This book is an essential companion for all primary trainee teachers, whatever their training route. It focuses on the school-based experience and provides both practical strategies and opportunities for reflection, so trainees are challenged to critically evaluate their learning in order to improve attainment and ultimately succeed while in their school settings. The book reflects current educational policy and embraces key national priority areas including behaviour, inclusion and the teaching of phonics and early mathematics. Other chapters look at professional partnerships, planning and assessment, employability and, crucially, how to move from good to outstanding teaching. Case studies enliven the text and present a range of perspectives for consideration, while critical questions engage the reader and promote a deeper understanding of the text. This second edition of Primary School Placements has been fully revised throughout and in particular provides an increased focus on evidence-based practice and is referenced to the latest national curriculum.
This book is an essential companion for all primary trainee teachers, whatever their training route. It focuses on the school-based experience and provides both practical strategies and opportunities for reflection, so trainees are challenged to critically evaluate their learning in order to improve attainment and ultimately succeed while in their school settings. The book reflects current educational policy and embraces key national priority areas including behaviour, inclusion and the teaching of phonics and early mathematics. Other chapters look at professional partnerships, planning and assessment, employability and, crucially, how to move from good to outstanding teaching. Case studies enliven the text and present a range of perspectives for consideration, while critical questions engage the reader and promote a deeper understanding of the text. This second edition of Primary School Placements has been fully revised throughout and in particular provides an increased focus on evidence-based practice and is referenced to the latest national curriculum.
Your Primary School-based Experience: A Guide to Outstanding Placements
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Your Primary School-based Experience: A Guide to Outstanding Placements
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Overview
This book is an essential companion for all primary trainee teachers, whatever their training route. It focuses on the school-based experience and provides both practical strategies and opportunities for reflection, so trainees are challenged to critically evaluate their learning in order to improve attainment and ultimately succeed while in their school settings. The book reflects current educational policy and embraces key national priority areas including behaviour, inclusion and the teaching of phonics and early mathematics. Other chapters look at professional partnerships, planning and assessment, employability and, crucially, how to move from good to outstanding teaching. Case studies enliven the text and present a range of perspectives for consideration, while critical questions engage the reader and promote a deeper understanding of the text. This second edition of Primary School Placements has been fully revised throughout and in particular provides an increased focus on evidence-based practice and is referenced to the latest national curriculum.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781910391136 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Critical Publishing |
| Publication date: | 09/30/2015 |
| Series: | Critical Teaching |
| Edition description: | 2nd Second Edition,2nd Fully Updated Throughout with an Increased Focus on Evidence-Based Practice and Referenc ed. |
| Pages: | 184 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.85(w) x 9.69(h) x 0.39(d) |
About the Author
Branwen Bingle is a Senior Lecturer in primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE) at the University of Worcester. Always a committed mentor of students in the classroom, Branwen moved from primary teaching into ITE in 2008. She has been a supply teacher and support assistant for Service Children’s Education; a basic skills tutor working with adults in the military; a private day nursery teacher working with 3 & 4 year olds; a Secondary English teacher working across KS3 and 4, including the teaching of GCSE; and a subject leader for Literacy in two middle schools. In addition to supporting undergraduate and PG trainees, she is currently working on doctoral research into children’s literature and its potential influence on professional identity construction/aspiration.
Catriona Robinson is a principal lecturer in primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE) at the University of Worcester. As a tutor she has supported both undergraduate and PGCE trainees and has worked in placement settings with them. In addition she has developed training programmes for school mentors, been the Primary Partnership Manager and Acting Head of Primary Strategic Partnerships investigating new and more creative placements for trainees. She has recently taken on the role of Assessment Only Route Lead for Primary and Secondary.
Colin Howard is a senior primary lecturer in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) at the University of Worcester. He has been involved in primary education for over 24 years of which 14 years has been as a successful head teacher in both small village and large primary school settings. He has been involved in inspecting schools for the Diocese of Hereford as a S48 SIAS Inspector and has a strong research interest in the influence that school buildings have upon their stakeholders.
