Don’t bother trainee teachers with much theory –half-page summaries should do it - US education thinker tells audience of academics at DfE conference

Trainee teachers do not need to engage much with theory –and indeed could be handed half-page cribsheets on different aspects of their subject, as they get ready for a working lifetime in the classroom.

Such were the thoughts of one of the most prominent American thinkers on education, invited by the Department for Education to speak to English teacher training institutions as they are urged to rethink their curricular under highly controversial current reforms.

However, the thoughts from Professor Daniel Willingham, during a half-hour talk last week that was organised as part of the DfE’s initial teacher education reforms, have brought a decidedly mixed response from sector sources, with one questioner on the day probing for the academic’s evidence base.

Another attendee, a senior figure from a provider which has successfully passed through the first phase of DfE re-accreditation, described the talk as “insulting,” “patronising” and “anti-educational,” stating that it was more relevant to American teacher education than English, while Cambridge University’s education faculty also seemed unimpressed.

I put some points to Professor Willingham. He has provided a response, which is quoted below.

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