Category Archives: 1 Prof. Values & Personal Commitment

Peer Evaluation

The West Lothian Council (2016) makes many valid and founded points regarding the raising of attainment for students. These include effective questioning, improvement feedback, peer tutoring, peer evaluation, metacognition and self-regulated learning. I am going to delve deeper into the specific concept of peer evaluation.

Peer evaluation is described as a method of assessment in which pupils can collaborate and share their learning and original work. This allows for the opportunity of children to understand other’s work and understanding. They then are able to give and receive constructive criticism as well as, and importantly, praise for their efforts and good results. This would be very valuable to use in my practice as it allows for children to learn beneficial transferrable skills in communication. Furthermore, it develops in their social skills and assists in building their character. It is an optimum time for children to learn and value the opinions and understanding of others around them.

Within a classroom setting, I would need to ensure that the peer evaluation is still structured. This would allow me the opportunity to assess and evaluate how effectively children have grasped the learning taught to them. It would be a clear indication of the further learning for the children. While the children are also able to use this opportunity to consolidate and revise their learning.

It would also be good practice to assign groupings according to each child’s specific ability. The West Lothian Council (2016) state that initially children should be paired or grouped with children of a different ability. This allows for the weaker student to receive help from the stronger student. This grouping would need to be done carefully to prevent children feeling ostracised and losing motivation but rather feel encouraged and stimulated in their learning. The second time, children should be paired or grouped with children of the same ability. This provides opportunity for stronger children to also feel challenged and motivated to improve. Careful planning is required to allow children the self-belief and encouragement to succeed.

There are many contexts in which peer evaluation can be done such as check lists for paired or group evaluation, traffic lighting or ‘two stars and a wish’.

My personal favourite method of evaluation lies with ‘two stars and a wish’. It allows children to remain praised and motivated while providing them with some constructive criticism. Providing them with evidence of good work lets them continue with this. While giving them a ‘wish’ allows them to review and correct their errors and gives them the understanding of the requirements for future work and learning.

I feel peer evaluation must be practiced in the classroom regularly. It provides children with the necessary skills and learning which can be used throughout the curriculum. It also gives children the opportunity to share ideas and work collaboratively with other children. Having a variety of methods results in children having the ability to learn from their mistakes and improve their work.

West Lothian Council (2016) Raising Attainment – Improving Life Chances. Available at: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/sac43-raising-attainment-improving-life-chances.pdf (Accessed: 15.10.16)

What Causes Wellness?

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In the video clip ‘What Causes Wellness’ (2014) by Sir Harry Burns he poses the question about the cause of wellness for the common wealth? Is it simply the absence of illness? He explains that during his experience in The Royal Infirmary he realised that people with a challenging background, especially during childhood, had a longer recovery time from illness and operations. It was determined that 70% of people who experienced abuse and disruption in childhood experienced significant difficulties in later life. Whereas, 30% survived and acquired resilience which was due to having a mentor in their childhood. It has been made clear that children need to have people in their childhood who care for them and support them.

Social circumstances experienced in childhood link to health when children grow up. Therefore, he states that children need to have a sense of belonging and meaningfulness. Children especially need to acquire a sense of reason in their doing. This allows them to flourish in what they do. If people want to survive then they need a secure reason as to their purpose. Having a good mental wellbeing allows for people to flourish and have a more controlled self-esteem.

If people don’t have the sense of purpose and value then this can lead to biological consequences such as depression, anxiety and stress. It is important for children to have a significant person in which they can lean on such as a parent. Despite this, longer away from their significant person can leave them socially incapable and unable to manage stress. These issues need to be detected early to prevent children from abusing drugs and alcohol in later life. If children have chaotic and unsupported early years then this leads to mental ill health and bad behaviour. Children that are alone and alienated often feel excluded. This cycle of alienation leads to poverty and a person struggling with their life. He states that to break this cycle all of it needs to be addressed and supported not just one aspect.

Ultimately, Sir Harry Burns makes the assertion that connection to a significant person is important as it gives people meaning and purpose and the necessary support system. He also believes that attachment can be improved by bedtime stories. In my practice as a teacher, I am going to ensure each child in my class understands the importance of what they are doing and why. I believe each child should also feel safe and comfortable in my classroom environment so that if they need to they can share their worries and stresses while having someone that will listen and support them. I will explore with my class, through the Health and Wellbeing part of the curriculum, their feelings and emotions in depth and help them to understand the result of their actions.

Burns, H. (2014) What Causes Wellness. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEh3JG74C6s (Accessed: 20.10.16)

Teachers work-life balance

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The teaching profession is famous among uninformed people for having early evenings and months of holidays. Teachers are often mocked for having an easy day working 9 till 3 where all they do is ‘paint by numbers’. But little do people know the time and complexities this professions requires. It is a stressful job which often requires extreme amounts of dedication.

Each child requires the personalisation and care individually from their teacher who has a class of potentially 30. Teachers can be up working into the early hours of the morning to have everything prepared perfectly for their lessons with all the children’s work marked too. But, is it worth it? This isn’t a disapproval of an appropriate level of preparation, yet we must ponder the worthiness of it? Is the lesson taught at an appropriate standard if the teacher is exhausted from planning it? It is the teacher who inspires, nurtures and stimulates the learning of the children in their class. But can this be done with only a few hours of sleep and no effective method of stress relief.

Despite this, it doesn’t make it acceptable to cut corners or not provide the necessary support for the children in the class. Teachers still need to have the dedication and passion to acquire the best possible outcome of their class.

It’s about finding the balance.

Finding an appropriate balance isn’t easy. It is not a sign of a bad teacher to take personal time and have a life. Teachers require the satisfaction of doing something pleasurable without the need to constantly mark excessive amounts of work. They must therefore plan lessons accordingly, changing the content of the lesson can prevent the unnecessary quantity of marking a teacher must do and can further stimulate a child’s mind. A teacher should look after themselves through the balance of their personal and professional time.

‘Class Ceiling’ Polly Toynbee

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The Class Ceiling

In the Radio 4 show with Polly Toynbee about the ‘Class Ceiling’ we listen to the effect of class and the possibility of breaking out of the class you’ve grown up in. She explains that class is still a big divider in this society. Despite the fact that, like in past generations there isn’t as much obvious differentiation, class is still present. We are urged to reflect on what advantages our class has provided us with and where we would be if we didn’t have it. Furthermore, she talks about the different factors which portray a certain class, for example, names, manners and even the clothes we wear. The most popular argument she used is the educational debate which reflects the values of a class with a person’s learning and future career. It is common knowledge that in previous generations only the wealthiest and most powerful went to university but now there is a greater chance of working class people attending. This highlights the ability of people to break free from the social class constricting them and change their class identity. Despite this, in this present day people in a lower social class still have a poor chance in achieving the grades to get a place in further education. Class is dictated in the early stages of an infant’s life and thereon becomes engrained into them. Toynbee states that a knowing parent will push harder for the best for their child, this stresses the impact in which a parent has in their child’s standing in society. The quality of parenting in early years like a parent reading, singing and simply talking to their children can significantly affect them compared to parents who don’t do this with their children. Toynbee concludes her show by referring to the greater number of people breaking out of the limitations of their social class and the positive effects this is having on their lives.