[gbuk2013]

Anecdotal experience: my mom used to teach some adult classes in a UK college and while she loved the work she ultimately left because for every hour of teaching she had to do 4+ hours unpaid work (lesson plans etc) and prepare for endless inspections by people who knew a lot less about teaching than she did (she has 20+ years teaching experience).

[2b3a51]

The formal lesson planning has been cut back a bit these days (last 3 years or so). One of my employers went over to the 'five minute lesson plan' [1]. With a solid scheme of work (plan of the whole course) that works OK.

I taught maths (basic level) and we had a team of something like 20 tutors so materials got produced and a common scheme of work got adapted as needed. All that cuts the work down, along with some amazing Web sites [2]. If you are the only teacher of a specialist subject, yes I admit the planning could be heavy the first time you run the course. Local management can be a factor sadly.

Recent sad events in the UK news [3] I think will result in a change in approach from OFSTED. This will I think happen when the new OFSTED head is in post.

[1] https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/5minplan/ [ I don't think we paid anything! And the differentiation bit is different for adult education]

[3] e.g. https://www.skillsworkshop.org/ and https://corbettmaths.com/

[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-65207784

[gbuk2013]

She used to teach a foreign language, so there was only one other teacher and yes management really was a problem. :(

Good to hear that things have improved - it’s been about 10 years since she moved on to teaching privately.

[2b3a51]

The moment I saw foreign language I thought: better off in business sector

Management can be abysmal. I've been lucky.

Hope Mrs gbuk Senior is doing OK now.

[james-revisoai]

Can I speak to your mom? Apologies for the directness but I work with tech for UK colleges and would love to hear her view (and see if there has been change since).

[gbuk2013]

She left the college about 10 years ago. At the time all she used was a smart whiteboard - the 2 different colleges she worked at had different brands with different software interfaces on her PC and this was a real pain she said - just as she got used to one she had to change to another one.

Apart from that she just made her lesson plans in Word based on a basic template that the college provided.

[james-revisoai]

Thanks for the info!

Seems like besides iPads in the classroom, little has changed.