School teachers to be paid by performance

[Staunton]

So, Mr Osborne has stated that teachers are to be faced with performance related pay. Rather nice for those teaching in our leafy western suburbs, who engage with well motivated middle class pupils. But very unfair for those who work very hard to teach in marginalised and economically deprived communities, where family distress and harsh social conditions mean that basic survival

is a priority and education is a more peripheral aspect. The neoliberals will do this simultaneously with their plans, also announce today, to divert even more money to what they like to call 'good schools', and to their nasty flagship 'Free Schools'. These aggressive and divisive policies are an attack on ordinary people and must be rejected.

[Walkley Dave]

MP's work for us and as far as I am concerned have a full time job. Many of them work on the side. Moonlighting it used to be called. So why not deduct any money they earn from outside interests from their salary?

[frededwards]

So, Mr Osborne has stated that teachers are to be faced with performance related pay. Rather nice for those teaching in our leafy western suburbs, who engage with well motivated middle class pupils. But very unfair for those who work very hard to teach in marginalised and economically deprived communities, where family distress and harsh social conditions mean that basic survival

is a priority and education is a more peripheral aspect. The neoliberals will do this simultaneously with their plans, also announce today, to divert even more money to what they like to call 'good schools', and to their nasty flagship 'Free Schools'. These aggressive and divisive policies are an attack on ordinary people and must be rejected.

 

It didn't take long for the bleating to start, did it?

[Guest sibon]

It didn't take long for the bleating to start, did it?

 

Indeed not.

 

Welcome to the thread though:rolleyes:

[Halibut]

It didn't take long for the bleating to start, did it?

 

Would think it was fair if some of your colleagues were paid more for doing an easier job?

[this_life]

I would welcome some kind of reward for being a good teacher. But they won't be measuring that. They will be measuring exam results. Good exam results are nice and helpful. A good teacher has all sorts of skills and benefits for kids that aren't demonstrated in exam results. Good teachers are amazing and turn peoples lives around and impact on the rest of their lives as do bad ones, but exam result related pay won't reach the good teachers.

[Guest sibon]

I would welcome some kind of reward for being a good teacher. But they won't be measuring that. They will be measuring exam results. Good exam results are nice and helpful. A good teacher has all sorts of skills and benefits for kids that aren't demonstrated in exam results. Good teachers are amazing and turn peoples lives around and impact on the rest of their lives as do bad ones, but exam result related pay won't reach the good teachers.

 

I agree with much of this. There is no need for all teachers to be paid the same amount.

 

Judging a good teacher is a bit tricky though. If you just look at exam results, you are seeing the cumulative result of a lot of teamwork. For example, it is impossible to teach Physics to students with poorly developed Maths or English skills, so a Physics teacher relies on other colleagues to help to get results.

[this_life]

That's true, key skills are cross-curriculum, and all subjects are part of this and in turn impact on all subjects. Like you say, if students have poor language skills, they are unable to learn other things. A history teacher friend of mine was very cross, at the recent news reports from the Coalition, saying that in future, key skills will be taught across all subjects, and of course this is already well established. I'm sure most Coalition reports about teaching enrage most people in education and emphasise the Coalition's depth of ignorance of pedagogy, sociology and child development.

[Steve_Grump]

I would agree, teaching posh peter at silverdale is probably going to be easier than teaching rough robert who attends a school near the manor.

[this_life]

It would be a different job entirely. Teaching 'Rough Robert' would probably involve a lot of developmental and attachment tasks, I don't know how people manage it. It seems to me it would be helpful to have group therapy training to make any impact. Because children are unable to learn until the attachment and developmental needs are in place; Maslow's hierarchy of needs, as a basic guide. I'm not sure if people still use that, but it is a good way of thinking about what might need to be in place before a child can begin to sit still, listen, think, and take any information in. Learning is quite a high level developmental task. As well as the often overlooked component of language.

 

Children need to be talked to, a lot, from birth to develop their language skills, and they need to be listened to. When this doesn't happen, which you see sometimes in Nurseries, it's not possible to start the next learning stages. The early years are very important for language, 0-3 are key years when the brain absorbs language, and then up to the age of 7. After that language-learning happens in a different way and does not come as easily to a child, due to neurological processes, and then there needs to be a more formal language teaching, rather than the younger child's experiential learning from immersion.

 

Incidentally my literacy skills were poor when I left school. After leaving school I wrote a lot of emails and my writing skills developed and improved from a desire to communicate. I think that's the key to developing literacy, there has to be an intrinsic motivation. My OH and I have noticed this on football forums over the years. Children and young people start, with basic English, but they are passionate about football and their team and want to join in the debate with the adults. And they have to improve their spelling and grammar to make themselves understood. That's why people learn languages more quickly when immersed in it, they have to to get the things they want, whether that's a Flat, food, friendship, a boyfriend/girlfriend. I am sometimes puzzled by children who are not motivated to talk, and what that is about. For them, for some reason it must not be a rewarding process.

 

Teaching 'Posh Peter' would equally be different, and probably involve less crowd control skills, or perhaps quite different ones.

Edited December 5, 2012 by this_life