Teacher Training
Posted By Laura on February 21, 2006
Apparently, according to Ofsted, many of those who are training on the job to be teachers are not being taught enough [news.bbc.co.uk]. Apparently, the Graduate Teaching Programme, particularly in Secondary Schools, isn’t working as well as it should be and that one in five teachers undertaking this scheme are teaching unsatisfactory lessons, by Ofsted’s standards.
This intrigues me as I was thinking about this the other day. I am currently doing a PGCE in Primary Education and I don’t think I would be comfortable just going into a class and teaching them. I would have no idea what I should be doing with the children, would have no clue what strategies I could use to discipline them, or anything like that. I find it quite crazy that GTP “students” are able to just waltz into a classroom, unqualified and teach a class of 30 children. OK, I know it isn’t that simple as I originally planned on applying for GTP, but it isn’t that far off it. I wouldn’t be comfortable having my child being taught by someone who is learning on the job like this. They don’t know how it works and have no background to education and current issues. Yes, schools have their own policies, but there are many different legal requirements and different strategies that university gives you in order to prepare you for teaching the class. GTP makes it all sound like a walk in the park, that anyone could do it, but I don’t think they could.
So yes, it doesn’t surprise me one tiny little bit that those going through the GTP route are teaching unsatisfactory lessons. They don’t get the training, advice or support that PGCE or BEd students get. They don’t have that support network of other students in similar situations and they wouldn’t have anything for comparrison purposes. If they ended up in a school like my first placement then the GTP student would think that that was the way to do it. However, having been in another school, in a different setting and teaching a different set of kids, I know that my original school wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
And being in a number of different schools, I feel I have more knowledge of various techniques and skills that would be useful as I have seen many different perspectives.
I don’t know how anyone can get through the GTP and be a good teacher. Well done those who have/can prove me wrong.
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