Subject Presentations
SUBJECT PRESENTATIONS
Conclusions of all the delegates’ discussions at the Residential programme were presented by Teacher Leaders to a panel of educationalists on the final morning. The texts are reproduced below.
ENGLISH
There has been a clear commitment to our subject specialism this week, with speakers of high quality re-enthusing us and reminding us why we came into English teaching. Quality is at the essence of the PTI; and if we want quality teachers and a high level of pupil engagement, then we need quality CPD – as we have had here.
Sir Tom Stoppard talked to us about of the unique place of metaphor in literature and its power to stimulate the imagination. Dr Fred Parker reminded us about the power of stories: how they not only give pleasure but help us to deal with difficult things. They give us a vocabulary and a framework for making sense of a world of increasing complexity, enabling us as teachers to address our pupils’ emotional education. Dr Gavin Alexander delved into the history of story with a fascinating exploration of the relevant etymology. He made clear the evolving links between ‘telling’ and ‘re-counting’, and the transference of cultural concepts through story: ‘to tell a tale is part of our human story’. Professor Helen Cooper considered stories behind the lines – of poetry. The simplicity of the verse she chose belied the complexity of the message it carried.
The seminars included Hester Lees Jeffries exploring Myths in Bits, where we were encouraged to find resonance and echoes of memory in Yeats and Shakespeare; and Robert McFarlane who took us through an altogether more disturbing narrative with the apocalyptic novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, inviting us to consider how the lean impersonal language resonates with a readership perhaps immune to the environmental disasters on our doorstep.
Our sessions in group workshops have been of immense practical value in sharing good practice, especially the one with the Royal Shakespeare Company that makes drama such fun. But the most important message came from the pupils who addressed us at the outset: six remarkable young people who were clearly inspired by the quality and vigour of their teachers to go beyond the textbooks and seek out knowledge for themselves. And that is the challenge for us teachers, to facilitate and inspire young people to seek out their own stories and their own way forward.
Kathy Johns
Challenges and Issues in English Teaching
The future looks very exciting for us as English teachers. There does appear to be a new freedom, certainly at Key Stage 3, to enjoy a rich and challenging diet of literature. So we have discussed the need for structures to be established to ensure that all our students are able to experience the breadth of great literature and, crucially, freedom within this to choose the right texts: texts which speak to and inspire us and our students. Our collective passion for nurturing a love of reading has been at the centre of much of our discussion, as has our aim in expanding the horizons and experience of our students by engaging them in a wide variety of challenging literature, stories ancient and contemporary, national and international.
We are in an educational world which prioritises skills and conceptual connections above the need for pupils to gain real knowledge. Those who design Initial Teacher Training and Continuous Professional Development need to consider how far they are helping to develop this essential subject expertise. The challenges are for ITT to attract the very best teachers and ensure that they become experts across the required breadth; for CPD to keep this expertise up to date and teachers deeply engaged with their subject; and for links between schools and universities to ensure that we work together to achieve these aims.
Inspections, League Tables and other accountability measures should be helping us to celebrate the best of what we do rather than chastising us for shortcomings against a predetermined checklist. Structures are needed to encourage teaching that best delivers exciting, enriching, challenging and deep learning for pupils. We want to go beyond superficial analysis which allows schools to gloss over the surface and merely encourages teaching to the inspection requirements.
What systems would encourage brilliant subject-based CPD, challenging and rigorous courses for pupils, inspiring trips and visits, and deep thinking and coherence? Because the current system doesn’t.
The view of many teachers is that current specifications at GCSE and A Level offer a fragmented, often narrow and reductive experience. With modular courses and the loss of teaching time through the introduction of an AS year, the assessment system is promoting a bite-sized, one-size-fits-all model. This seriously hampers good teaching. So how can an assessment model be found which encourages depth, rigour, enjoyment and passion, and which gives back to teachers the freedom to teach?
Eve Meyers-Belkin
HISTORY
Why History matters
A key theme through all the lectures, seminars and workshops of this Summer School has been the question of why History matters. Lord Richard Wilson in his key note address stated that “No-one in public life should be in a position of power unless they have some grasp of why we are where we are.” We would add that it is not just those in power who should have this understanding, but every citizen.
Michael Wood showed us how his latest project on uncovering the history of the village of Kibworth created a stronger sense of community among the local people who were involved in it and gave them a greater understanding of themselves.
Sean Lang then painted for us a vivid and disturbing picture of a nation without history. We would be like children, struggling to understand our world. We would be guided only by arrogance and prejudice when making decisions about the future. The argument that we can easily access what we need to know by using technology is a dangerous one, confusing information with knowledge. It is vital that information is processed with a background of understanding. One of the pupils from St Angela Ursuline echoed this point when she said in her presentation that we can only be confident in research when fully grounded in the subject.
