who has said this?
pretty sure we have had these topics before. in any case, this is about the idea of professionals moving into teaching, not politics. this idea has been around for a while, and gillard has obviously decided to go with it.
i have a personal interest in this, because my maths class only had 2 people in it, and i thought that was disgusting. further to that, i am now an engineer, someone who would be targeted to work in maths or science. and at least 2 people in my immediate family are teachers.
back on topic.
this is how i see it. i am mainly going to talk about maths and science.
as a professional engineer, i am sure i have more knowledge about maths, physics and electronics in my left nutbag than just about every teacher out there. even now, 8 years on, there are still specific things i remember my (very senior maths) teacher having trouble with that i could now solve in a heartbeat. granted, they would lose a lot of this knowledge if they dont use it, but the point is, an average engineering graduate would have an excellent knowledge of high school level maths and science.
having said that, i wouldn't know the first thing about teaching to students. i have tutored a few people in my time, and it is really hard.
correct me if i am wrong, but at present, i could go and do a diploma of teaching that would take a year or at most 18 months. this could easily be shrunk to an intensive course, as is proposed.
at the moment, teachers with very poor knowledge in subjects such as maths are being forced to teach it because there is noone else. i really dont envy these people, because it would be very hard for them to provide context to the things they are teaching, because they dont know the context themselves. it really is unfair on them.
when context is lacking, this is where the subjects become boring, and this is why students drop out.
i can imagine that a professional engineer with the proper training would be able to teach better than the average teacher, because they can say that they have been there and done that, and give real world examples. this is long term i am talking about, when all of the teaching fundamentals have been mastered.
the big problem will be how the professionals are transitioned into teaching. throwing them in the deep end after 8 weeks of training would obviously do more harm than good. but properly managed, over a few years, and i can see it being beneficial for both teachers, who get the benefit of learning from an expert in a field, and for the students.
rcon wrote:I know an educator (secondary) closing in on the completion of her phd (HI MUM!) who thinks it is a rotten idea - too many people who think because they're experts in their chosen field, all their ideas are naturally good ones! Reports of teachers having students bring pillows into class to nap and crap like that.
im not sure what pillows and naps have to do with maths or whatever, but if it was me, i would be learning form the teachers on how to teach, and i think i could give my maths and science knowledge to them.
another potential concern would be with existing maths and science teachers who would feel threatened by someone from the outside coming in.
it is going to be interesting to see how this goes if it gets implemented, and i will be following it with interest.
