Re-visiting Academic Principles - Specification updates, Shedules, Teaching and Tutoring

Recapping Academic Info

Lots of Notes on Lesson Ideas - looking for new Business Studies buzz or jargon words to be as up to date as possible - e.g. Edutainment 

Thoughts -  We have a cohort of teaching academics who have trained in the days of non-linear specifications and who expect to keep their students reasonably well entertained to make Education Interesting - and this my be in conflict with the current move towards a Linear Curriculum with examinations at the end of two years.  In this scenario here is a hierarchy who believe Education is something of an old fashioned and desk bound written examination activity.  Or at best a kind of demarcated system for the hands-on and the hand-written.

For Example - one of the questions we need to ask is:- Can you learn to mend a car as a mechanic more effectively from a Car Manufacturers Handbook, or a few E-how or Youtube videos from the Manufacturer?

If we are project based students and potentially a Technically savvy Country - is the aim to foster and create the pure academic?

Whatever the focus - the Specification is key.

Quotes on Teaching, Mentoring and Tutoring.


"Teaching is considered the whole class or group working "The art of successful teaching is thus     crucially bound up with developing both decision-making skills and action skills. This distinction between these two types of skills is extremely important, because teaching is as much a thinking activity as it is observable actions.

Teaching involves purposeful and goal-directed behaviour
The level of expertise is evidenced by the display of precision smoothness and sensitivity to context.
They can be improved by training and practice.

... Another key feature of teaching skills is that they clearly draw upon the teachers knowledge about effective teaching (Cooper and McIntyre, 1996; Carlgreen et al
., 1994 ....Shulman (1987) has argued that at the very least this knowledge base includes

1. knowledge about content
2. knowledge about broad principles and strategies of classroom management and organisation
3. Knowledge about curriculum and programmes
4. Knowledge about the teaching of particular content topics
5. Knowledge about pupils
6. Knowledge about educational contexts, ranging from the classroom group to aspects of the community,
7. Knowledge about educational aims and values

...

Mentoring, 

Writings and studies looking at school mentors and their role in the professional development of student teachers and newly qualified teachers have also served to highlight the key skills that need to be developed in the early years of teaching (Kerry and Shelton Mayes 1995 etc)  Indeed the increasingly important role payed by mentors in schools during intial teacher training has indicated that turing effective teachers into effective trainers of new teachers is not unproblematic. ...

Tutoring 

Another aspect of matching work to pupils is the use of one-to-one teaching, sometimes referred to as tutoring.  As well as whole-class teaching and the monitoring of progress and academic tasks, teachers spend much of their time helping individual pupils on a one-to-one basis.  This type of help is a crucial part of effective teaching, not only because of the academic help offered, but also becuase it is a personal and private encounter between the teacher and pupil.  As such, it offers an important opportunity to emphasis your care, support and encouragement for the pupils progress.  IT also provides an important opportunity to assess the pupil's general ability and motivation, and to identify any particular needs." 1

...

1 Chris Kyriacou, Essential Teaching Skills, 2nd Ed, Cheltenham:Stanley Thornes (Publishers) 

    Ltd.,1998,