Tuesday 1 February 2011

OFSTED Lesson observation criteria

One of the disappointing things about the education debate in the mainstream press, and even the TES, is the lack of focus on what is expected to go on in the classroom. The spotlight is usually on macro issues: the quality of teacher training http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/8292246/Teacher-training-cuts-quality-not-quantity.html or the problems with league tables http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/31/targets-culture-state-schools-oxbridge-disadvantage but very little about teaching practice.

The new OFSTED criteria for judging lessons has had no coverage in the press, yet it influences teaching throughout the UK and I believe if parents and politicians really knew what was required for a lesson to be rated highly they would be amazed.

The school that I work at is due an OFSTED inspection in the next 2 years and is therefore on high alert, consequently we have had the new criteria pushed hard since September and had a number of OFSTED consultants in, so far I've discovered that teachers are not there to teach but to: 'facilitate learning', that 'learners should make discoveries through their own research', every pupil should know their level at all times and that every child in every lesson needs to make measurable progress.

Over the next few posts I will try and pick apart the OFSTED view of good teaching and what it results in.

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