Uncategorized – Page 105

My first few weeks at UWS

During the first couple of weeks at UWS I have been enjoying starting all the different classes that are incorporated within my course. Beforehand, I was the most confident about starting literacy, as English was my favourite subject at school; therefore I felt like this module was where I could contribute to a high degree and share a lot of knowledge within. Overall I was most nervous about starting Spanish as I have never studied it before, therefore I was hesitant as to what level of difficulty this particular module would be like. However, after looking at all the course handbooks for each module I quickly realised the courses are all set out nicely and easy to follow, this allowed me to look ahead and see what was going to be covered within the next few weeks. Being able to do this put me at ease as the unknown of what each module would be like was the issue that was worrying me the most.

However, as I am onto my fourth week I am finding all my modules equally understandable and enjoyable. I am feeling a lot more confident about Spanish as I have realised all the people in my class are also beginners to the subject, therefore we are all in the same position and learning together. Although literacy was the module I felt most confident about beginning, I have realised every module is preparing me for all the different aspects of becoming a primary teacher, so although I am still confident in literacy, I am also feeling more confident in all the other modules as well. Due to all of this, in the future going onto my second, third and fourth year of the course I will remind myself that there is no point in feeling anxious over modules that I haven’t even explored yet, as by the end of the year they could end up being the module I find most enjoyable overall.

Reflecting on life at UWS

After getting over the shock and excitement of receiving my Mathematics exam results at the end of August, the thought of coming to university became more real and daunting. Having been out of education for ten years, and becoming a wife and mother, I was anxious but ready to take the next step in my life and do something for myself that would effectively better not only me but my family also. Becoming a primary educator has been an innate desire of mine since early secondary school. I am thankful for the opportunities I have been given to allow myself to get to the position I am in today, currently submersed in university life by making my first blog post on campus in UWS Ayr library.

Having successfully completed a SWAP course ay Ayr college in the last academic year, I felt prepared to a certain extent that I would be confident with handling and analysing texts and other types of work, and getting on with the task at hand efficiently. However, since starting university properly (after induction week) I have felt slightly overwhelmed at the volume of academic reading to be completed. As a visual learner I find having the texts in physical form to highlight and note take to help me absorb and make sense of the information I am taking in.

Since having my first Spanish class on Friday of last week, the thoughts and feelings I had before going there were not the same as the ones I had after leaving. I felt it was very fast paced and didn’t have a lot of opportunity to go over phrases and words. However, I am hoping that a lot of my independent study and use of other resources will pull my confidence levels up from the ground.

Overall, I would say my experience at UWS so far has met with the expectations I had, albeit the workload and amount of reading is slightly more than what I first expected we would have in BA1. However, I feel to be an effective educator these are important skills and passions to possess when influencing younger minds and setting them up to be effective lifelong learners.

Sustainable Development Study Task 1

Sustainable development independent study task I live in North Ayrshire in a town called Kilwinning. Kilwinning is about 21 miles from Glasgow. The 2001 Census recorded the town as having a population of 15,908. My family and I have lived here every since I was born, so for 18 years. Within the town there … Continue reading Sustainable Development Study Task 1 →

Sustainable development independent study task

I live in North Ayrshire in a town called Kilwinning. Kilwinning is about 21 miles from Glasgow. The 2001 Census recorded the town as having a population of 15,908. My family and I have lived here every since I was born, so for 18 years. Within the town there are 6 primary schools, one academy and one collage. There are also many churches and leisure centres such as Kilwinning sports club. Very recently there was a restaurant built which is doing very well and is a personal favourite of our family. In the town there is a doctors surgery, lots of shops and cafes and hairdressers. Where I live there are a lot of modern houses with streets safe for children to play as a lot of families live around this area. There is a lot of greenery around where I live, and not too far from me is a park with a place for children to play and events such as fireworks night is held there. In Kilwinning there is a train station and many bus stops, which makes traveling to different places such as Glasgow, Ayr or Kilmarnock easy enough to complete.

A way to investigate urban environments with a primary 5 class could be organising a trip around their town to find out places they have never been before. Taking a map and using it to help navigate their way around the town. Writing a list of things they would like to see and check listing them off as they go. Recording their finding maybe by taking photographs and writing about their experience back in class.

