Could it Be That ..?

Apparently there’s evidence that evidenced-based teaching isn’t working.

I’m not a teacher and have never worked in a school.

So with that caveat - could it be that the reason is that we are not meant to tailor lessons to a class of 32 ten year olds, or a more elite group of six ten year olds, or even to a partnership of two ten year olds?

Could it be that teaching is best delivered on what each student needs?

The Law thinks so. It says the job of each teacher is to deliver each student an ‘educational programme’. It defines ‘educational programme’ as (words matter):

an organised set of learning activities designed to enable a student to develop knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes relevant to the student’s individual needs

Note those words:

• designed (tailor made)

• a student (singular)

• develop (verb - active - evolving)

• relevant to … who? …THE (singular) student’s

• individual (singular, unique)

• needs.

How do you research and provide evidence of what works for every one of the four million Australian school students? Or the 750,000 (I’m making it up) ten year old students? You’d need four million research papers.

Again - I’ve never worked in a school.