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20 Years of Educational Fads

Over the past 20 years, what do you think teachers have wasted their time doing most?

I thought I’d share some education-hearsay – noun: information received from other people which cannot be substantiated – and gimmicks, fads and myths we’ve all had to endure in our schools. These are in no particular order and sadly, not exhaustive!

Definitions:

For the purposes of the jury, I have defined the following before casting judgement:

  • Hearsay: A member of the school leadership team attends a conference led by the government or a watchdog organisation. After hearing what the apparent organisation was looking for to a) raise achievement or b) improve teaching, the aforementioned senior leader would race back into their school and instruct all teachers to do the following the very next day! This meant an entire change of pedagogy and approach in the classroom for every teacher.

  • Myth: Once the above ‘hearsay’ had caught on and was performed in military precision for observations and the like, visiting teachers would observe what they see, read or hear and return to their own institution and say: “You should see what they are doing at X school, every teacher is teaching/marking/planning/analysing in this way and it looks great. Several months later, the school is inspected and OfSTED like what they see; published their report and quote “X school marks books effectively and all students respond to feedback in a way that aids rapid progress.” Before you know it, what was said at the original meeting becomes one person’s interpretation and has now become a myth that travels up and down the country.

  • Fad: As a result of the above mentioned myth, the trend soon catches on and schools, school leaders and all teachers are now jumping through hoops, performing teaching/marking/planning/analysing in a particular way for the observer or for student progress. This has now become a ‘fad’ that everyone must be able to do.

  • Gimmick: Soon the fad because over-egged and flaws in the idea are exposed in inspections, from peers, online or in publications. What was once know as an ‘OfSTED fad’ has now become a ‘gimmick’ and less than half the number of schools have stopped wasting time on ideas that a) have teachers jumping through hoops or b) have no correlation to research, effect size or evidence on student progress.

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