This weeks BOTW comes from the ever resourceful blog of Shaun Allison – ClassTeaching.

The post in particular is called – Subject knowledge matters and is a summary of why subject knowledge is important for effective teaching but also provides lots of resources and ideas for improving your subject knowledge. My favourite tip is: ‘get advice from an expert.’

The school was able to secure some support from the ‘Institute of Physics’ in the shape of a superb ‘Teaching & Learning Coach’ Colin Piper.  Colin was a fantastic resource.  He met with Bex on a regular basis, went through the topics she was going to be teaching at a very high level, broke it down and explained the best way to teach it.  He would also discuss misconceptions and how to address them, as well as unusual and interesting practicals and demonstrations to support her explanations.

Below are a few organisations that provide support for teachers to improve their subject knowledge:

• National Association of English Teachers – https://www.nate.org.uk/
• Association for Teachers of Maths – http://www.atm.org.uk/
• Association for Science Education – http://www.ase.org.uk/home/
• Geographical Association – http://www.geography.org.uk/
• The historical association – http://www.history.org.uk/
• Association of Physical Education – http://www.afpe.org.uk/
• Design & technology association – https://www.data.org.uk/
• Association for citizenship teaching – http://www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk/
• Association for Language Learning –  http://www.all-languages.org.uk/

#neverstoplearning