We are entering an era of knowledge-rich education for our students, with a greater focus on the powerful knowledge that they each have a right to. 

Not just because they might use it later at university or in an academic career, but because everyone is entitled to know historically significant events, the importance of Shakespeare’s work, the role of world religions, or why gravity is a fundamental concept. 

Everyone is entitled to appreciate the rich and varied world that we inhabit. 

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So, to facilitate this, what is the powerful knowledge of teaching? What should we focus on when we have trainee teachers or early career teachers in our schools? Which tools of the trade are the priority? 

Again, this knowledge isn’t just for the few, but for everyone who has the privilege of working in a classroom. 

The support we offer these new staff can make or break for their careers. The knowledge we provide them with is the largest part of their training, so we have a huge responsibility, to them, our students and the profession, to get it right. 

What you don’t know

I remember with clarity my very first PGCE placement. There were no schemes of work, no lesson plans, no PowerPoint presentations, I was just told: “You’re teaching ecology”. 

The problem with this approach at this early point in your career is that you don’t know what you don’t know.

This is an extreme example, I know, and I don’t suggest that everyone’s initial experience, or the ones you provide to your early career teachers, is like this.

New recruits

However, it is essential we consider it before expecting our, often eager to please, new recruits to plan a lesson. 

There is too much at stake. It might have been like this “in my day”, it might have a glimmer of positive as a baptism by fire, but the potential negative, unintended consequences are huge. 

Just like a child, you cannot expect them to write a paragraph successfully, without first teaching grammatical conventions, how to punctuate, spelling, sentence structure, this list goes on. 

Therefore, without the powerful knowledge of teaching, how can you effectively plan a lesson?

I would also argue, how on earth can you effectively deliver a lesson that you haven’t had some part in its planning? Taking someone else’s thoughts and making them your own is really hard, no matter how experienced you are.

Let alone when you have little clue why content, activities or particular timings were included. All the people, all involved. 

Discovery learning

Why take chances on the successes of our students, ITT and early career teachers, by giving our trainees and early career teachers a discovery learning approach to lesson planning? 

Just like our students, our new recruits should experience successes, to develop their intrinsic motivation, be taught specific strategies for specific situations, to develop their skill.

So, I propose, that we don’t just give our colleagues a PowerPoint presentation, or hand over the reins of lesson planning.

Instead, we should teach them the importance, skill and contextual relevance of subject knowledge, curriculum content, pedagogical content knowledge, the learning process, behaviour management, then how this feeds into lesson planning, which is the end product of all of this. 

Let’s model and scaffold that power knowledge of teaching to ensure everyone experiences success, develops that self-regulation, and metacognitive ability in the classroom, and most importantly, retains our colleagues for the future of the profession.  

Louise Lewis is a research lead and deputy head of science in a Yorkshire secondary school. She tweets @MissLLewis