Teach Secondary 13.7

On board this issue: Michael Power is a headteacher Natasha Devon is a writer, broadcaster and campaigner FROM THE EDITOR “Welcome… KEEP IN TOUCH! Sign up for the weekly TS newsletter at teachwire.net/ newsletter In any line of work, there will always be some level of tension between a need to respect tradition and precedent, and the necessity for things to always be progressing andmoving forward. Teaching is perhaps one of the sectors in which those tensions can be most keenly seen and felt. There’s an expectation that teachers will pass on established foundational knowledge (possibly even ‘ The best that has been thought and said ’, as someone once put it), while at the same beingmindful of how the knowledge base underpinning those subjects, and research concerning certain types of practice (VAK, anyone?) can dramatically change and evolve over time. And then there are those external developments that youmight not be expecting, but which threaten to completely disrupt and potentially transform and your field beyond recognition. And there’s surely no better example of that than the smartphone. The news that Forge Valley School in Sheffield has enacted a comprehensive ban on all forms of smartphone use on its premises was widely reported, with broadly positive comments from students – appreciative of how the ban had brought about more inter-peer socialising – alongside perhaps understandable misgivings fromparents, keen for their children to have an easy way of contacting themwhen en route to and from school. The outsized role that smartphones have come to play in teenagers’ lives warrants close examination. Because when we, the adult members of the society we’re so keen for students to one day contribute to, have collectively allowed so much of what used to be the teenage experience to be mediated by Apple, Samsung, Google, et al . (chatting with friends, consumingmedia, playing games, hanging out), well –why wouldn’t teens spend every wakingmoment staring at their phones? When it comes down to it, the behaviours nurtured by smartphone use are almost antithetical to the expectations and processes at play within the classroom. Learning is about perseverance, triumphing over setbacks and making it through with greater knowledge and/or skills at the end. Smartphones are deliberately designed to be endlessly compelling and pleasurable to use, the content of their apps shaped by inscrutable algorithms and insights gleaned from vast volumes of personal data. Outside of games and apps specifically designed for learning purposes, smartphones are all about maximising convenience and serving up frictionless entertainment, wherever and whenever. Perhaps there was always going to be a reckoning between the demands placed on schools and the sociocultural impacts stemming from large-scale smartphone adoption, coupled with the economic incentives of app developers and platform holders. Perhaps we’re seeing one now. Enjoy the issue, CallumFauser callum.fauser@theteachco.com Steve Brace is chief executive of the Geographical Association Alice Guile is a secondary school art teacher Kit Betts-Masters is a lead practitioner for science Rebecca Leek is a primary and secondary teacher, SENCo, headteacher and MAT CEO Essential reading: Banish burnout What to do when your students are hitting the revision too hard... 32 Guardians of the future How tomorrow’s challenges will require the talents of today’s geographers A beautiful subject Why becoming a physics teacher is easier and more rewarding than youmight think 66 58 03 teachwire.net/secondary