The Quality of Teaching in Sixth Forms

The UK Department for Education's 2011 Annual Ofsted Report (p54) discusses the quality of teaching in sixth form (ages 17-19) lessons and discovers that:

• Outstanding teaching is "often characterised by teachers sharing a genuine love of and interest in their subject" but weak teachers often talk too long. 
• Outstanding teachers set tasks which "flow smoothly from the introductory stage of the lesson and build up knowledge and understanding sufficiently to ensure that students are confident of the subject matter when homework is set. Such lessons do not always have a rigid structure, which instead is tailored to the material being taught and kept interesting for the students." whereas during weaker teaching "insufficient attention is given to the balance and appropriateness of activities and tasks expected of students during lessons. This approach does not support students’ specific learning needs."