For the love of differentiation

Why have we chosen ease over student love of learning?

Second, help teachers to work smarter, by reducing unnecessary tasks, not only in administration but also in core teaching work. Reduce the need for teachers to ‘re-invent the wheel’ in curriculum and lesson planning, to ease their workload and boost teaching quality. (https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Making-time-for-great-teaching-how-better-government-policy-can-help-Grattan-Report.pdf)

I’ve begun my post with this quote from a report written by the Grattan institute in 2022, and something I believe has been used in the wrong way to fight for teacher’s rights.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe there are so many tasks we do as teachers that need to be revised. I also believe that we, as a society need to change how we view teachers and the important roles they play in students lives.

However, the dwelling on reducing load by using premade programs has made me concerned.

Re-inventing the wheel is not fun; we know that there are years of great lesson plans out there, so why are we becoming blasé about the important role a good quality lesson plays?

Why are so many teachers picking up ready made lesson plans & google slides but not differentiating them?

I know there are many wonderful teachers out there who do differentiate ready made lesson plans, but it is too easy for many to just teach to the core with the well designed, pretty resources & tick it off the list.

I’d love to know what fellow teachers think of this, as well as parents who observe what their children are taught at school.

The student should be at the centre of a school, their needs need to be met by good quality lessons that cater for all students, their teachers caring about their learning growth & their school concerned when they disengage in the classroom.

How can we encourage companies that create these ready made curriculum aligned lesson plans to either include differentiate tasks or prompt teachers to do this?

The union uses this report regularly & I believe it has been misconstrued by many a teacher. Perhaps they need to take some ownership of this and consider the students who don’t fall into the core.

These are significant reforms, but they only scratch the surface of the root cause of the problem. Significant workload is caused by constant curriculum reform, programming overload, professional development requirements and compliance with a never ending set of demands generated by government, systems, schools and individuals themselves. (https://publications.ieu.asn.au/2020-december-newsmonth/reports1/addressing-work-intensification/)

Let me know what you think