Chapter Five Pages 117-153 of Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory and Practice by Owen Hargie

Throughout this chapter it is highlighted that questions are highly important for human interactions. In fact, when individuals are asked to have conversations without asking questions people find it hard to facilitate this request (Hargie, 2011). In terms of child … Continue reading →

In terms of child development, it is highlighted throughout this chapter, it is very important that children ask questions; however in a setting such as a classroom, as found by Tizard et al (1983), children are more likely to ask questions at home rather than in a classroom, as they have a fear that their questions will be received negatively by their peers (Hargie, 2011). Although I agree with this to some extent, in my experience I wouldn’t ask questions because I was shy, and therefore couldn’t find the right words to form the question. In addition, in a class setting a child may feel stressed when they are asked a question as they know the teacher knows the correct answer, and therefore there is an anxiety about being wrong (Hargie, 2011), which can affect a child’s learning long-term. Furthermore Dillon (1982) found that teachers asked about two questions a minute and a class of children asked an average two questions every hour (Hargie, 2011), which further backs up Tizard’s claims.

Questions are not asked simply to receive more information. They are more complex than that. They can be asked to maintain control of an interaction or to express an interest in the respondent (Hargie, 2011). In addition to there being many reasons why people ask questions there is also many types of questions, some of these include: closed questions, recall questions and process questions (Hargie, 2011). All these examples serve a different purpose and gain different information. Recall questions serve the purpose of gaining information that the respondent already knows such as, “Where were you born?”. Process questions serve the purpose of allowing the individual to give things such as opinions and evaluations (Hargie, 2011).

Overall by reading this text my knowledge of questions in human interaction has deepened, as I have never thought about how important they are for every day life. In addition, when I am in practice I will ensure that when a child responds to a question I ask I will further their knowledge (if possible) rather than just moving on after a brief answer is given, which was found in a study carried out by Smith et al. (2006) (Hargie, 2011).

Reference List

Hargie, O. (2011) Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory and Practice. 5^th ed. London: Routledge.

Integrated Arts Week 3

In todays music workshop we were introduced to Figurenotes. This is a simpler way of reading music for those who struggle reading notation. ‘It is a simple and clear system designed to demystify the first steps of learning music. There is no ‘dots or squiggles’ to be learned, just to simple concepts of matching and … Continue reading Integrated Arts Week 3 →

Different shapes are used for each octave these consist of crosses, squares, circles and triangles. For each note name there is a different colour, for instance all C notes would be Red, all D notes would be brown and so on. This way of learning music is a visual aid for pupils. I myself used this in high school when learning piano for both my national 5 and higher exam as I struggled to read notation due to being dyslexic.

In the Visual arts workshop we all made paint brushes out of different materials and textures.

A music lesson idea I thought on would be to create or play a piece of music with visual aids such as the figurenotes system. Therefore, pupils are grasping their own understanding of this material.

As an art lesson it could be to make paint brushes also as this will help pupils used different means of materials / resources to create the final product. This will eventually help in other areas of the curriculum as it helps with pencil grip/control.

Drake Music Scotland (2010) Introducing Figurenotes

In the Visual arts workshop we all made paint brushes out of different materials and textures.

A music lesson idea I thought on would be to create or play a piece of music with visual aids such as the figurenotes system. Therefore, pupils are grasping their own understanding of this material.

Drake Music Scotland (2010) Introducing Figurenotes

BA1 – Situated Communication Independent Study Task 25.9.17

‘Finding out about others: the skill of questioning’, in Hargie, O. (2011) Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory and Practice. 5th ed. London: Routledge, Chapter 5, p117-153. The aim of the chapter is to convey the many different methods of … Continue reading →

‘Finding out about others: the skill of questioning’, in Hargie, O. (2011) Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory and Practice. 5^th ed. London: Routledge, Chapter 5, p117-153.

The aim of the chapter is to convey the many different methods of questioning. It also discusses the use of questions, the skill behind them and how they are effective in certain situations.

There are many themes than run throughout this chapter. Acquisition is a prominent theme throughout the chapter as it discusses the skills of questions and how to achieve the answers being sought after. Children is another theme which examines the effect on how they are questioned in certain ways. For example, when they are asked a double question, they do not understand what exactly they are being asked. In addition to this, knowledge is a key theme as it provides us with information we need to be able to ask the most accurate questions in certain situations.

Hargie discusses the topic of Clearinghouse probes. The purpose of this probe was to ensure that all the important information had been revealed. He claimed that sensitivity is an important factor when being interviewed and that gentle nudges should be used to ensure the interviewee is being attentive. Hargie used a source from Sevilla (1999) to show examples of lawyer’s questions.

