WALLACE ON...
...TEACHERS AS EXPLORERS
more explicitly and more eff ectively
through our communities of practice.
The findings showed that once tutors
had been encouraged to explore and
harness creative teaching strategies,
they began devising new learning
experiences for students that helped
accelerate their learning.
One focus was on a Functional Skills
English course, with sessions based
around the theory of Self-Organised
Learning Environments (SOLE).
The students welcomed the fact that
they could do research in groups on
the internet, and then give feedback on
what they had discovered to the class
and their tutor.
DIVERSE NEEDS
This approach accelerated the gaining
of literacy skills, and the students also
became self-advocators: realising that
they had views of their own, had a right
to be heard and were able to identify
ways to get themselves heard.
The students became so confident
that they were able to present at an
NHS conference on the appropriateness
of literature produced for patients with
diverse needs.
In collaboration with Dr Anne Preston
at the University of Newcastle, we
designed a Self-Advocacy SOLE Toolkit
which is now published and available
for use in many diff erent educational
settings (see below). What we need is
more research and examples of how
creating the space and environment
for staff to explore new ideas and their
own practice brings about tangible
benefits for students and institutions
(it almost feels like this should be in
the common inspection framework).
We may surprise ourselves and find
that there is room for reasonable
experimentation, unfettered by FE’s
pre-requisite yardsticks.
Professor
Susan Wallace
is emeritus
professor of
education at
Nottingham
Trent University.
She is an author
and expert on
behaviour
management.
By Susan Wallace
We talk increasingly these days of further education teachers ‘delivering’
the curriculum.
But it may be worth pausing for a moment to consider this metaphor:
the teacher as a delivery agent who simply passes on to the learner
curriculum content which has been devised and constructed elsewhere.
Mightn’t this infl uence our thinking about the teacher-learner
relationship, or limit our expectations of being allowed scope for the sort
of creativity and experimentation in our lesson planning that is argued for
in the article opposite?
‘Delivery’ suggests that learning can be handed over as a kind of parcel
in a one-way transaction that excludes the necessity for dialogue, critical
enquiry, or questioning. It casts the teacher in the role of dispenser of
knowledge and skills, and the learner as a passive recipient.
The danger here is that the metaphors we fi nd ourselves using can
unconsciously shape our beliefs about what education is about.
How might it transform our approach to the curriculum if we were to
try out other metaphors?
We could speak of teaching as exploration, for example: a collaborative
adventure undertaken by teacher and learners together. Or we could
talk of teachers ‘conducting’ a lesson, and thereby introduce a diff erent
range of assumptions about the role and function of teacher and learners:
the teacher as leader and guide and the learners each with their own
contribution to make.
A dominant metaphor can not only tell us about how teachers position
themselves in relation to their role, but can also refl ect how that role is
regarded by society.
If teachers are led to understand their function primarily in terms
of ‘delivery’ - rather than being encouraged to look for creative and
experimental ways of translating the curriculum into learning
experiences - our understanding of what it means
to be a professional becomes self-limiting.
Teaching shouldn’t become an endless
postal round, although there may be
days when it feels like that. Let’s think
of ourselves also, and oſt en, in terms
of explorers, expedition leaders
and occasional conductors of
Beethoven’s 5th.
MEMBER OFFER
Susan’s new book Getting Behaviour Management Right in a Week, is part of a
series that also includes Getting Mentoring Right in a Week by Jonathan Gravells
and Getting Lesson Planning Right in a Week by Keith & Nancy Appleyard.
SET members will be eligible for a 20 per cent discount on these titles when ordered
via Critical Publishing goo.gl/ghZiuJ using code IAWLIT1216. The off er is valid
until 31 July 2017.
INTUITION ISSUE 28 • SUMMER 2017 19