'Not Rolling the Dice' - in praise of safe teaching
The tendency to take risks when preparing lessons is often regarded to be a feature of excellent teaching. The idea that 'great teachers take risks' comes up again and again on blogs, in books, and in discussion. I have to admit that I'm not always clear as to what this actually means in practice. Risk may have gained this glowing reputation because it is associated with lessons and activities that are a bit unusual or left-field, and therefore represent an excitingly creative diversion on the trudge through the school day. It may be that a willingness to innovate and experiment is seen as inherently worthwhile, or that risk-taking is somehow daringly anti-Ofsted, with the risk-taking teacher functioning as a laudable maverick, cocking a snook (and what a startlingly wonderful expression that is) at a culture of robo-teaching-by-numbers which has swamped us all, Somerset Levels-style, over recent years. There's probably some truth in this - a degree of variety in appr...