Gordon Baillie

Getting used to saying Senior Lecturer in Education practice (former AP for L&T/CPD & Literacy/Numeracy/Hmwk (formerly AST). English teacher(sometime trainer).

[Gordon Baillie @AfLPie]

@tombennett71 (2) it's dangerous for someone with a profile like yours to suggest an issue that may exist in isolated examples is commonplace when you accept in other comments and replies that there is a lot of good practice

[Gordon Baillie @AfLPie]

@tombennett71 The "eco-system" of ITE is now more standardised than ever before and the example you share is not a typical example from the UK. Previous legislation, Ofsted requirements, ITaPs etc means that everything you lost is essentially mandatory if accreditation was assured (1)

[Barbara Bleiman 🎓 Education is Conversation @BarbaraBleiman]

This thread is spot on. And when people say science or geography 'vocabulary' has to be taught, it bothers me. Surely teaching 'photosynthesis' or 'erosion' is more than the word? It's the whole idea. The subject content. The subject. Calling it 'vocab' is back to front!

[Barbara Bleiman 🎓 Education is Conversation @BarbaraBleiman]

But not for secondary English teachers. It’s a core subject - a key subject. Schools already have a shortage of subject specialist English teachers. But with no bursary at all, potentially great English teachers will be unable to train. So shortsighted!

[GCSE MACBETH @GCSE_Macbeth]

A simple thing that worked well today. Gave Year 9 a vocab list of "complex emotions" -- powerlessness, resentment, exhaustion etc -- and asked them to apply to characters in the text. Instant improvement in the quality of insights into character.

[Barbara Bleiman 🎓 Education is Conversation @BarbaraBleiman]

A terrific piece by @RebeccaLeek_ about bringing learning to life for children by making connections with their own worlds & lives, harnessing this to teach new ideas & knowledge (with some great comments on the value of poetry!) Thanks too for sharing the link to a poem of mine!

[Barbara Bleiman 🎓 Education is Conversation @BarbaraBleiman]

We continue to bemoan 1/3 students graded below 4 in Eng Lang when
a. grade boundaries are set for that approx proportion
b. Eng Lang GCSE is a poor exam that doesn't test competence in use of lang in a meaningful way
c. marking is erratic, so the results aren't even reliable.

[Barbara Bleiman 🎓 Education is Conversation @BarbaraBleiman]

Well that was fun! (Fun & hard work - not dichotomous or incompatible.) I had everyone doing a few bits of writing, including being required to use a sentence type in a response, to see the impact on cognitive load, their thinking about the text, quality of what was written etc.

[Christopher Such @Suchmo83]

Excellent thread. ⬇️

[Litdrive UK @LitdriveUK]

🐝 English teachers! 🐝

Check out this free CPD from the British Library! https://t.co/M7nWtsB2Pj

[Gordon Baillie @AfLPie]

Agreed. However, this is far too often compromised at the point of recruitment. This, along with off the shelf schemes of work, then continually perpetuates the problem.

[Tom Bennett OBE @tombennett71]

The debate around subject knowledge and pedagogy for teacher efficacy mirrors the debate around student subject knowledge and transferable skills like creativity. You cannot be an effective teacher, no matter how good your pedagogy, if you don’t know what to teach; what to correct; what needs to come next. Effective pedagogy *requires* high levels of subject knowledge. It embodies it. Like being skilful requires content.

[Daryn Egan-Simon @darynsimon]

‘Society, children and young people, and teachers would benefit from a turn towards a more compassionate, compelling and irresistible profession.’

Absolutely, this.

[Christopher Such @Suchmo83]

Up to 8,000 views now.

If you want a short introduction to the science of reading and related principles for teaching, this 9-minute video offers precisely that. ⬇️

[Melissa Benn @Melissa_Benn]

Agreed! Happy birthday - a day late - to a great father and a courageous man.

[Rob Chambers @RobGeog]

"You can't join the dots if you don't have any dots.." - thoroughly enjoyed the excellent webinar on "9 principles of Retrieval Practice" by @C_Hendrick and @HughesHaili on Thursday.

[Barbara Bleiman 🎓 Education is Conversation @BarbaraBleiman]

I totally agree with this. The consensus seems to have somewhat broken down. I see things where I think ‘now that’s really great English teaching’ and others where I have very significant concerns. Both are being viewed as ‘great teaching’ by some, yet they are utterly different.

[Barbara Bleiman 🎓 Education is Conversation @BarbaraBleiman]

For me, classroom approaches need to leave space for students to ask questions, raise uncertainties, add knowledge of their own - knowledge 'made' as well as received. There need to be pauses, time built in for 'But what if...?' 'I didn't get that', 'So does that mean...?' 1/

[Gordon Baillie @AfLPie]

@mathillustrated I'm kicking myself that I got drawn into it to be honest...

[Gordon Baillie @AfLPie]

@adamboxer1 They have to be research informed but respond to the needs of the class, in the school at the point in the curriculum they are at. The incessant irritation with the process of learning to teach is ridiculous when it is as uninformed as this

[Gordon Baillie @AfLPie]

@adamboxer1 What an incredibly narrow conception of the phrase "learning to teach". You seem to conceptualise the process as simply transactional where if they have broad knowledge, they can be more critical and analytical. What they should have is the space to do both of these things

[Gordon Baillie @AfLPie]

@adamboxer1 Ah, the informed discourse of Twitter. I just did a lecture to a PGCE cohort about a practitioner enquiry they will carry out in their classrooms over the next two to three months. It requires them to be immersed in the curriculum of their subject whilst identifying issues