topics then reporting back to collate it, everyone working on the same topic and just picking out a bit of feedback from each group...

Then the basic task that can be adapted;

diamond nines; role plays; cloze; Q+A; brainstorming; matching; debates; questions (singular, in pairs, whatever); source work; videos w/ accompanying worksheets (otherwise they just jerk off; lazy gits); a powerpoint almost lecture style I've done a couple of times that has varying tasks from a worksheet; the odd rare short lecture/powerpoint...

Basically everyone's big on variety, because the poor little mites have poor attention spans.

retired_hvporter

Plus it is as dull as hell to teach using the same method time and again. Death by PowerPoint/group work/etc.

retired_ks reddy

Teachers. Lightweights.