 |  |
| www.dg.dial.pipex.com | 928 readers since 29 May 2006 |
| |
| www.dg.dial.pipex.com | 928 readers since 29 May 2006 |
HMI Primary Survey (1978) Notes on the text
|
Primary education in England
A survey by HM Inspectors of Schools (1978) London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1978
Chapter 8 The main findings, issues and recommendations
8.1 In the course of this survey a number of questions have been posed about the work done in primary schools: what activities occur and with what emphasis; is the work well suited to the capacities of the children; and how well do children perform on certain objective tests? In addition, observations have been made of the ways in which children behave in school, and heads and teachers have supplied information on the forms of organisation used and on other matters. 8.2 A further question raised by the report is: what should now be done to develop primary education further so that the educational requirements of children and the changing needs of society as a whole are met as nearly as they can be? In this chapter some of the main findings of the report are considered with this question in mind. Section i. The general setting for the work, is concerned with the conditions in which learning takes place and with the general organisation of primary schools; Section ii. The curriculum, is about the work of the children; Section iii, Class and specialist teaching, discusses the deployment of teachers; Section iv, The professional development of teachers, deals with the implications of the report for initial and in-service training. 8.3 Passages containing recommendations and main issues for consideration by teachers and others are italicised. i. THE GENERAL SETTING FOR THE WORK 8.4 Typically, the children are divided into classes according to age, not ability, though a substantial number of classes contain children from more than one year group. Most classes contain between twenty and thirty-five children. The smaller classes are commonly in the smaller schools, usually in rural areas where some contain fewer than twenty children, and are the most likely to have children from two or more age groups. (1) 8.5 The teacher in charge of a class teaches it for most of the programme of work. The class teacher may well exchange classes with another member of staff who specialises in music, and take the latter's class for some aspect of English. The older the children, the greater the chance that there is specialist teaching for music and for other purposes, but even the teacher in charge of the 11 year olds usually teaches the class for nearly the whole week. (2) 8.6 The children behave responsibly and cooperate with their teacher and with other children. (3) Discussion takes place between teachers and children and amongst children. A quiet working atmosphere is established when necessary. In the few classes where this is not established the children are not likely to be making the progress they should; inattentiveness in school and low scores in the objective tests are both associated with a failure to provide work of a suitable level of difficulty. (4) 8.7 Teachers clearly attach great importance to children learning to live together amicably and gaining a sense of social responsibility. Children are taught to be considerate towards other people and to respect their surroundings. Teachers are usually quick to use incidents which arise throughout the school day to draw children's attention to general moral and social issues. (5) The organisation of schools and falling rolls 8.8 When this survey took place, the number of children in primary schools, except in inner city and some well-established new town areas, had not dropped substantially. The fall in the birth rate, which has already taken place, will produce a much larger reduction of numbers in the next few years; some schools will be closed and, elsewhere, the internal organisation of schools will be affected. Some findings of the survey are relevant to these changes. 8.9 There were signs that schools of two form entry or larger were likely to be better equipped than smaller schools. In particular, children in infant schools, which tend to have at least two forms of entry, were better provided for in music and art; (6) large schools in 'other urban' areas generally had better resources for science. (7) The survey did not investigate ways in which schools were funded, but it is well known that local education authorities provide schools with equipment and materials not only through capitation allowances, but also through additional grants because a school is small in size, or for some particular curricular purpose, or through the provision of common services, such as the school library service. The implications of the survey are that the balance between capitation allowances and these additional resources at present favours the larger school, and, especially if the average size of school is to become smaller, there may be good reasons for re-examining this balance. It has also to be recognised, however, that the small advantages in the levels of resources of large schools did not appear to improve the performance of their pupils other than marginally in art and music. (8) 8.10 As school rolls fall, the number of classes may have to be reduced. This could lead to there being more classes of mixed age ranges than previously. There is clear evidence from the survey that the performance of children in these circumstances can suffer. (9) There may be advantage in combining separate infant schools and combining separate junior schools if doing so allows the formation of classes of single age groups, though other factors such as the extent of the catchment area also have to be taken into account. 