Inspiring the next generation

As part of my progress as a professional and to try and understand humanity a little better, I do some tutoring at St. Martins College on an MA course. As part of this I'm currently studying again, too. I'm working toward a Postgraduate Certificate for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. Sounds all impressive but it's not really.

Since the Dearing Report in 1997 it's now compulsory for all teachers to partake of this certificate. What this means is that the PGCERT is attended both by people who have been teaching for 20-30 years and have been forced to study the certificate, and by young(ish) forward thinking, relatively inexperienced teachers like me. The PGCERT is the Higher Educational equivalent of the PGCE - for those that are interested in that kind of stuff.

Anyway - in my lesson on Friday we were discussing the fundamentals of Action Research and Pedagogical Theory... this was the pseudo-architectural response by some of the more experienced members who aren't really there by choice.