Oxford Brookes describes itself as ” learner centred,” but what does that mean in the context of an afternoon (or a morning) with PGCE trainees? Frank Furedi has an interesting insight on this in his THES article from December 2007, in which he castigates newer HE instititions for embracing a student centred model:
The equation of the student experience with an act of consumption has serious implications for academic life. The most important casualty of the promotion of this consumer-dictated model is the fundamental relationship between academics and their students. The model implicitly demands the transformation of the relationship between scholar and student to that of a provider of knowledge and skills and customer.
However, Furedi is talking, I think, not so much about HE/ITT or other professional training in Universities as about the less vocational tasks of education and training at HE level, where “economic and political pressures… are likely to distract lecturers from working in accordance with their discipline-based ethos,” whereas ITT is already subject to these forces in a number of important ways, and has been for some time. Or is this too world-weary?
Not to beat ourselves up too much – or to expose tutors to unnecessary criticism – it must have some connection with the difficulties of constructing a programme with at least three differing end points, two of which are official and externally generated: TDA requirements and the measures such as National Curriculum testing and OfSTED that judge teachers to be effective. The third – tertium non datum? – is where I think we become (or can become) learner-centrered, the area of the greatest creativity, in which assessment for learning meets the enthusiasm and previous experiences of the trainee – or their cynicism, or tiredness – to try and make a realistic programme that will inspire for success as well as prepare for survival.
Maybe that last line is what I’d really like: something not only grounded in good classroom practice, but also inspirational, to carry the hesitant into better practice than predecessors in a post might have had – or to sustain that good practice, rather than be bowed down by current tensions. This means we are urging change, in Initial Teacher Training, at least insofar as we empower our trainees to look for alternative solutions, to think creatively and to get to grips with that fundamental question that (at interview) seems such a trite warm-up line: Why do you want to be a teacher?
nicktomjoe 