8.11 High and low levels of performance were much more strongly associated with the location of the school as defined in this survey (10) than with either the size of the school (as indicated by forms of entry) or its age range. It made no significant difference in terms of work and performance whether children were in a separate junior or separate infant school or in a combined infant with junior school. (11) When schools are closed because of falling rolls, there does not seem to be, overall, any significant educational advantage in changing, during the course of reorganisation, from separate infant and separate junior schools to combined primary schools. Resources and school buildings 8.12 The survey was primarily concerned with the content of the children's work and their levels of performance. Resources were considered in relation to these factors and some mention of resources has been made incidentally in the report. (12) 8.13 The survey took place in circumstances that were changing and continue to change. The effects of restraint in public expenditure on books, materials and equipment had not yet fully worked through to the school system and schools were still benefiting, to some extent, from purchases made before the rate of inflation was at its peak. 8.14 About one fifth of the classes were found to be working in conditions that inhibited, to some degree, the range of work. (13) The most common shortcoming was that of space and this deficiency may be alleviated, as numbers fall, if the space available can be well used for the fewer children. Such use may depend as much on staffing levels as on decisions to close schools or to use spare accommodation for other purposes, as most teaching space is still in the form of individual classrooms, each of which requires separate supervision. 8.15 More spare classrooms could be used for activities which require a substantial amount of space and special equipment, for example, science, craft, art or drama. The use of otherwise spare rooms for music would free halls for additional indoor physical education. There are some small schools, usually in rural areas, which do not have a hall. Opportunities for indoor physical education in these schools may be severely restricted, but it cannot automatically be assumed that the first priority for such schools is that they should have a hall added to them; much depends on the accommodation, on the outside facilities already available and on the ability of teachers to compensate for the lack of a large unencumbered space, and on the other needs of the school. (14) ii. THE CURRICULUM The basic skills 8.16 High priority is given to teaching children to read, write and learn mathematics. (15) 8.17 The teaching of reading is regarded by teachers as extremely important, (16) and the basic work in this skill is undertaken systematically. The levels of ability of the children inevitably vary, but those who find learning to read difficult are more likely to be given work suitably matched to their abilities than the children who are more able readers. (17) 8.18 The survey also makes it possible to say, on the basis of the scores in the NFER reading test, NS6, that the results of surveys conducted since 1955 are consistent with gradually improving reading standards of 11 year olds. (18) It is only in the reading performance of 11 year olds that earlier data exist for statistical comparisons to be made with the findings of this survey. 8.19 It is vital that the careful work already being done to ensure that children become literate should continue and be further developed. Future marked improvement in the general level of performance in reading, however, probably depends on developing a more systematic approach to teaching average and more able readers to find the books they require and to use the contents page and index to decide whether to skim or to study a text thoroughly: to follow a line of argument critically: and to look out for the implications of what is written, as well as to note the explicit information the passage contains. For this to be achieved children need to be introduced to a wide range of reading material in connection with many aspects of their work. (19) 8.20 In writing, considerable effort is made to teach syntax and spelling. (20) It may be that because this work is often based on isolated exercises, the rules are too often forgotten when children write in their own words, as they frequently have the opportunity to do. What is written is often descriptive or narrative in form and, while these forms are important, by 11 years of age more children might be expected to develop an argument or to explore an idea when writing than is now the case. Furthermore, the time spent on writing should allow for the correction and improvement of initial attempts. 8.21 The children spend a considerable amount of time on mathematics and the work in this subject is better matched to their abilities than is the work in most other subjects though the more able children often work at too low a level. In the light of these efforts, the scores achieved in the NFER mathematics test, E2, are disappointing. (21) 8.22 It seems clear from this part of the survey that individual assignments should not be allowed to replace all group or class work in mathematics. (22) Teachers can, by working regularly with a group or the whole class, quicken the pace of mental response and encourage accuracy. They may also, in these circumstances, more readily draw children's attention to general rules in the work they do and so help to create a better understanding of the ways in which numbers behave. Children need to practise mental and written calculations in