Professionals fast tracked into teaching.

[jaysay]

I can remember back in the sixties, they used to put people through a six month fast track training course in the building trade skills, then after the six months gave them a box of tools and an attitude (I know it all) and called them tradesmen I served a 5 years apprenticeship when I left school and had to forgo a days pay when I was 18 to carry on, on day release. Yet these six month wonders, as we christened them were quite honestly a joke, I could fill a book with some of the happenings, but I'll just highlight one. One of these tradesmen() tried to put an ordinary Yale Lock on a sliding door, and he couldn't understand why we were all rolling about laughing. My late Father left school at 14 served a 7 year apprenticeship, he was a first class tradesman, but on the day he retired he said to me "I've enjoyed my working life John, my only regret is, that I was never able to learn everything I wanted about the job that I would have liked to." Think that says it all to me

[mattylad]

If you can get a teaching qualification in a year, after doing 30 hours then of course you can get the same thing in six months.

As long as you do the same 30 hours.

Heck, you could even do it in a week!

Quite often study is for only a few hours a week, there is no problem in increasing that time per week, doubling it etc - thereby reducing the overall duration of the course.

Remember that this is aimed at professionals, people who would be capable of taking in the information that they need to learn, they do not need to learn the subject as they already know that - just how to actually teach it.

Are we by chance short of teachers then?

[Margaret Pilkington]

Well, I wouldn't want to do thirty hours teaching in one week.
So now you are going to say that school teachers do it all the time.
Well they must use the same lesson plans over and over again.
When I taught adults in further education, my lesson plans were reviewed and amended after every teaching session.

And just because you know a subject doesn't mean that you will be good at teaching it.

[mattylad]

What has it got to do with reviewing your lesson plans?

It is possible to condense a years course into a lot shorter time.

For example, take driving lessons. it is normal to have 1 hour lessons weekly and it takes many weeks to be upto the std to pass your test, however there are faster courses that condense it all into a week and you should get the same result.

Part of this initiative may well be to have the structure and tutors in place to manage a quicker course.
(Although we all know our government and it will likely fail miserably). (but theoretically it shouldn't do)

Just because you have not taught before does not mean that you won't be good at teaching it if you get some tuition in how to teach, just because you do not get as long to learn this as more established teachers does not mean that you will learn any less.

And yes, as you say many teachers do teach for 30 hours+ and yes many also reuse lesson plans, the ones that have been set out and agreed upon for the curriculum.

If they did not use agreed lesson plans and taught me the same stuff that others have been taught, I'd be a bit peed off

[steeljack]

Originally Posted by jaysay

I I served a 5 years apprenticeship when I left school and had to forgo a days pay when I was 18 to carry on, on day release.

My late Father left school at 14 served a 7 year apprenticeship, he was a first class tradesman, but on the day he retired he said to me "I've enjoyed my working life John, my only regret is, that I was never able to learn everything I wanted about the job that I would have liked to." Think that says it all to me

agree with every word you have written , and the first bit about losing money is true , though I dont think I lost money till I reached 21 ,

Still have my "Indenture papers" signed by my parents and the company,(signing me up at 16 until my 21st birthday ) for a 5 year term .
Not sure if it was a legal binding contract , but it worked out fine for me the 'owd' guys responsible for teaching me my trade (didn't think so at the time) I owe a debt of gratitude ( Jimmy Gent, Cliff Starkey, John Darwin, Jack Kaley, Ernie Tuke, etc ) because of those guys I've allways been able to put bread and meat on my table .


Lots of talk about equality and such stuff , but going back to those days even the unions had a class hieracy , In my union (Boilermakers and Ironworkers) young lads who came into the trade got a full union card on completion of apprenticeship , other guys who entered the trade later in life for training and did five years got a different union card , (no tech college classes just on the job training) think we got a white card and they got a green card .

Think Accy web user South Aussie with tell me if I'm wrong but I think the law changed on Jan 1 st 1970 when the age 21 rule for apprentices was abolished , I know I had to go to 21 but South Aussie who is a few months younger than me got the full pay before his 21st

[Margaret Pilkington]

Lesson plans take time to formulate and review......add that to the 30 hours of teaching and it becomes 120 hours of work and research for lessons. Would you want to do it all in one week.
Also there is the fact that you have to fit in with classes. What I mean by that is, the classes you take as a student teacher have to be convenient for the assessor....and of course the pupils.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Lesson plans are also a tool to ensure that the pitch and level of the subject is suitable for all the students in the group.....it includes different activities.....not just exposition(or chalk and talk).
And the curriculum is set but lesson plans are something that are the teachers domain......and as long as the lesson plan reflects the needs of the curriculum they are OK.

[steeljack]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

I did a City and Guilds Adult Teaching qualification - that took an academic year and there were 30 Hours teaching involved.....10 of which had to be observed and assessed.

Margaret , I also did the City and Guilds Teaching Certificate Qualification in Adult Education ( classes at Sandy Lane and the old Grammer School on Blackburn Rd. ) never used them in the formal classroom situation , but where ever I've lived and worked have tried to pass on my knowledge of the subject , its not an ego thing ...its just passing knowledge on to the next generation wether they be Zambians,Rhodesians,Congalese, Iranians, Saudis ,Thai, Fillipino, or American , all young folks who want to make a better life for their family

To me it's just a normal thing for someone to do , pass on the education we were lucky on to get to the next generation , never really gave a thought to the young guy if he was called Ahmed, Winston, or Jesus , I was more concerned if he could get a weld though an X-ray weld inpsection than who he put the penies in the plate for , just so he could provide a plate of food for his family.

And its been my experiance that 'young' folks don't mind learning from us old wrinklies, they try to give us the attitude , but if you 'slap' them down they get the notion you are interesed and they take notice and show an interest , the problem is we can create the artisans/craftsmen/jouneymen, but we can't create the jobs for them to fill

[jaysay]

There's another thing that I've always thought, especially for the building trade, before architects are allowed to put a pen on a drawing they should have to do at least 12 months gaining practical experience of the relevant trades. I cant remember the number of times I've looked at plans that quite frankly were unworkable, one in particular was when I worked in Whalley and we were building Semi detached house, we came to putting the first floor joists on, but if we had kept to the drawings they'd have been going up stairs from 4 foot in the garden

[polly]

This 6 month scheme is doomed to fail just because of the people it is aimed at: people who did not go into teaching first time round and who will do so only because they can find nothing else.

Teaching should be a first choice not a last choice, it is not a job it is a way of life.
Also 6 months is no where near enough to learn about all the different types of special needs in schools today.