The news broken by Andrew Old here and here that Ofsted has updated its lesson observation guidelines is indeed welcome. I feel it vindicates those of us who have been arguing that it is impossible to pin down ‘good teaching’ to any one style. However, this is tinged with regret at the angst caused and hours wasted trying to conform to the previous highly-specific criteria we have been expected to teach to, all in the name of Ofsted success.
I must admit to having struggled with this – to reconfigure over 25 years’ practice to a set of standards that neither made intellectual sense nor felt instinctively right, has been extremely difficult, and I was only moderately successful at it. Despite repeatedly good feedback from my students and exam results that were consistent with what experience suggested, I gave up the struggle to achieve ‘Outstanding’ as requiring the selling of…
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