Researching classroom practice

[moved]

Hi

I am currently embarking on a little project and would be in interested in your experiences.

I am a primary qualified teacher.

My career has been diverse. Initially teaching adults, then qualification, I have worked in all five key stages. I feel that my primary experience has a positive effect on my practice in secondary education and would be interested to know how you view teachers who cross phase or, if you are one of them, how do you think it has affected your own classroom practice.

Thanks in advance, feel free to pm if you don't want to use a public forum.

[familyinthevalley]

Why should parents care what the 'background' of the teacher is? I don't personally give a hoot whether my kids' teacher has just gained QTS, was trained overseas, has been in the military for years, or been putting themselves through University whilst working at MacDonalds. What I do care about is the here and now - how is this person as a teacher for MY child.
Hopefully by having taught all 5 key stages, you have found one that fits you best, and where you can best put your knowledge and support to students in a way that it is received well.

[T.i.p.s.y]

For me it does depend on the individual and what they can do for my child however we are in the process of choosing Housemasters for senior school and we tend to go for the ones that have interesing lives outside the classroom. We also choose Housemasters who have strengths that DS does not have e.g. an English teacher instead of Maths or a very sporty teacher as we feel it may help to broaden his outlook on life.

As for specific qualifications, I am all for a teacher having experience with many age groups although I may worry that someone used to teaching adults may not be able to come down to a young child's level but I have no evidence that this is the case.

From an independent sector view point I often find that a teacher coming from the state sector is less flexible and initially very strict in their first couple of years because they feel they have to prove themself in the private sector when in fact they are probably already better teachers than many already in the independent sector.

If I had to choose between a teacher with a degree in the subject that they teach - and a passion for it - and one without but a teaching degree, I would probably choose the former although ideally a teacher would have both.

I'm not sure if this was the info you were looking for or if I am WAY of topic!

[Bewildered]

I think that the key stages require a different perspective in how the students are dealt with. In higher learning most students have chosen to take the subject and will be more receptive to the teaching; whilst between KS1 to beginning of KS3 children are doing what they know they have been told to do, and generally just get on with it. Late KS3 -4 is where they start testing the boundaries and dipping their toes into learning to become independent, and are thus more work to keep on track from the teachers perspective.

Going from teaching a variety of subjects at KS1&2 to just specialising in one in higher key stages is also a different experience, as you don't get to see the subject strengths of each student, as you only see them in yours. Also different subjects generally require different methods of conveying the message, and thus differing classroom practice.

As a secondary student I always preferred and learned most from, the firm but fair teacher who could have a laugh with the class, as well. It's also great to learn from the passionate teacher who will come up with all sorts of wonderful ways in which to bring the subject alive and enthuse the students he/she is teaching, pitching it at just the right level to get the message across.

Not sure if this answers your question.

[moved]

Thanks for the input so far.