Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Gobbledygook

I'm going to try and build up a comprehensive collection of nonsense education speak. The page will go up on the sidebar and will become a useful resource for any reader facing an interview for a position in Senior Management.

To start the ball rolling:

1) Performativity (the emphasis on achieving targets)

2) Dialogic teaching (having a chat with the kids)

3) Articulated progression (allowing pupils to choose their next step in the qualification system)

4) Level descriptor (the National Curriculum level of something)

I look forward to your contributions (but don't forget to say what they mean)

14 comments:

rippon said...

Mixed-ability teaching:

Pretending you can sensibly teach maths to a group where some don’t even know their times-tables whilst others can cope (given the chance) with calculus.

Mark Roberts said...

You should play Management Speak Bingo. At the next meeting or Professional Development Day, draw up bingo cards with your favourite gobbledygook jargon on them and distribute them around the staff. Tick off the meaningless jargon as you hear it and the first to complete their sheet wins.

Boy on a bike said...

"More programmatic specificity". Not teacher-speak, but something our idiotic ex-Oz PM used. I'm sure you can slip it in somewhere.

Mosher said...

I could get shot for this, but:

Curriculum for Excellence - nobody actually *knows* what it means, but someone in an office got paid a fortune to come up with it and every teacher in Scotland better be using it otherwise the government will take you to a small room somewhere and waterboard you.

Allegedly.

Anonymous said...

deferred success - loser

attempting to reach full potential - sitting around doing nothing or disturbing everyone.

Contented Lib Dem said...

This is a great idea. Personally I cannot stand the phrase '21st century', as in '21st century skills', '21st century curriculum', '21st century jobs' - as far as I can work out it's just used as a justification for showing DVDs. I can't stand 'Learning 2 Learn' or 'Emotional Intelligence'. The word 'relevance' gets horribly misused to mean only teaching kids what they know already. 'Drilling down into data' winds me up. 'Benchmarking' is also annoying. 'Reflective practitioner'. I could go on for hours...

seriousteacher said...

Yes, the '21st century' thing is always used to counter any suggestion of a teaching method that's proven to actually work.

Anonymous said...

Facilitating Learning - in other words, teaching.
There was another cracking phrase used at a training session once by a drama student posing as an educational expert because he once did a bit of supply - he said that we must always create a 'Tapestry of Wow' in our classrooms. Make of that what you will.

Anonymous said...

Tapestry of **** more like:

http://mj51.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/a-tapestry-of-wow/

Dack said...

I recall an Ofsted inspector criticising a school I was in at the time for 'not inspiring awe and wonder' in lessons. Wtf.

Anonymous said...

"Friendship Issues" - means the pupil is a violent psycopathic bully and treated like a victim.

Anonymous said...

'learning journey' (ie time spent at school)

Anonymous said...

"Learning walk": a sneaky, unexpected observation by Senior Leadership.

Anonymous said...

Achievement Plus: SEN