the four rules of number, including whole numbers and, when they are ready, decimals and fractions. They also need to use numbers in connection with practical activities. The forms of questions and the forms of answers required ought to be varied so that children are not put off by an unusual word, or combination of words or symbols. More of the examples worked by children could usefully lead to multiple answers. (23) The work in mathematics should not be confined to the four rules of number: children in those classes where the programme included all mathematical items taught to 80 per cent of classes for the age group did better in the mathematics test. (24) 8.23 The evidence of the survey bears out the view that the effective application of skills, including their use in practical activities, is important, The teaching of skills in isolation, whether in language or in mathematics, does not produce the best results. (25) Other aspects of the curriculum 8.24 The curriculum as a whole provides many opportunities for pupils to apply basic skills, and it contains other elements that are important in their own right. The programme of most classes included work on plants, animals and man-made objects and materials. The children were taught about the historical and geographical context of the society in which they live, and the moral values that underlie it. Unless their parents asked for them to be withdrawn, they took part in religious education based on Christian beliefs. (26) More might be done to make all children aware of other beliefs and to extend their understanding of the multi-cultural nature of contemporary society. In the course of work on these and other matters, children acquire information and learn to respond imaginatively to what they see, hear and otherwise experience. 8.25 Curricular content should be selected not only to suit the interests and abilities of the children and to provide for the progressive development of the basic skills, but also because it is important in its own right. This requires a considerable knowledge of the subject material, going far beyond that which is to be used explicitly in the classroom. The teacher's need for a thorough knowledge of the subject becomes more marked as the children get older. 8.26 Observed practices in some parts of the curriculum show the difficulty that a considerable proportion of teachers have in selecting and utilising subject matter. Science is the outstanding example (27) and one in which no individual item of observational or experimental work occurred in as many as 80 per cent of the classes at any age; (28) this is the only aspect of the curriculum of which this is true. Craft is also making a smaller contribution to the work than is desirable. (29) The lack of progression and the amount of repetition in the work in geography and history probably result from a lack of planning, though the mere presence of a scheme of work is no guarantee that a subject is well taught; over 40 per cent of the schools had schemes of work in science but there was little evidence of these programmes being implemented. (30) 8.27 Physical education was given about as high a priority as mathematics. Music, of which more will be said later, was also given relatively high priority. It is interesting to notice that both of these subjects were among those for which there were frequently teachers with posts of responsibility. (31) The range of the curriculum 8.28 It might be argued that if some parts of the curriculum are difficult for class teachers to deal with it would be better to narrow the range of the curriculum. That view does not seem to be borne out by the findings of this survey. The basic skills are more successfully learnt when applied to other subjects (32) and children in the classes which covered a full range of the widely taught items (33) did better on the NFER tests at 9 and 11 years of age; also, for all three age groups the work of children in these classes was better matched to their abilities than was the work of children in other classes. This finding has to be interpreted with care, because the remaining classes did not necessarily have narrower curricula; the teachers may merely have been more idiosyncratic in their choice of items. Nevertheless, there is no evidence in the survey to suggest that a narrower curriculum enabled children to do better in the basic skills or led to the work being more aptly chosen to suit the capacities of the children. 8.29 The general educational progress of children and their competence in the basic skills appear to have benefited where they were involved in a programme of work that included art and craft, history and geography, music and physical education, and science, as well as language, mathematics and religious and moral education, although not necessarily as separate items on a timetable. (34) There is no justification for differentiation between the curriculum for boys and for girls because of traditional differences in social roles; such differentiation as does still occur, for example in craft work which limits girls to using soft materials, is unusual and should cease. (35) 8.30 It remains important to establish priorities and to keep the curriculum within realistic limits. Agreement on these matters should be sought far more than is now done with other schools in the locality, primary and secondary, and in accordance with national needs. (36) 8.31 Such agreement makes it easier to ensure that the programmes of primary and secondary schools are attuned, and that there is continuity as children move from one stage to the next. Differences amongst children within a class 8.32 Especially in the basic skills, but also in other parts of the