To identify and interrogate assumptions about teaching by identifying alternative interpretations
Aim
To identify and interrogate assumptions about teaching by identifying alternative interpretations.
Evidence and reflection
Write down two or three fundamental assumptions that you hold about ‘good teaching’.
Now try to provide an alternative interpretation for each. You might find it easier to think of alternative interpretations by trying to imagine yourself in a variety of roles, e.g. as a parent of a student who finds school challenging, as a student whose parents are pushing them to achieve high grades in external exams, as a student whose first language is not your own, as a headteacher/school principal who is required to show evidence of improving exam results year on year, as a black teacher in a predominantly white school.
Extension
Consider what evidence you have, or might need, in order to justify your assumption as being more than simply an assumption.
