Tuesday, 26 October 2010

What makes an outstanding lesson?

I suppose that this depends on wheether you are using OFSTED criteria, in a review or performance management, or looking at a lesson under less pressured circumstances. Certainly, many of the things that OFSTED emphasise are good sense--especially the points about all students being actively engaged--but sometimes the list of elements can seem like an overly-long tick list that it is impossible to fulfil.

So what do you think are the elements that really make a lesson outstanding? What can you not do without? Conversely, what factors are less important to the overall rating?