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Schools' Minister condemns 'rubbish universities'!!!

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I'm going to say this once and once only.

A degree from Oxford and Cambridge does not automatically make you a good teacher. I know my Chemistry teacher didn't graduate from Oxford or Cambridge and my god, he is one of the best. Whereas one of my maths teachers graduated from Oxford and really struggled to teach us.

Reply 21

im so academic

Quady

So you'd rather have a bad teacher in schools and a bad researcher in industry?

Nice.

No, I didn't mean that.

I mean that out of the two options stated in the OP, I'd have the former.

Don't put words into my mouth. :hmmm:

Reply 22

Focus08

TheSownRose

But some are.

Example?

Reply 23

S.R

roxy potter

While I can understand where the minister is coming from in terms universities. Some offer completely rubbish degrees. However, being a good teacher is not about being smart/having a good degree (same goes for lecturers, some of the greatest minds are the worst teachers) I also don't think that someone with a PGCE is necessarily an indication that someone is a good teacher. I think plenty of people without them can be very good teachers, it is to a large extent a gift.

I agree, you dont exactly have to be an oxbridge graduate just to go into teaching. My physics teacher was an oxford graduate, my maths teacher a Hull graduate. My maths teacher was better than my physics teacher. And anyway i don't think even oxbridge or the russell group put together could provide enough teachers for the entire country. Expanding population = more unis required. But I still agree wityh the minister as some unis are just a waste of money (london met kingston etc) I know a girl who got Cs and Ds and maybe a couple Es and got into kingston to do media studies. What is the point? it's a one way £10,000 ticket to the costa coffee tills in my opinion.

Reply 24

Wangers

It dosn't matter if they have a crap degree though - the A level system is so dumbed down that you don't really need a degree to teach it...

Reply 25

Nichrome

cardine92

I'd rather have a teacher that can actually teach, regardless of what university they went to and if they need a PGCE to prove that, then fine.

This. At the end of the day I'd want someone who could teach well, and I know from experience that some Cambridge Physics grads would be asbolute gash at teaching if they went straight from graduating into a school with no PGCE.

Reply 26

Jeester

Fuuuuck oooooff!
There's a teacher at my college for maths and he is one of the cleverest men I know he has a PHD and all that crap and he is one of the worst teachers in the world!
This statement is a load of bull crap.

Reply 27

Quady

im so academic

No, I didn't mean that.

I mean that out of the two options stated in the OP, I'd have the former.

Don't put words into my mouth. :hmmm:

Which has the consequnce I stated.

Reply 28

Jeester

Also, think of the naughty classes?
Some of the classes I was in (in secondary school) would rip a cambridge graduate with no PGCE to shreds.

Reply 29

S.R

Hippysnake

! Faunagoo! That was a legendary exam. Guessed my way through it...98% :biggrin:

Reply 30

Leopold Bloom

Yeah, because a top quality degree is completely necessary for A-Level and GCSE teaching...

I'd much rather have a PGCE. If the content needed a Physics graduate from Oxford then surely it'd be at a Physics degree level, and thus the students would be university students anyway. Any subject up to GCSE can probably be taught without a degree in that subject if they are reasonably competent teachers. Any subject up to A-Level, might need the bare basics of a degree, but certainly nothing to show someone that excels in a degree.

Besides, the extra you may or may not gain from Oxbridge tuition (personally, I think it's a dubious difference), is hardly going to make the difference between an A grade and A* grade pupil. Not to mention that's probably come at the sacrifice of having someone who is less capable of explaining these concepts to younger students, rather than someone potentially less skilled in unnecessary knowledge, but trained in at least explaining these concepts.

The guy's an idiot, basically.

Reply 31

S-man10

im so academic

I agree with the statement tbh. :yep:

So you would have a Oxbridge graduate as a teacher then?

Reply 32

danny111

No.

What a retard. Most ridiculous comment I have heard in a while from a politician. The guy should resign or be sacked.

ps I want to add though, that I normally argue for reducing the amount of students, etc

Reply 33

danny111

S.R

Spot on.

Already used my rep today though. Remind me tomorrow if you really want it.

Reply 34

katiekatiejane

kind of agree. tbh i agree with the principal of the statement. In practice though the ability of the person to teach has nothing to do with were they went to university. i mean my physics teacher went to oxford and she was a ***** teacher, like really really bad. i think the point he's making is along similar lines that teachers need to be better qualified i mean i think it is absolutely how ridiculously low the entry requirements are for teaching these days. i have a friend applying for teaching and she has absolutely APAULING english, has no idea what grammar even is. Who on earth would want someone like that in a school. they'd teach the kids nothing apart from incorrect english and bad habits!!!

Reply 35

Moe Lester

An Oxford physics graduate could be a terrible teacher. One of my worst teachers had a phd in organic Chemistry from UCL (I think) but he couldn't communicate, was boring and so forth. This Tory MP is a pompous idiot - just like most Tory MPs.

Reply 36

TheSownRose

Focus08

Example?

Pretty much all healthcare-related courses are good no matter where you get them from, due to regulations from external bodies. For example, it doesn't matter where you do pharmacy.

Reply 37

I'm_Unsafe.

KimKallstrom

Well, yes, the idea is that they want somebody who was good at the subject they're teaching.....

Yes...and people who've taken a PGCE have also taken a degree in one such subject...kinda a requirement for the PGCE. They don't just say, 'You want to teach chemistry at A Level and you haven't studied it since GCSE? Yes that's fine!'