News
4 Feb 11
Renewed focus on teaching and learning
In a move which many teachers will welcome, Ofsted inspections are set to refocus on core priorities such as teaching and learning. Recent inspection frameworks have gradually widened inspectors’ remit to include a range of additional judgements, but the Schools White Paper 2010 The Importance of Teaching has now set out the Government’s intention to cut the framework down to just four areas, which include attainment, leadership and behaviour, as well as the standard of teaching.
For school leaders, this will mean a much reduced burden in terms of gathering and presenting evidence in advance of inspectors’ arrival. It also gives them a timely incentive to get back to basics and help their staff to develop and add to their teaching techniques.
Against this background, Pearson Publishing is pleased to announce the publication of Active Questioning. This new resource helps staff to focus on improving their questioning techniques, based on the philosophy that the way a question is asked can be just as important to learning as the content it covers. Based on techniques tried and tested in the classroom by the author David Turner, this publication is already proving popular.
Despite changes to their focus, the two-day format of inspections is likely to remain, or even be reduced in some cases. This means that inspections will contain a large number of short lesson observations, so teachers need to think about how they can demonstrate their skills in as short a time as possible. A structured approach to questioning is a very effective way to do this, so schools making use of Active Questioning techniques will give themselves every chance of a successful inspection, as well as making improvements in day-to-day teaching and learning.
For more information on Active Questioning, use the link below or ring 01223 350555.