Maggie Thomas

I have written an editorial on what constitutes an outstanding lesson, I would be grateful for any comment. You can find the editorial here: What constitutes an outstanding lesson? Best wishes Maggie

I written an article on what constitutes good teaching and learning. You can have a look at this at Teaching and Learning I am now thinking of writing an article on what constitutes a 'very good' lesson. Whilst it is easy for me tackle this from an inspectors point of view, I would be delighted to include comments from teachers/educationalists so that the final article gives a balanced viewpoint. Many thanks Maggie

Hello As a former HMI I thought that teachers out there might find this interesting Teaching and Learning Editorial I would welcome any comments or examples of good teaching an learning that you have experienced. Maggie

Power-point is a powerful tool but when teachers are observed by inspectors it is sometimes used, to teach through, rather than to enrich the lesson. The worse example I have ever seen is when a teacher read the text of his lesson from the Powerpoint, students conscientiously copied the text, and if that was were not enough, students were then handed out a copy of the presentation .To the inspector this demonstrates both lack of confidence and poor communication skills. However when power point is used properly e.g. to pull down examples of ethical advertising from the internet ,or to show a graph of the movement in house prices during the last 20 years, or as a modelling exercise in a cash flow document, then it works well to increase the interest of students and encourage debate and discussion.

Maggie Thomas was an HMI between 1990 and 2000. During which time she was the national point of reference for Business Education and gave advice to the government on education matters. In 2000 she set up her own business see EQS Consultancy Ltd which amongst other things other things helps schools and colleges to prepare for their Ofsted inspection. She organised and led several area wide reviews and has written a number of significant reports on vocational education. She has given advice to the State Of Jersey Education department and is presently working for the DCFS. In July of this year she set up Debate Education Debate Education an on-line publication intended to stimulate educational debate and to keep people up to date with links to current educational issues, publications and research papers.