curriculum, children are frequently divided into groups, or provided with individual assignments of work. In the basic skills, the main objective is to give work that is of an appropriate level of difficulty. In some other parts of the curriculum the groups are based on common interests or on friendship. The almost universal occurrence of grouping and individual work indicate the concern that teachers have for individual children. (37) 8.33 The evidence of the survey shows that children's needs are more successfully catered for in some parts of the curriculum than in others; and throughout the curriculum, the needs of some children are more often met than are the needs of others. The relative success that teachers have in matching the work in the basic skills for the slower children has already been mentioned in this chapter. (38) Otherwise, it is broadly the case that the more able children within a class were the least likely to be doing work that was sufficiently challenging. 8.34 One reason may be that it is difficult for a teacher to keep track of what every child in a class is doing if each is engaged in a different activity. Certainly children who were customarily given some though not too much mathematical instruction in groups working from the blackboard with their teacher were at an advantage in completing the NFER test. (39) This advantage may have come about because a teacher could afford to spend more time explaining a process to a group than to a series of individuals, or because the group contact enabled the teacher to inject more pace into the work, or because the children learnt from each other's questions, or all three. Some potential loss of precision in matching the work to individuals was compensated for by other factors; in practice, the loss of precision in the grading of work for groups as compared with individuals may be negligible. 8.35 Another reason why teachers find it more difficult to match the level of work to the abler than to the slower children in their classes may be that these children are more demanding with regard to subject content. It is particularly interesting in this connection that the work in music, for which specialist teaching, including peripatetic teaching (40) is most common, is the area of the curriculum in which the work of the able, average and less able children is most evenly matched to their abilities. (41) It is also striking that classes in schools where the holders of posts of special responsibility have marked influence were much more successful than others in matching the work to the abilities of all children, including the more able. (42) Furthermore, the better match that is achieved in the basic skills may well occur because all the students who intended to teach in primary schools are given some training in the teaching of these skills, because carefully graded materials are available, and because dealing with children who find it difficult to learn to read is another common area of specialisation in primary education. Some children in inner city schools 8.36 In recent years efforts have been made to provide for the special needs of some children in inner city schools, in the survey, inner city schools generally had a more favourable staffing ratio than similar schools in 'other urban' areas, and in some of these schools resources were noticeably better than average. (43) 8.37 Some of the schools in inner city areas contained a larger proportion than most of children whose home language was not English, and also of those children from some indigenous families who find it difficult to gain as much as they should from their schooling. (44) While both the HMI survey and the NFER tests indicate that standards of performance are lower than average in these schools, neither can show whether the efforts made in recent years have improved the levels of performance. The survey indicates that children in inner city schools are more likely than others to be underestimated by their teachers and least likely to be given work which extends their capabilities. This strongly suggests that further improvement in the children's performance is possible. (45) 8.38 Further study is required of how improvements may be brought about. Some research has already been undertaken in this field but more is necessary in primary schools, particularly to identify conditions that are likely to be effective in teaching children from these areas. 8.39 The need to raise teachers' assumptions about children's capabilities has special relevance here. It may also be that in these schools, with a preponderance of children who find learning difficult, special care should be taken to support and encourage those children who make average or good progress, not least in order that they should set a standard of work at which others may aim. This may require yet more teachers and resources. The slower children still need painstaking and thorough attention if they are to reach minimum standards of literacy and numeracy; and children who come to school with little or no English cannot be expected to make progress in school unless, as a result of careful teaching, they achieve a sufficient command of English, which is for them a foreign language. (46) iii. CLASS AND SPECIALIST TEACHING 8.40 Even when the curriculum is clearly defined and priorities are agreed upon, the range of work and the range of pupils present a formidable challenge to the knowledge and skill of an individual teacher. The older and the more able the children, the more obvious this difficulty is for the individual teacher. This is made plain by the present inclination in many schools to rely on one or two teachers for the teaching of music or French, and the poor showing of some subjects, including science and craft, which are commonly the responsibility of the class teacher. A fuller use of teachers' particular strengths could make a useful contribution to the solution of this problem. 