Signs and Symptoms  Stinging nettles are found in woodland areas, forests and overgrown gardens. Children will often suffer nettle stings whilst at play, whilst adults through activities like gardening and outdoor sports. Look out for the following symptoms: Stinging sensation Red patches that can appear raised when someone has white skin. The rash can be more difficult to distinguish when someone has brown or black skin Red or white spots on the skin Treatment It’s best to get away from the area that contains stinging nettles so that no further stings occur. Next wash the affected a ..read more

Advantages for the teacher or trainer If you started your career in education more than 5 years ago, you will remember having to find assessment materials, put them together yourself and perhaps spend hours at the photocopier, collating these materials.  Then you would need to ensure you had enough assessments at different levels to be able to personalise learning for your students.  You would then take these assessments, mark them and analyse the results to inform your planning – pretty laborious! The number one appeal for automating assessments is, of course, time.  Having t ..read more

The acronym “VARK” stands for: 1. Visual learning (seeing) 2. Aural (speaking & listening) 3. Reading & writing and 4. Kinaesthetic (practical).  Fleming proposed the 4 different styles of learning and argued that each person has a preference to learn through one particular learning style. This theory is important for teachers as it recognises that everyone learns in different ways and by having a range of activities or approaches within your lessons, you can keep the attention of learners and the flow of the lesson-ultimately making your lessons interesting. A useful method to es ..read more

The cycle can be applied to any course, whether a week or a year-long qualification, each stage is relevant to the delivery of a well-planned lesson. The cycle is a learning tool for teachers and trainers to identify their own strengths and provides opportunities to make developmental changes for their future practice.   As a new teacher, I would always recommend having a reflective diary or system to record your teaching experiences or ask fellow teachers or colleagues to observe you during your teaching practice. Identifying Needs At the first stage of the teaching and learning cycle ..read more

This action-based model encourages the learner to have a first-hand practical experience and to identify where they can improve on their performance afterwards. Within a classroom environment, your learners are often curious to take part within an activity or ‘raring to go’ to get involved within a practical task. As a teacher, it is often best to allow for learners to get started within an activity and provide little instruction or advice on how to complete the task or challenge. This will not only promote the learners’ independence and problem solving-skills but also promote the pace of the ..read more

Currently, we are reviewing the initial details and will be working hard to develop an exciting new specification that enables learners to achieve this qualification and enter into teaching in the further education sector.  We will make sure that our resources are supportive and engaging for this new and improved qualification. Interested learners need to be aged 19 or above and qualified/experienced to teach their subject or area of specialism.  They will also need to have a minimum of Level 2 in Maths and English and suitable digital competency to benefit from the course. There w ..read more

The concept explains that people are motivated to fulfil their basic needs first in order to progress onto more advanced needs. Maslow believed that every person has an internal desire to ‘self-actualise’ and achieve their own personal goals and targets to ultimately strive towards a successful and fulfilling life. This humanist model is presented in a pyramid format with a total of 5 stages. The initial stages within the pyramid are the survival or physical needs which Maslow explained need to be met first in order for more advanced ‘psychological’ needs such as ‘self-esteem’ leading to self ..read more

What is it? In basic terms, adaptive teaching and learning is about individualising or personalising learning as students work through their course material. On first glance, this sounds the same as the more traditionally used term, personalised learning:  teaching and learning that personalises activities for learners according to their ability and current performance.  However, what makes adaptive teaching and learning different is the use of new and cutting-edge technology – specifically online learning platforms that have been developed to adapt content. How does it work? Onlin ..read more

What are the advantages? Flexibility must be one of the major advantages of this method of learning – you can literally be anywhere – as long as you have a good Wi-Fi connection!  This will make a huge difference to some learners who would be put off a course by its location – difficulties with childcare or transport could mean that the course would have been a missed opportunity. There is less of a financial outlay with an online course.  The course itself is often cheaper and there are no transport or accommodation costs that there might have been had the learner attended in pers ..read more

At first glance, this feels like it could be a complete nightmare for teachers!  A plethora of plagiarism from learners in terms of coursework could be the fear.  However, it could also cut down planning and report writing time... as with any educational tool there are obviously advantages and disadvantages; let’s have a look at these before writing off what could be a very useful tool. What can you do with ChatGPT? It can be used for (amongst other things): summarising texts, explaining topics, coding, idea generation, translation, role-play, proofreading/editing, filtering/organi ..read more