I have noticed on Twitter at the moment that there is a series of article being written about the purpose of education - some of them have been really interesting. I don't pretend to be as esteemed as any of the excellent people contributing to that debate but it did start me thinking.
We have OFSTED in on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and so I have spent all day planning lessons. SLT at my school seem to be pushing providing evidence that children have made progress in every lesson as the most important thing for teachers to 'showcase' (the latest buzzword). I have no problem at all with the concept of students improving and constantly looking to get better but how fast can that ever really happen. Is it realistic to expect students to make any significant progress in 1 hour? What are they making progress in? To me most real progress is very small and incremental or there is that occasional moment of illumination in which students make a giant leap forward and then try to consolidate it.
My gut feeling is that we are being asked to measure something which is unmeasurable. Real progress is spasmodic, unpredictable and unique for every single student in the room. The best we can do is provide opportunities for progress in every lesson, give students the incentive and confidence to ask questions and give them the space to reflect on what they are doing. I don't know if any of the lessons I planned today will do that or how I would measure progress if they did. To me students will have made progress if they have come out of my lesson with a question in their heads that they had never heard of before.
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