8.41 The traditional view has been that the one class to one teacher system should be maintained for nearly all of the work to be done. The class teacher system has a number of potential advantages: the teacher can get to know the children well and to know their strengths and weaknesses; the one teacher concerned can readily adjust the daily programme to suit special circumstances; it is simpler for one teacher than for a group of teachers to ensure that the various parts of the curriculum are coordinated and also to reinforce work done in one part of the curriculum with work done in another. These advantages are not always exploited, as is shown particularly in the case of mathematics. (47) Nevertheless potentially, and often in practice, these are important advantages and care should be taken to retain and use them. 8.42 They are not overriding advantages in all cases. When a teacher is unable to deal satisfactorily with an important aspect of the curriculum, other ways of making this provision have to be found. If a teacher is only a little unsure, advice and guidance from a specialist, probably another member of staff, may be enough. In other cases, more often with older than with younger children, and much more often in junior than in infant schools, it may be necessary for the specialist to teach either the whole class or a group of children for particular topics. In some cases, specialists may have to take full responsibility for the teaching of a class or classes other than their own in an area of the curriculum such as music, where expertise is short: perhaps more subjects, in particular science, should be added to the current list, at least for the older children. 8.43 A danger of specialist teaching is that the work done by a specialist may be too isolated from the rest of the children's programme, and this needs to be guarded against by thorough consultation between teachers. The teacher responsible for the class may be the best placed to coordinate the whole programme of the class. Care needs to be taken to ensure that the programme of the specialist's own class is not too fragmented, and is arranged to utilise the complementary strengths of other teachers. This may require more than a simple exchange of teachers between two classes. If specialist teaching is taken too far, the timetable becomes over-complex and does not allow variations in the arrangements which circumstances may require from time to time. 8.44 Some schools already adopt forms of cooperative or team teaching which allow teachers to work from their strengths. These arrangements can work well if areas of responsibility are clearly designated, though teams are rarely large enough to permit full coverage of the curriculum using the particular interests and abilities of teachers. No blanket solution is being suggested here. The critical points are: can class teachers manage to provide all that is necessary for particular classes? If not, what must be done to help them to manage satisfactorily and in a way that is, on balance, advantageous? Posts of special responsibility 8.45 It is disappointing to find that the great majority of teachers with posts of special responsibility have little influence at present on the work of other teachers. (48) Consideration needs to be given to improving their standing, which is the product of the ways in which the teachers with special posts regard themselves and also of the attitudes that other teachers have towards them. 8.46 It is important that teachers with special responsibility for, say, mathematics should, in consultation with the head, other members of staff and teachers in neighbouring schools, draw up the scheme of work to be implemented in the school; give guidance and support to other members of staff; assist in teaching mathematics to other classes when necessary; and be responsible for the procurement, within the funds made available, of the necessary resources for teaching the subject. They should develop acceptable means of assessing the effectiveness of the guidance and resources they provide, and this may involve visiting other classes in the school to see the work in progress. (49) 8.47 Teachers holding posts of responsibility require time to perform their duties, some of which must be carried out while the school is in session; they also need to keep up to date with current knowledge and practices elsewhere, and this may take time outside normal school hours. The role of heads is rarely discussed specifically in this report because of the way in which the survey was arranged. In average sized and large schools the minor part of heads' time is usually spent in teaching, but this part is of considerable importance and should be safeguarded. The deployment of teachers in medium and large schools 8.48 In schools of medium or large size, perhaps where the staff is eight or more strong, it may be possible to provide the necessary range and level of specialisation from within the staff, especially if this requirement is taken into account when teaching appointments are made. 8.49 Practice in the vast majority of schools, primary and secondary, makes it plain that criteria additional to class size are taken into account when deploying staff. Arrangements that are made either for freeing a teacher from teaching, or for enabling a teacher to teach groups smaller than a whole class, have the effect of increasing the size of the basic class unit; this is so whether small groups are withdrawn for special teaching or whether two teachers temporarily share the teaching of a class in one teaching area. 8.50 Considerations other than class size which are taken into account when deploying staff are: the ages and special needs of children; the expertise of individual teachers; and the need for teachers, especially the head, to undertake, in addition to teaching duties, administrative responsibilities and liaison on behalf of the school. It is a matter of judgement in individual cases precisely how the criteria are balanced and how duties are allocated, but the survey evidence suggests that some shift in the deployment of teachers is worth considering. 