Anyone who has been near a school when the bell goes for home time, or has lunched in a school dining area, may question the idea that teaching can be a lonely profession.
Even the classroom set up, with anything up to 33 pupils and the teacher, seems to suggest that ‘lonely’ is not an appropriate adjective.
However, teachers will tell you that once that classroom door is shut, it is possible to sense a quite disorientating isolation. What is happening next door? Why does Mr Blogs never have any problems with this class? Do my colleagues teach this topic like this, and if not, why not? Am I doing right?
Ultimately, in working with pupils, a teacher operates solo. Now, of course, there are many mitigating circumstances in this. The support of departmental and senior colleagues should be, and is, a crucial element in a teacher’s approach to his tasks.
In-Service courses, both in school and between schools, locally and nationally, enable a sharing of practice and experience which is invaluable.
The fact remains though, that when that door is shut, metaphorically or otherwise, the teacher is in control of their own teaching destiny, and it’s difficult to avoid wondering about what is happening in other classrooms and how you measure up to your colleagues. Lucky the teacher with the confidence to never wonder!
Thankfully, the need to share and discover is being recognised for teachers – just as it is for pupils in the Curriculum for Excellence. Recent announcements suggested that training programmes, especially for primary teaching students, would be more school based, giving them chance to see and share first hand what happens in the classroom, and providing an extended opportunity for advice from seasoned professionals. This makes demands of established staff as well as students – but is a step in the right direction.
Last week, Cabinet Secretary for education, Mike Russell, in a key note speech, promoted the idea that schools with similar demographics but with differing levels of academic attainment should be paired with each other – enabling staff at all levels to compare and contrast, gain perspective and access new ideas.
However, the most effective ideas in this area are still to be found within each of our schools. There is no substitute for an awareness of your own colleagues’ approaches with the same pupil population as your own.
Though resource intensive, the opportunity to observe colleagues, to shadow pupils, and to share classes – and equally important – the opportunity to feedback and reflect on these activities, is of huge importance and impacts greatly on a school’s effectiveness in all manner of means.
One of the best exercises I have seen in this area is the use of ‘Learning Rounds’, where teams of teachers, pupils and others observe in class, focusing on the learning rather than the teaching, and then feedback on what they have discovered.
The input from pupils, especially, can be dynamic, clear and extremely useful in reinforcing established good classroom practice and suggesting different perspectives and approaches.
A good teacher needs an accurate sense of self, and the support of all around in the school community. Sharing, observation, and feedback are all ways of providing the necessary reflection.
Our teachers should be singular – but they shouldn’t be alone.
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