the unteachables?

Had a long day in school because of year eight parent's evening. I came home in time to watch the last episode of the channel 4 series The Unteachables. A fantastic series which looked at ways in keeping excluded - unteachable - young people in the education system. The outcome saw 9 young people get stuck into learning and enjoy being in the classroom. The secret in part was a high dose of kinaesthetic learning - active out of your seat surprising interesting activities. Watching these students discover self-confidence, manage their behaviour in ways appropriate to their personality was very moving. The series is a wake up call to the government to not just invest in education, but invest particularly in developing the kind of teachers and the kind of schools that will help our unteachable students learn. The current school system fails to educate, fails to help every student learn, because it fails to recognise their individual learning needs - you can't do it with the size of classes and the kind of teachers we have. We do not have enough kinaesthetic teachers, who base their lessons not primarily on auditory or visual learning, but in getting young people really active. Is any young person unteachable? This series suggests perhaps still yes, but many who end up excluded, and therefore considered unteachable, are not adverse to wanting to and being able to learn. We need more youthworkers and more specialist teachers in our schools. We need to allow students to learn at their own space in their own way.

Comments

[ash]

Perhaps the way forward is not to split classes according to ability, so much as by learning styles?

[andy goodliff]

maybe even don't always split students by age. I wonder if your suggestion and mine might create more of a community spirit within schools. we just need to be more imaginative and creative in how we deliver education and not so worried about this child achieving this level or that grade.