8.51 After detailed analysis, the survey data led to the conclusion that differences in class sizes in classes of between about 25 and about 35 children made no difference to the children's scores on the NFER objective tests, or to the closeness of the match of the work to the children's abilities, (50) or to the likelihood that a wide range of common items would be included in the curriculum. (51) On the other handy classes of these sizes performed worse in certain ways if they contained mixed rather than single age groups: (52) the 7 and 11 year olds were more likely to be given work that was too easy; the 9 and 11 year olds scored less well on the NFER tests. This is probably because, for children of these ages and in classes of these sizes, the teacher's perception of the class as a whole masks the considerable differences between the children and especially the differences in their rates of progress. It is probably unreasonable to expect most teachers to work as effectively with mixed age classes of about 30 children as they would with single age classes of that size. Class size is only one factor to be taken into account when determining suitable staffing standards. The findings of this survey do not mean that staffing standards could safely be tightened, but rather that there are some ways of using teachers' time, including those described in the next paragraph, which could bring bigger benefits than simply minimising class sizes. 8.52 Bearing in mind what has been said in the previous paragraph about class sizes and about classes with mixed age groups, heads and teachers could usefully consider how staff might be deployed in order to make the best uses of the strengths of individual teachers, to employ holders of posts of responsibility (53) most effectively and to allow some time for the preparation of work. In large and some medium sized schools it might, within limits, be worth arranging for one or more teachers additional to the head to be free of full responsibility for a class, though in virtually full-time teaching contact with children. This would make registered class sizes larger than they would otherwise be, given the number of teachers. On different occasions these teachers could be used to teach their own specialism and to enable teachers with other curricular responsibilities to be freed to assess the extent to which modifications are needed in the programme of work in their subject; they, or the teachers they free, might be able to assist others in the course of their teaching; work with subdivisions of a class in order to meet the specific needs of individuals or groups of children; or undertake the teaching of other classes, particularly in areas of the curriculum where expertise is short. In schools of medium size, these arrangements may be possible only if staffing standards are particularly generous, except in so far as the head uses his own teaching timetable for these purposes. Special responsibilities and small schools 8.53 In small schools the number of teachers on the staff is likely to be too small to provide the necessary specialist knowledge in all parts of the curriculum. The teachers in a group of schools can profitably share their skills in planning programmes of work (53) and a number of small schools {and large) have benefited from doing so as a result of their own enterprise, under the guidance of local authority advisers, through teachers' centres or with the help of Schools Council and other curricular projects. (54) 8.54 Teachers in some small schools already make arrangements to exchange classes, for example for half a day a week during the summer term or from time to time. Some local authorities employ visiting teachers of sufficient status to be accepted as specialists by teachers, including heads, of the schools they visit. They are most commonly involved in remedial education and music, but in a few areas a range of specialist advice is provided and the visiting teacher works alongside the class teacher. This is a practice that might usefully be extended and avoids the danger, for which there is some tentative evidence in the survey, that peripatetic teaching directed solely at special groups of children, whether the most able in music or the least able in reading, has little carry over effect on the levels of work for the rest of the children. iv. THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHERS 8.55 Teaching primary school children is a difficult and complex task, and teachers cannot be expected to master all they need in one short burst of training. Initial training must be followed throughout a teacher's career by a supporting pattern of in-service education and training. In-service training is partly given through attendance at specially designed courses, but also takes place within a school through observing others at work and through discussion with fellow teachers and particularly the head, teacher trainers, teachers' centre wardens, visiting advisers and inspectors, and others. The curricular range expected of individual teachers 8.56 The survey confirms that it is