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Product reviews for The Perfect Further Education Lesson
Dr Barbara Van der Eecken, Associate Director for Quality at Birmingham Metropolitan College
Jackie Rossa presents her new menu! She has acquired ingredients throughout her career in Further Education and with private providers. She has worked as a teacher, an advanced practitioner, a coach and a Director of Quality and Effectiveness; currently she is an inspector for Ofsted and a senior consultant for College Leadership services. Her aim is to continue to improve the quality of teaching for the benefit of all learners.
There are many books on the market on how to teach or improve teaching but this book offers a one-stop set of recipes. It's a new and fresh vision to reassure teachers that what they are doing in the classroom is exactly what their learners need in line with the new 2012 Ofsted requirements. Although the book is aimed mainly at classroom based teaching, providers who deliver mainly in the workplace will also find a bank of transferable ideas as the Common Inspection Framework -CIF- 2012 covers both Learner and Employer Responsive delivery.
Divided in 6 parts (planning, engaging learners, behaviour for learning, making progress, collaborative learning and feedback), the book is user friendly and easy to navigate with each chapter offering a set of examples and case studies from the FE sector, top tips and ideas, clarifications and quotes as well as references to current trends. The layout, diagrams and illustrations add to the mix and aid understanding. It's not just a repertory of ideas though as Jackie has interpreted the various concepts with her Ofsted hat on. She never recites long quotes from the CIF but instead makes reference to it in a targeted and directed way to highlight how the reality of the classroom will be interpreted by external observers.
Throughout the book, the numerous examples and ideas come from a variety of sectors and providers, so whether in Construction or Arts, in Care or Maths, Foundation learning or Horticulture, teachers will relate to them easily. Jackie reminds teachers to use a common sense approach and be SMART in their everyday practice. She clarifies how to include functional skills, ILT or PLTS in lessons through practical tips and demonstrations. Employability skills are highlighted throughout as a key focus to prepare all learners for their future working life and how a “graduate profile” might enthuse learners to think ahead concretely by demonstrating an attitude to learning in the classroom. Questioning techniques, from the Socratic questioning to the use of EVS, to support the formative aspects of learning are covered as is how to track and evidence progress. It pushes teachers to constantly reassess what learners need to do to learn and how they can work collaboratively to achieve their goals. The tick list at the end of each chapter makes it a very useful tool when preparing a lesson or getting ready for an observation.
So on a practical note, I hope the cover of this book is sturdy because it won't stay on a shelf very long. It will be passed around the office, used in training sessions, transported home to prepare lessons, maybe even taken on holiday!
I am thinking of buying copies for my College colleagues: one for a new teacher who is enthusiastic but comes with a bag full of theories and no practical experience, one for a lecturer who has just returned from maternity leave and feels a little worried about the new FE context, one for a lecturer with years of experience who loves teaching but keeps getting grade 3s when observed, one for the Teaching Coaches so they can dip into it to complement their extensive set of supportive tools and one for the lesson observation team to reiterate the many facets of what an outstanding lesson can look like. And one more copy to be used when I get told that teaching is easy!
Jackie has succeeded in offering a new menu of options which can be tailored to suit the changing needs of the teachers and learners. This positive book focuses on what truly matters in education and offers teachers examples and guidelines which will reaffirm their appetite for outstanding teaching. They will, of course, have to add their own secret ingredients and experiment a little with these recipes to ensure their learners take ownership and get the best experience ever, but isn't that what teaching is all about?
There are many books on the market on how to teach or improve teaching but this book offers a one-stop set of recipes. It's a new and fresh vision to reassure teachers that what they are doing in the classroom is exactly what their learners need in line with the new 2012 Ofsted requirements. Although the book is aimed mainly at classroom based teaching, providers who deliver mainly in the workplace will also find a bank of transferable ideas as the Common Inspection Framework -CIF- 2012 covers both Learner and Employer Responsive delivery.
Divided in 6 parts (planning, engaging learners, behaviour for learning, making progress, collaborative learning and feedback), the book is user friendly and easy to navigate with each chapter offering a set of examples and case studies from the FE sector, top tips and ideas, clarifications and quotes as well as references to current trends. The layout, diagrams and illustrations add to the mix and aid understanding. It's not just a repertory of ideas though as Jackie has interpreted the various concepts with her Ofsted hat on. She never recites long quotes from the CIF but instead makes reference to it in a targeted and directed way to highlight how the reality of the classroom will be interpreted by external observers.
Throughout the book, the numerous examples and ideas come from a variety of sectors and providers, so whether in Construction or Arts, in Care or Maths, Foundation learning or Horticulture, teachers will relate to them easily. Jackie reminds teachers to use a common sense approach and be SMART in their everyday practice. She clarifies how to include functional skills, ILT or PLTS in lessons through practical tips and demonstrations. Employability skills are highlighted throughout as a key focus to prepare all learners for their future working life and how a “graduate profile” might enthuse learners to think ahead concretely by demonstrating an attitude to learning in the classroom. Questioning techniques, from the Socratic questioning to the use of EVS, to support the formative aspects of learning are covered as is how to track and evidence progress. It pushes teachers to constantly reassess what learners need to do to learn and how they can work collaboratively to achieve their goals. The tick list at the end of each chapter makes it a very useful tool when preparing a lesson or getting ready for an observation.
So on a practical note, I hope the cover of this book is sturdy because it won't stay on a shelf very long. It will be passed around the office, used in training sessions, transported home to prepare lessons, maybe even taken on holiday!
I am thinking of buying copies for my College colleagues: one for a new teacher who is enthusiastic but comes with a bag full of theories and no practical experience, one for a lecturer who has just returned from maternity leave and feels a little worried about the new FE context, one for a lecturer with years of experience who loves teaching but keeps getting grade 3s when observed, one for the Teaching Coaches so they can dip into it to complement their extensive set of supportive tools and one for the lesson observation team to reiterate the many facets of what an outstanding lesson can look like. And one more copy to be used when I get told that teaching is easy!
Jackie has succeeded in offering a new menu of options which can be tailored to suit the changing needs of the teachers and learners. This positive book focuses on what truly matters in education and offers teachers examples and guidelines which will reaffirm their appetite for outstanding teaching. They will, of course, have to add their own secret ingredients and experiment a little with these recipes to ensure their learners take ownership and get the best experience ever, but isn't that what teaching is all about?
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25/04/2014 01:00
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