A Blog worth following

 Blog worth following

I was interested that this Teacher decided to Tweet The following :

     Here's my teaching advice: 1) Just teach them. 2) Make them practise. 3) That's it.


Andrew Old @oldandrewuk

In the latest post the author expounds upon the nature of teaching using personal experience, anecdotes and discussions on the philosophy of education. The author is critical of the dominance of progressive education in recent decades.
"I would argue that the dominance of progressive education in recent decades has led to a certain lack of clarity about the nature of teaching. For instance, where educational aims are replaced by vaguer, non-educational aims, such as building self-esteem, ensuring well-being or encouraging self-expression it can be hard to determine what the precise purpose of a “teaching” activity is .Where our objectives have ceased to be about the learning of clearly defined skills or knowledge, but are instead about the development of more generic facilities such as “creativity” or “independence” actual learning can be hard to pin down. Where discovery learning, or open-ended activities are used, the indicative property of teaching can be undermined."
The post continues that whilst critical of the progressive techniques and methodologies espoused as current the author is not wedded solely to 'traditional teaching',' but instead places value in the role of the teacher, letting students know what it is they need to know and ensuring they know it.

The previous post on the blog has a video embedded that you may find interesting. the video entertainingly discusses the technological revolutions in education.


The post continues to discuss the video and the authors views on it. I will not spoil the arguments by rehashing them here. It is sufficient to say that this blog is a very useful addition to the debate on current educational practice whilst being aware that there is a leaning towards the more traditional teaching role.