necessary that all primary school teachers should be trained to teach children to read, write and do mathematics; courses should enable teachers to understand the nature of these skills and how to teach them in a context which relates to the rest of school work and to the real world in which children live. Intending primary school teachers should be helped to recognise the importance of teaching children to observe carefully, encouraging them to try to explain what they have noticed, and to test their explanations. (55) Constructional activities associated with the careful observation of natural and man-made objects can provide a useful link in helping children to develop an attitude of scientific enquiry. Teachers should acquire a sound, even if restricted, range of practical skills in science as well as in art and crafts which they can build upon during their years of teaching. (56) 8.57 Students preparing to teach in primary schools require opportunities to exploit their academic strengths and to convert them in ways that will enable them to contribute in a specialist sense in a primary school. This presupposes the ability to initiate and implement programmes of work in the teacher's own area of expertise and to advise and help other teachers who may have different strengths. The assessment of pupils' needs 8.58 It is vital that teachers should be knowledgeable in what they teach; it is just as necessary that they should be able to assess the performance of their pupils in terms of what they next need to be taught. The survey has shown that even some experienced teachers find it difficult to judge the appropriate level of work. (57) Yet, if this is not done, the children's application to their work and their rate of progress may suffer. Without doubt, a lack of application can result in disorder and this, though fortunately rare, was certainly associated with a poor match between children's work and their capacity, and also with low scores in NFER tests. (58) 8.59 This suggests that a vital part of initial and in-service training should be directed towards helping teachers to assess children's capabilities and to establishing a sufficiently high, but reasonable, expectation of what the children are capable of achieving. Familiarity with telling examples of work done by children of different ages and abilities is an aid to this. Knowledge of commercially produced diagnostic tests (and, to a lesser extent, standardised tests) can also help, though these generally cover only a limited part of the curriculum. Initial training in these matters will certainly need to be supplemented after the teacher is qualified. Teaching methods 8.60 Limiting teaching to a form that relies on posing questions, or allowing children to pose questions, and then leaving them to ferret out the answers seems to be less effective than a more controlled form of teaching with explanations provided step by step. But a combination of the two approaches was consistently associated with slightly better scores in the NFER tests and with the best match between tasks to be done and the children's ability to undertake them. (59) 8.61 If one method of teaching were plainly superior it would be simpler to know what to provide in initial and in-service training. What the survey indicates is that teachers need to become familiar with a range of teaching techniques, to understand the advantages and disadvantages that each has, and to choose what is best for their immediate purpose. (60) One factor to be taken into account when making a choice is the teacher's own strengths and interests. Strengths and weaknesses are often reflected by the children's reactions and by how well they learn. Careful assessment of the children's progress has implications for the teacher's approach, too. It is not sensible for teachers to attempt to use a teaching technique that is clearly beyond their operational skill and is therefore inefficient; neither is it right to be satisfied with one's present range if it is clear that too little learning on the part of the children is taking place. The training of teachers holding posts of responsibility 8.62 Teachers may act in an advisory capacity for an area of the curriculum, or for some facet of schooling such as assessment, or in connection with the education of pupils with special needs. When they are ready to undertake further responsibility of this kind much needs to be done through in-service training, which may require secondment, to help them to carry out their functions and to extend expertise in their main field. 8.63 New teachers may sometimes be able to participate in an advisory way with regard to an area of the curriculum, though usually teachers are more ready to act in this way when they have had some years' experience and have developed confidence and skill. 8.64 Teachers in posts of special responsibility (61) need to keep up to date in their knowledge of their subject; to be familiar with its main concepts, with the sub-divisions of the subject material and how they relate to one another. They have to know enough of available teaching materials and teaching approaches to make and advise upon choices that suit local circumstances. And they should be aware of the ways in which children learn and of any sequences of learning that need to be taken into account. Additionally, these teachers should learn how to lead groups of teachers and to help others to teach material which is appropriate to the abilities of the children. They should learn how to establish a programme of work in cooperation with other members of staff and how to judge whether it is being operated successfully. They should also learn how to make the best use of the strengths of teachers of