Read an Excerpt
Your Primary School-based Experience
A Guide to Outstanding Placements
By Catriona Robinson, Branwen Bingle, Colin Howard
Critical Publishing Ltd
Copyright © 2015 Catriona Robinson, Branwen Bingle and Colin HowardAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-910391-13-6
CHAPTER 1
Reflection throughout practice
Teachers' Standards (DfE, 2011c)
2 Promote good progress and outcomes by pupils
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how pupils learn and how this impacts on teaching.
4 Plan and teach well-structured lessons
• reflect systematically on the effectiveness of lessons and approaches to teaching.
8 Fulfil wider professional responsibilities
• take responsibility for improving teaching through appropriate professional development, responding to advice and feedback from colleagues.
Introduction
Underpinning the effectiveness of this book is your ability to reflect on the critical questions and case studies raised throughout subsequent chapters. Therefore Chapter 1 seeks to enhance your reflection on practice related to a school context and to the contents of this book.
Fundamental to every successful teaching placement and indeed central to being a good or better teacher is the ability to reflect. This chapter introduces you to a number of theoretical models of reflection. These will assist you in becoming a proficient reflective practitioner who continually strives to develop and improve your practice in the classroom. You will be given the opportunity to critically reflect on the complexities of learning and teaching in order to reshape your past, present and future teaching experiences.
What is reflection?
There is much written about what constitutes reflection, when it occurs and the art of being a reflective practitioner. Fundamentally reflection is the skill of looking back at your and other teaching professionals' practice in order to identify elements that work well, to reveal avenues for action in order to effect a positive change. Ghaye and Ghaye (1998) regard reflection on action as a continuous and cyclical process. Ghaye later defines reflection as being a ... skilful practice (Ghaye, 2011, page 20) that draws upon experience in order to action and positively transform a situation. In the past, reflection has often focused on a deficit model whereby, either in isolation or with others, the negative aspects of practice are highlighted. All too often the focus is on targeting the areas for development that are having a negative effect on practice (developmental feedback). The issues are defined and consequently targets are set so as to repair what is broken. You might think that this is a level-headed starting point but building on strengths of your practice is equally important.
Consider the case studies below of two trainee teachers recounting their feedback following a lesson observation.
CASE STUDIES
Lisa's feedback
Well, the tutor sat me down after the lesson and asked me how I thought the lesson had gone. I thought it had gone pretty well. I mentioned that I had got through all the teaching that I had planned for the lesson which I was pleased with. The tutor then gave me my feedback. It was dreadful. There were so many issues with the lesson I didn't know where to begin to put things right. The tutor said I had no presence in the class and that my voice was weak. In addition he said that my pronunciation was not good. My pace was slow and I lacked enthusiasm. I am not sure that he said anything about what had gone well in the lesson and if he did, I wasn't listening. All the feedback that fell on my ears criticised my practice. It felt like a personal attack. I was mortified.
Sam's feedback
After my science lesson, the mentor asked what aspects of my practice I was happy with in the lesson. I was unsure as to the exact parts of the lesson that had gone well but thought the children had all been engaged. The mentor then asked me to pinpoint what had enabled the children to remain focused and on task in the lesson but I found it difficult to pinpoint the factors that had contributed. The mentor then itemised all the aspects of my practice that had facilitated the children's engagement. The mentor said that I had kept the teaching lively and not too much time was spent on teacher talk. The children had short activities to complete in the first part of the lesson and afterwards they led their own investigation which the mentor said gave them ownership. I was really pleased with the feedback but I was unsure as to what I needed to do next time to make my practice better.
Critical questions
* Which feedback would you react best to?
* Which feedback would help you to develop your practice?
* Do you react better to developmental feedback or feedback that celebrates the positives?
* Think back to some feedback you have already received. (If you haven't started a placement yet, recall feedback on an essay or perhaps just from a friend.) What style of feedback was it? How did you react and how might you have reacted differently? Did you make any changes as a result of the feedback?
Developmental feedback
Many trainee teachers take developmental feedback personally. In many ways this is a natural response, especially in the example of the first case study above where Lisa's voice and presence are called into question. When feedback is related to your character and personality, it is hard to de-personalise and view the feedback objectively. However, you need to disentangle yourself from the feedback and focus on how these points can be addressed in order to improve your practice. We all like to hear if our practice is good as this often motivates individuals. In the second case study Sam receives amplification of what is working well; however, he appears unable to appreciate that the positive feedback should empower him to build upon the best aspects of his practice (see Cooperrider and Whitney, 2005, in Taking it further). In contrast, he focuses his attention on the fact that he has not been told what elements of his practice are in need of development. In the initial stages of your teacher training, identifying rudiments of your practice which work well and areas for future development may well be difficult. Being a novice in the profession, you are probably conscious that you don't know what you don't know and therefore initially you will probably need explicit developmental feedback in order to move your practice forward (Loughran, 2000). This is perfectly acceptable and to be expected.
