The Dilemma of Non-Specialist Teaching
Well hello there, and welcome to update #092!
While primary colleagues have always had to juggle the demands of teaching many subjects, it turns out that many secondary teachers are increasingly teaching subjects outside their areas of specialism.
In fact it’s always been the case, my first specialism is religious education, however I have also taught some English, history, a little bit of maths, PSHE and some Latin at lunchtime! However, for a number of reasons, it’s becoming more common in secondary.
A key issue for both primary and secondary is the potential lack of subject knowledge. Even if we have a specialist background, subject knowledge development is always on the agenda as far as professional learning is concerned.
We are working to support this gap in a number of ways:
First, it’s helpful to read what other colleagues are doing in their subjects. I’m a great believer in the power of bouncing ideas around, and it’s easier to do this if we’ve got something to get our teeth into, to begin with!
If I’m teaching geography in primary and I’d like some ideas, I can go to the geography chapter from Primary Huh, it’s free to access and then spend five minutes reading what Tom Brassington has to say. It’s one of the 4 steps through the curriculum, free to access on The Teachers’ Collection.
If I’m teaching geography in secondary, it’s helpful to see how someone else goes about developing the subject in their context. In this case, secondary colleagues go to the 5 steps across geography and read what Dr David Preece has to say. Again it’s free to access!
I’ve done the same with all the subjects from Primary and Secondary Huh Curriculum books, and colleagues are saying they are finding them helpful, if they need a boost of ideas and insights for their subject knowledge.
Then, on Myatt & Co we have films and to support developing subject knowledge through the primary and secondary subject networks.
You can access them here: free trial for 7 days
Until next time
Mary
PS
There’s increasing interest in developing oracy, and I’m doing a webinar with Rachel Higginson on building a culture of belonging which is part of Rachel’s whole-school oracy programme,
Mon 23 Sep 4pm, free to access and you can sign up here.