all ages and to help them to develop so that they may take on more responsibility. Particular care should be taken to foster the special qualities of intuitive and gifted teachers. Heads need, in consultation with those concerned, to make quite clear the responsibilities of individual teachers. Some aims for in-service training 8.65 The survey points to two major functions for in-service education, in both of which the teachers in individual schools have a major part to play. The first is to arrange for positive staff development, based on the strengths of individuals. This should lead to extending the influence of experienced and able teachers. (62) The second is to raise the expectations which teachers have of children and, in doing so, to achieve a clearer definition of the curriculum. Additionally, the nurturing of teachers who have a particular ability or who are willing to increase their expertise in those parts of the curriculum where there is general weakness, like science and craft, may be the surest way to make advances in these fields. Despite efforts by the Nuffield Foundation and the Schools Council, work in science is weak; (63) a slow but steady build up from the points of strength of individual teachers is probably the only sure way forward. v. LOOKING FORWARD 8.66 This survey could not have been conducted without the goodwill and cooperation of the teachers; in giving this they exhibited the same characteristics that have led to the establishment of good and friendly relations among themselves and with the children they teach. (64) In that teaching, they show their concern for individuals, and a positive determination to help children acquire the basic skills of literacy and numeracy. (65) During years when the public at large has seemed to be critical of schools the relations between teachers and individual parents have become closer and more friendly; and the curriculum has broadened to include much that is of value. Good relations within the schools, increasingly good relations with parents, and a thorough concern for teaching the basic skills are solid foundations on which to build further. (66) 8.67 Taking primary schools as a whole, the curriculum is probably wide enough to serve current educational needs. But the demands of society seem likely to continue to rise; literacy and numeracy will no doubt remain matters of great interest but priorities may well change within these areas and in other parts of the curriculum. The immediate aim, especially for the average and more able pupils, should probably be to take what is done to greater depth rather than to introduce content that is new to primary education. To do this it is important to make full use, on behalf of schools as a whole, of teachers' strengths and to build on the existing knowledge of individual teachers without losing the advantages that are associated with the class teacher system. 8.68 However the requirements of society come to be formulated, teachers have the main responsibility for responding to them; but they do not have the sole responsibility. Teacher trainers, including teachers' centre wardens, and also advisers, inspectors and others in professional contact with schools all have a part to play, as do administrators with responsibility for distributing resources among schools. The public must will the means as well as make demands and parents, as the evidence backing the Plowden Report (67) shows, have a special role. 8.69 Given support from all these sources, a survey of primary education in the 1980s should be able to report that today's strengths have been maintained and steady progress has been made in the exacting task of educating young children. Footnotes (1) See Chapters 3 i and 7 iv (2) See Chapter 3 iii (3) See Chapter 5 i (4) See Chapter 7 v, paragraph 28 (5) See Chapter 5 i (6) Chapter 7 iii, paragraph 15 (7) Chapter 7 ii, paragraph 10 (8) Chapter 7 iii (9) Chapter 7 iv, paragraphs 19-21 (10) Chapter 7 ii, paragraphs 11-13 (11) Chapter 7 iii (12) Chapters 2 iii, 5 and 7 ii & iii (13) Chapter 2 iii, paragraph 17 (14) Chapter 5 v (15) Chapter 6 ii (16) Chapter 5 ii (17) Chapter 6 ii (18) Chapter 6 iii and Appendix I (19) Chapter 5 ii (20) Chapter 5 ii (21) Chapter 6 ii & iii and Appendix I (22) Chapter 7 iv & v (23) Chapter 6 iii and Appendix I (24) Chapter 6 i, paragraph 5 (25) Chapter 7 v, paragraphs 31-33 (26) Chapter 5 i & vi (27) Chapter 5 iv (28) Chapter 6 i, paragraph 6 (29) Chapter 5 v (30) Chapter 4, Table 25 (31) Chapters 6 ii and 4 i, Tabie 24 (32) Chapter 7 v (33) Chapter 6 i, paragraph 5 (34) Annex to Chapter 7, Note 11 (35) Chapter 5 v paragraph 95 (36) Chapter 4 iii (37) Chapter 3 ii, paragraphs 5-8 and Annex to Chapter 3, Tables 14 and 15. (38) Annex to Chapter 6, Tables 30-32 (39) Chapter 7 v, paragraph 31 (40) Chapter 3 iii, paragraphs 12-14 (41) Chapter 6 ii. Tables 30-32 (42) Chapter 7 vi, Note 12 (43) Chapter 7 ii, paragraphs 4 and 5 (44) Chapter 2 iv, paragraph 22 (45) Chapter 7 ii, paragraphs 11-13 (46) Chapter 2 iv (47) Chapter 5 i and iii (48) Chapter 4 i, paragraph 5 (49) Chapter 7 vi (50) Chapter 7 iv, paragraphs 17 and 18. The statements in this sentence also apply to class sizes of less than 25, many of which had a mixture of age groups and were in rural areas, and also to classes of more than 35 (51) Chapter 6 i, paragraph 5 (52) Chapter 7 iv, paragraph 20 (53) Chapter 7 vi (54) Chapter 4 iii, paragraph 11 (55) Chapter 5 i (56) Chapter 5 iv and v (57) Chapter 6 ii (58) Chapter 7 v, paragraph 28 (59) Chapter 7 v, paragraphs 25-27 (60) Chapter 3 v (61) Chapter 4 i (62) Chapter 7 vi, Note 12 (63) Chapter 5 iv (64) Chapter 5 i (65) Chapter 5 ii and iii (66) Chapter 3 iv (67) Children and their primary schools HMSO 1967 
|