Critical questions
* How will you develop and change your practice if you receive feedback that solely celebrates what is working well?
* How will you respond and react if you hear feedback about your practice that you would rather not hear?
* What strategies might you need to put in place to help you address your feelings when receiving feedback?
Reflection and ownership
Nonetheless you ideally need to take ownership of the reflection upon your practice rather than relying on the feedback and reflection of others. This often comes with more experience; however, the sooner you become more effective and proficient in reflecting on your practice, potentially your progress will be realised more rapidly. Taking ownership of your reflection harnesses a powerful vehicle for change in your practice and is addressed later on in this chapter.
Trainee teachers often resort to highlighting features of their practice that are in need of development when asked to reflect upon the positive aspects of their practice. Consider the following case study.
CASE STUDY
Toni's reflection
A supervisory tutor asks a trainee teacher to tell them what aspects of the lesson went well. The trainee begins:
I was pleased that I had got extension activities prepared for the children today as I needed them. But that was because I had not planned enough for the lesson and the work was too easy for the children. I had not pitched the level of the work appropriately which meant the children finished too quickly and were not challenged. I should have checked with the class teacher when I was planning to see what the children already knew.
The tutor intervenes:
So what else worked well in today's lesson?
Critical questions
* What aspects of Toni's practice are going well?
* What aspects of Toni's practice are in need of development?
* How reflective is the trainee?
* What targets would you set the trainee?
* Why was it important for the tutor to intervene?
As you can see from the recount above, Toni rapidly moves from reflecting upon the best elements of her practice to concentrating on the facets that require improvement. Through professional dialogue you should be made to probe your practice further in order to identify other characteristics of your practice that are effective. You could then in turn employ these more readily in practice so as to effect change.
This introduction has provided a brief summary of reflection, particularly in light of dialogue with and feedback from other professional colleagues. Now consider what you understand from the following questions.
Critical questions
* What is critical reflection?
* What elements of critical reflection do you believe you will excel at?
* Which aspects of critical reflection will need effort on your part?
Models of reflection
This section illustrates some models that you might like to employ in order to assist in your reflection. Research around reflective models is widely available, although it is not possible to evaluate them all in this book. Therefore three key models have been included for your consideration. You will examine Brookfield's (2002) four lenses of reflection, Ghaye's (2011) theoretical perspective of reflection, Schon's (1991) levels of reflection and the experiential learning cycle of Kolb (1984). These models of reflection will encourage you to see your experiences from a variety of viewpoints, help transform your practice and scaffold your skills in the art of reflection. Like all skills, reflection needs practice; therefore the more you engage in the process of reflection the more proficient and accomplished you will become.
Brookfield's four lenses of reflection
Brookfield (2002) likened critical reflection to the questioning of assumptions related to teaching and learning using four critically reflective lenses:
Lens 1 – through your autobiographical experience;
Lens 2 – through the pupils' eyes;
Lens 3 – through colleagues' perceptions and experiences;
Lens 4 – through theoretical literature.
Critical reflection is not solely about your own reflection on your practice but your consideration and interpretation of other perspectives and viewpoints around you. Viewing your practice through these four lenses will help you to make more informed judgements and to take more informed action. So what does this mean to you as a trainee teacher?
Let us take, for example, the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Carle, 2002) as our starting point. We can view the story from a range of perspectives (lenses).
For those of you who know the story, it is told from the caterpillar's perspective, but what if we were to employ Brookfield's lenses of reflection? You begin to see that previous learning (or in this case past 'eating' experiences) informs the caterpillar and its reasons for plumping for a leaf. Reflection on other perspectives, for example that of the leaf or tree, prompts further consideration and challenges assumptions that it was all right for the caterpillar to eat the leaf, but how does this relate to research and literature surrounding caterpillars' behaviour and diet? This simplistic example should help you to interrogate your own assumptions related to your own and other colleagues' practice and not just to assume that what you observe in school classrooms among even experienced practitioners is always best practice.
