BETT2015 - Miles Berry on Primary Computing

BETT 2015 - Miles Berry on Primary Computing

One of the benefits of NOT going to BETT this year was the ability to sit back, relax and view some of the talks and content through the web.

Whilst the feed on the BETT web site was pretty rough there is now a growing number of videos elsewhere, including an excellent 45 minute talk by the wonderful Miles Berry.

Miles is always thoughtful, often challenging and never dull and so it was with his 45 minute talk on Primary Computing at the BETT Show this year.

Also, do you notice that it is indeed a rare photo of Miles when he is NOT smiling - says a lot about his whole approach to life and learning I think.

The video is embedded below, along with some thoughts of mine and a link to the slides from the presentation.

I know teachers are pushed for time. I know you have to mark those Class 5 maths books before tomorrow. But do take a look ......

Miles Berry Talk - How to teach Primary Computing - from Bett2015

Slide deck from the talk - click here

Some thoughts from the talk .......

Miles presents some good, common-sense ideas that should make teachers think about how they can develop the new Computing Curriculum within their school. But the talk was not simply about the practicalities of the new Computing curriculum. It was riddled with challenges that he puts up to make staff think about learning and teaching in general. One of the key challenges was presented early on and it is the Plowden Challenge that I'm keen to stimulate some thoughts about.

The Plowden Challenge
Miles quoted the Plowden Report from 1967 "“… build on and strengthen the children’s intrinsic interest in learning and lead them to learn for themselves”. This is something that seems to have got lost in some schools. Burdened by the various teaching frameworks, curriculum documents, lesson planning frameworks and evaluation activities that staff have to consider nowadays the challenge to instill a love of learning for the sake of learning seems to be disappearing down a plughole of accountability.

Often when I ask teachers what are the main elements of a good lesson they come out with things like 'learning objectives' and 'starter' and 'plenary', few, if any, mention the love of learning and many even miss the word 'learning' itself! Good teaching should always aim to develop a love of learning BUT THIS IS EVEN MORE THE CASE when you consider good teaching for Computing. Computing changes so fast and requires so much on-going learning that anyone who wants a career in the broader field of computing, let alone Computer Science, needs to have a love of learning if they are going to succeed.

I may be an old fart who was brought up in a time when University courses were free and you actually got paid an allowance to go and learn. However, I wonder whether the focus on developing learning around the prospect of developing a career has not robbed many of our younger students the opportunity to just learn for the sake of enjoying learning? Perhaps Computing, where career success requires this enjoyment, may help us bring it back across the curriculum as a whole?