What It Means To Teachers

Work to deliver the principles of DtS is happening now, in schools the length and breadth of Scotland. But, at the national level, the Executive also has a role to play. We want to help teachers by identifying and providing further teaching and learning methods that encourage and inspire young people, allowing them to take responsibility for their own learning within the curriculum – and, in doing so, generating energy, enthusiasm and creativity. Developing and embracing an enterprise culture helps clarify goals and ambitions, it builds bridges between the classroom and the wider working landscape, and it provides a stimulating and challenging learning and teaching environment.

You’ll know that enterprising approaches to teaching and learning help young people to feel more valued and involved. Learning becomes more fun, boosting pupils self-esteem and helping them raise their performance.

Enterprise in education gives pupils a chance to take responsibility for their own learning. It helps them reflect on their own stenghts, passions and abilities, it helps them to understand what works best for them, and it provides the support they need to make the most of those qualities. It means children will have even more opportunities and contexts to:

• Assess their strengths and weaknesses
• Find information and advice
• Make decisions
• Solve problems
• Have fun and be motivated
• Interact with people in power and authority
• Negotiate successfully
• Carry out agreed responsibilities
• Resolve conflict
• Learn from success – and failure
• Communicate well
• Evaluate their performance and that of others
  

DtS together with other linked work on teaching, learning and the curriculum, provides a framework for what good teaching already does. It’s going to be a permanent feature of the education curriculum, not a short-term initiative.