Read the scenario below, which recounts one trainee teacher's story about an experience on their school placement. Then complete the table considering each of the four lenses of reflection.
CASE STUDY
George's story
While I was on placement I was using the class teacher's aiming high sheets for setting pupil targets. In my third week of placement I sensed that there were too many targets on the target sheet. The number requiring completion prior to the child receiving an award was unrealistic. They needed to complete ten targets in a term to warrant a reward! From personal experience on this course I know that with too many targets to achieve you disengage and lose the motivation of pupils as the task seems insurmountable. I felt that the children were in a similar position and many did not even know what their targets were. I asked the class teacher sensitively how effective she thought the target setting sheets were, as I was conscious that the class teacher may have designed them. It came to light that the class teacher also thought the target sheets were unwieldy for the children and onerous for staff. We agreed to change the target sheets so that rewards were more easily achievable and children could engage more autonomously. Towards the end of my placement I could see that children were more interested in their targets as a reward was easier to obtain; however, they were still not engaging with the target sheets and I wondered why this might be.
Critical questions
* In light of the case study, complete the table above for each of the four lenses.
* What else could George have done in practice to inform his reflection?
* What other questions would you have asked and who would you have addressed these to?
* What sort of literature and relevant statutory documents would you have considered? How could you improve on the reflection in the scenario?
* Try to rewrite the reflection based on the additional information you potentially could have gained if you had used the four lenses of reflection while in the above situation.
Comment on George's story
While George reflected upon the children's perspectives this could have been further enhanced by a discussion with some of the children to ascertain their views about the target setting system. Likewise, had George consulted statutory guidance on best practice in sharing targets with children, the subsequent design of a target-setting resource would have been further informed. In order for you to develop a rationale for your practice, critical reflection using all four lenses will enable you to reframe any assumptions you have about teaching and learning and potentially save you time in the long run. Therefore, like Brookfield (2002), you may begin to see that critical reflection is vital for your health and well-being as a teacher and for your professional competency in the classroom.
Ghaye's theoretical perspective of reflection
Ghaye (1998) advocates a model of reflection on practice that has at its heart four main emphases, those of reflection on:
• context;
• values;
• improvement;
• practice.
Underpinning each of the four themes are three key concepts (as seen in Figure 1.2). So how can this model help you to reflect? The following case study describes a situation that a trainee teacher found themselves in during their final placement.
CASE STUDY
Sally's conflict: values versus practice and context
My course had prepared me in readiness for my final placement and I realised that I would be taking more responsibility for the class. I was asked by the class teacher to set reading and mathematics homework each day and a significant task at the end of the week for the Year 2 class. As I regarded homework to be very important I ensured that the children took their reading books home every night and that I reiterated that they needed to practise their times table in readiness for their test at the end of the week. I had never called into question the setting of homework before; however, this was soon to change. The children who had poor results in their times table tests were required to stay in and practise them at lunchtime; an expectation of the school. I was confronted with a parent the following week with a very upset child. The parent explained to me how their home life had been turned upside down due to their partner leaving the family home. This incident made me call into question my values, the need to set the issue in a context which would inform my practice and to find ways I could bring about change. It was not a small feat as I was working within the constraints of the school's expectations but a resolution was desirable as I did not want this type of situation to be repeated.
Using Ghaye's model, consider each of the key ideas in turn to aid the reflection process, along with the critical questions below. Continually asking questions of yourself, about your values and your practice, will become instinctive as you develop your reflective skills.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Your Primary School-based Experience by Catriona Robinson, Branwen Bingle, Colin Howard. Copyright © 2015 Catriona Robinson, Branwen Bingle and Colin Howard. Excerpted by permission of Critical Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Introduction Chapter 1: Reflection in practice Chapter 2: Individual professional attributes Chapter 3: Placement practicalities Chapter 4: Collaborative professional partnerships Chapter 5: Behaviour and classroom management Chapter 6: Planning and assessment Chapter 7: Teaching the core curriculum Chapter 8: Teaching Inclusively Chapter 9: Creative placements Chapter 10: From Good to Outstanding Chapter 11: Employability Frequently Asked Questions Glossary References Index