I agree with the majority of information in this chapter as the examples given by Hargie are relatable. However, I disagree with the fact that pauses need to be a minimum of three seconds as stated before in the paragraph if children are given a slightly longer time they increase the length of their responses: “increased average ‘wait-time’…length of these responses increased.”

Pedagogic tradition was a term that was unfamiliar. According to the Critical Dictionary of Education. ‘pedagogy’ is the principles of teaching. It has three key aspects which are: methodology, rationale, and reflection.

Conversational lead questions are a concept mentioned by Hargie. People use these every day. It is a conversation that normally expects a definite response. This ensures that the conversation flows, and gives the impression of being kind and welcoming.

Settling in at UWS

Can not believe I have been at university for three weeks now, time has flown by so fast and everything still feels very new and confusing. I have created this blog to help me record and reflect on my journey through the BA hons Primary Education course at the University of the West of Scotland, I have never blogged before therefore I am a bit hesitant and unsure of what I am supposed to be doing but hopefully as the weeks go by this task become second nature and I can look back on my posts and see how far I have come in my journey.

Having been out of education since 2013 it has been daunting stepping back into an educational environment, I feel so out of touch, its been a long time since I wrote an essay or solved a maths problem! However my literacy lecturer and maths lecturer have helped me put my worries at rest by being very welcoming and approachable. I also realise that I am not the only person in this situation, there are many other mature students who are returning to education hoping to become successful Primary Teachers.

I have a lot of reading to do for next week, it feels like it has all come at once so I anticipate a long week of reading ahead trying to understand what I have just read and making sense of it. At least I have my new highlighters to brighten the pages up a bit and help me remember important information.

Situated Communication Independant Study

Throughout Chapter 5 of Hargie 2011, ‘Finding out about others: the skill of questioning’, the important concept of questioning is explored. The main idea of the text is to show that although initially questioning may seem like a simple skill, it is actually a very diverse and complex skill. There are many ideas surrounding questions in the chapter, but the main themes could be described as: what are questions, how we use questions, types of questions and related aspects of questions.

An important issue raised in the article was by Walker, 1999; Zajac et al, 2003; Krahenbuhl and Blades, 2006; Pipe et al, 2007. They said that, “There is a growing volume of research to show that leading questions have a particularly distorting effect upon the responses of children”. For me this idea is an important one, because as student teachers we must be aware that children are much more easily influenced than adults. Leading questions must be used with caution or completely avoided when interviewing children.

There are many arguments made in the text but the one that stands out to me is by Walterman et al (2001:477), they said that, “Asking questions is a fundamental part of communication and as such will be an important factor in the work of many professionals”. I strongly agree with this argument as without questioning, communication in any situation would breakdown.

Though most of the article seems to discuss many relevant issues one thing that I disagreed with was that interactive questions are not effective with large audiences. Although I understand that only a few people would have the opportunity to answer the question, the remaining people would still be thinking about it and listening to other responses would give them a insight into other interpretations of the question. Rhetorical questions are suggested as an alternative to interactive questions, but in my opinion both types of question serve an important purpose but in different ways.

References:

‘Finding out about others: the skill of questioning’, in Hargie, O. (2011) Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory and Practice. 5^th ed. London: Routledge.

First few weeks at UWS

Before starting this course the subject which I was most concerned about was Maths…I never thought the day would come when I was more confident in a Maths class than an English class. However after punctuation and grammar week last week in literacy for understanding I now feel that way. It is tough going back to basics […]

It is tough going back to basics and realising the gaps in your own knowledge however on reflection I know more now than I did at the start of the class, I am not the only one who found this class challenging and I can now build upon this in order to one day be both competent and confident in my own abilities when teaching this to children (So they don’t one day go through this same feeling!). Moving on from that class I now question every over-used apostrophe, comma and semicolon and whether I really need them in my sentence!

I am finding all of the classes interesting however I am especially enjoying maths and situated communication as for me so far the both have the most link to practice. I find it extremely interesting learning about how we will one day teach these same concepts to our own class. All the teachers also clearly have a love for the subject they are teaching, especially the workshops in Performance Studio three. Reflecting on what we have been learning in Situated Communication students pick up on your attitude and the fun and love for the subject in that workshop really is infectious. I hope one day to be able to bring the same level of enthusiasm and love for learning to classes of children with ‘enthusiasm and motivation or learning’ (Scottish Government, 2009).

Reference List

East Lothian Council (2017) The Purpose of the Curriculum [Online] Available at:http://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/info/878/schools/224/the_purpose_of_the_curriculum

Accessed: 26/009/2017