We are not talking about any old History; not a mix-and-match of unconnected topics or a History subsumed in an integrated thematic course; but a proper, coherent, chronologically based study of the past – which, needless to say, requires time. Unfortunately, for various reasons, the picture of a people ignorant of history is not a flight of fancy. History in schools is under pressure. If education is about the transfer of knowledge and understanding of the world we inhabit, as I believe it surely is, and if it is about preparing young people to be able to make important decisions and fully participate as citizens, then a coherent course of History must be taught in all schools to all pupils.
Liz Hutchinson
Teacher Training
The PTI Summer School has been well received by the History delegates as it has satisfied a desire for high level and rigorous subject-specific training. Enlightening as the lectures have been in their own right, the speakers have also been aware of our needs as schoolteachers and the workshops have enabled us to translate ideas into classroom practice.
Another strength of the Summer School is the experience of networking with other schools, enabling delegates to connect in a meaningful way with like-minded colleagues. Teachers who have been inspired and reinvigorated in this way are taking their enthusiasm back into the classroom to the benefit of their pupils.
But the PTI is more than just an annual Summer School. It is also developing a number of other approaches to teacher training with a strong knowledge component: the one-day courses, the Schools Programme, and now the Masters degree courses being planned at Cambridge and Warwick Universities. These together constitute CPD of the highest quality, prompting me for one, after a fascinating day with inspirational speakers on Charles I earlier this year, to revisit the topic and revise our schedules of work.
These initiatives deserve all possible recognition and support.
Joanne Bissell
GEOGRAPHY
Why Geography matters
We have devoted quite a bit of time this week to discussion of why Geography is important. Here are some of the reasons suggested:
- That it is topical and relevant to everyday life
- That it questions why things happen, and provides answers in terms of both physical processes and social interactions
- That it gives us a sense of place, both locally and globally
- That it helps pupils to make decisions about their future and the impact they are likely to have
- That it links with other subjects in a unique manner, to provide students with a co-ordinated understanding of the world around them
- That it gives opportunities for experiencing the subject outside the classroom.
These ideas have been strongly reinforced at the Summer School: by the range of lectures from eminent academics and the lively debate that has followed, by the accounts of exciting mountain journeys given by our after-dinner speakers, Jake Meyer and Michael Wood; by the sharing of best practice between colleagues and the discussions of how best to engage students and help them to enjoy the subject and develop as geographers (for example a school project to map local crime hot-spots in accordance, first, with their own perceptions, and then with the official data); and by our visit to the British Antarctic Survey. The stated aims of the BAS are: unlocking the past, understanding the present, predicting the future, exploring the unknown. There could be no better summary of the unique value of Geography, and all young people should be allowed to experience it.
Robert Lang
What we want for Geography
By general agreement, CPD focused on subject knowledge is essential for all our teachers. Geography as a subject never stops changing, in terms of both knowledge and concepts. We engage students with a changing world and we would like to see more opportunities for all teachers, including trainees, to attend high quality lectures from academics, as we have been privileged to do, in order to secure subject rigour and development.
Many teachers this week have commented on how traditional but non-core subjects like Geography have been squeezed out of the curriculum. The increasing demand on schools to provide, for instance, citizenship education, personal social and health education, enterprise education, and vocational courses at 14-19, has put immense pressure on curriculum time. Many schools and academies are also opting for a competency curriculum as well as a shorter Key Stage 3. We would like to see a curriculum which acknowledges Geography’s central role in every child’s education: one that puts geographical knowledge at the forefront and recognises its power as a subject.
The students that opened this year’s Summer School made it clear that their most rewarding learning experiences happen outside the curriculum. Geography, like no other subject, offers a great variety of these experiences through fieldwork and curriculum enrichment. We would like this work by teachers to be specifically recognised during Inspections. This would give teachers a platform for negotiation with those Headteachers who are unwilling to release teachers to go on visits or to fund curriculum-enriching projects.
Field trips require a great deal of planning and preparation. Delegates this week feel frustrated about the new controlled assessment regime which requires a different field trip each year and favours students in schools with accessible ICT resources. Many prefer coursework as an alternative, as it offers students more choice and wider scope for investigation. We would therefore like the appropriate bodies to reconsider controlled assessment.
Geography has been a subject in the vanguard of embracing new technologies. It has moved into 21st century schooling through the compulsory use of GIS, packages such as Google Earth and GPS, as well as a range of other multi-media technologies. What we envisage in the future is an inspection regime that gives recognition for this work.
All we ask as Geography teachers is for acknowledgement of what the subject offers to all students in all schools, so that we can continue to enhance their learning experience.
Jonathan Gunzi