Informal chats

So generally chatting at work (School) with 2 colleagues, firstly an interesting comment about GTP training that has made me reflect on the unique position dance teachers hold. Having compared the teaching standards of QTS and other dance teaching qualifications it struck me that although there are some things that aren't covered in the dance teachers training,what we do have the advantage of is a greater subject knowledge. The general conversation was about the difficulty PE teachers have keeping up to date with all the many sports they teach on a day to day basis. Subjects like swimming and gymnastics which require an up to date knowledge of changes made by their governing bodies. It was at this point my colleague stated that throughout his training he had not been taught how to teach individual sports, his training was predominantly concentrated on teaching skills not subject knowledge. This was learnt by observing others and previous experience.  

DANCE TEACHER TRAINING = subject knowledge + teaching skills + ethical/integrity considerations

GTP = teaching skill + curriculum + ethics/integrity

Interesting ......................

My second conversation was with a newly qualified young PE teacher. We were discussing the final stages of a degree and writing a dissertation. I was telling him about the BAPP degree and my chosen inquiry topic. On the subject of interviewing and giving out questionnaires, we discussed how I have made the decision to create a questionnaire asking teachers about their opinions of unqualified teachers and how I will need to be careful to word my questionnaire without bias. The decision is to prevent the awkwardness my audience may feel in an interview concerning their views of unqualified teachers, knowing that I am one.  He suggested that I may gain a better insight by targeting teachers in local schools rather than my own. Definitely something I am thinking about.  He also mentioned that he only recently discovered that I am actually an unqualified teacher, which he was surprised about. His next comment interested me. He said that he felt that I was more qualified than him because of my experience. An interesting statement and one that I think may have been addressed with the creation of the Assessment only route into QTS.  

I found our conversation really useful, and an indication of what to do next...............