Most of the materials I write or courses I facilitate encourage people to think about the learner before the teacher. Most of my key messages are about being learner focused, at the planning stage, the participation stage and when recording and assessing progress.
A recent Training the Trainers course with a surgeon colleague led us to consider the three different types of curriculum: the specified, enacted and experienced curriculum. I was as usual emphasising the point that as educators and trainers we tend to focus more on the first two - ie what is laid down to be taught, and what we need to 'deliver' at the expense of what our learners are experiencing and where that takes them.
The surgeon involved has taken this concept and mapped it onto a whole training programme for a set of operative skills in a most inspiring way, using other learning and assessment ideas to ensure that skills in this area can be learned in a structured, supported and cascaded environment. His ideas were the most exciting ones I have seen in years. I shall share them in greater detail once they have been written up.
What this conversation led me to do was to revisit the Open University materials with which I worked for 9 years on curriculum and learning. The chair of that OU course has been re developing that course and I came across part of her revised work in a very useful article which summarises the key ideas of the course.
I post the link here and encourage anyone involved in training and education to read it. It encapsulates most of my philosophy on learning and teaching and gives us all food for further thought.
http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/24800_01_Murphy(OU_Reader)_Ch_01.pdf
Happy reading and do let me know what you think.
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Hi
ReplyDeleteJust to say I've checked in for the first time in ages. This is a really good blog y'know. I like the latest article from your surgeon but also really enjoyed the 'some have teaching thrust upin them' post. Was thinking about the fact that so many schools now employ 'cover supervisors' for when teachers are away. They have little traning, now qualifications in teaching, and are expected not only to deliver content but to maintain order. Something that I intend to address next term....
Hi Jan
ReplyDeleteI am appalled to hear that teachers are employed in schools without a Teaching Qualification. Would police officers be asked to roam the streets without adequate training (oh yes, they are called PCSOs....) would nurses be asked to look after patients without necessary training....(erm, aren't they called Healthcare assistants?) funny that....lets look at the non service/public professions then.....would we allow judges to sit without having been in a court before? Would you want a defence lawyer who had not actually been trained to the same level as the prosecution barrister? A train driver who had not be trained? A pilot who was a volunteer and had been god at arcade games but not actually educated to fly a plane.....Why is it one rule for us and quite another for them?
I have just read In Stitches by Dr Nick Edwards http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stitches-Highs-Lows-AandE-Doctor/dp/1905548702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245496146&sr=1-1 so my overly political statements here may have been influenced by his rants about the state of society today.