Choice of subject and its justification
The issue I have chosen to discuss for this assignment is one of assessment, the style and methods employed in the past and, more importantly, the present, within the Royal Air Force (RAF) and specifically within RAF Cosford. I cannot discuss the wider implications at a national level for several reasons; one, I am not a teacher at a mainstream 'normal' school within the national curriculum, to all intents and purposes I 'teach' at a further education college, which just happens to be in the military. Two, we do not conform to the guidelines of that national curriculum and therefore I cannot form or state an opinion on these matters. I can, however, discuss the assessment criteria used twenty years ago and the modern day aspects used today within the confines of the military and specifically at RAF Cosford.
I have chosen this subject, first because of its fundamental importance to the overall learning experience and second because of the radical changes that have occurred within teaching as a whole in the United Kingdom in the last thirty years, and as these changes and improvements have permeated into the military in the last five to eight years.
I have had first hand experience of the assessment criteria used at Cosford having been a technical student at the base twice in the past, first in early eighty three and again between eighty seven and eighty nine. I have now returned to Cosford as a technical instructor so I consider myself fortunate to have seen and experienced both sides of the technician training environment at this base.
The methods of instruction and assessment used within the confines of RAF Cosford have certainly changed since the early eighties. The ways in which the individual instructor...