Category Archives: 2.3 Pedagogical Theories & Practice

Oh to be a Pilgrim

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The RME elective is definitely been interesting, and I can already say that I’ve learned a lot! As a TDT task, we were set to visit a ‘special’ place, and as a group, we decided to investigate a pilgrimage. We found one which was first ‘done’ by the Picts, who were alive around 1500 years ago. While we do not know any details of this journey, not even its purpose. The route was long and involved many stops:

  1. Dundee
  2. Coupar Angus
  3. Meigle
  4. Alyth
  5. Glamis
  6. Kirriemuir
  7. Glenprosen
  8. Kirriemuir (again)
  9. Forfar
  10. Brechin
  11. Edzell
  12. Fettercairn
  13. Glensaugh
  14. Auchenblae
  15. Stonehaven
  16. Letham
  17. Arbroath
  18. Carnoustie
  19. Dundee

We decided to go out and try it for ourselves. We changed our minds pretty quickly. It turns out that walking to all 19 of these places would be quite hard going, so we changed the plans a little and decided to try the route in the car.

The Route

The Route

Arriving at the car, all I could really think about was the fact that I had called shotgun on the front seat and that I wanted to keep it; that and the fact that we had to get snacks for the journey. Not the most profound of thoughts, but nonetheless, all that was really in my mind. The trip took us just over 6 hours in total. It consisted of driving from location to location and singing along to the playlist along the way.

Before we started...

Before we started…

By the end we were all tired, hungry and uncomfortable. I began to think about what the journey was like for the original Pictish pilgrims. I did a little research and discovered that the journey would have taken us 55 hours to walk! This wasn’t the end of it,we should remember that that’s without a rest! Also, we have roads and paths etc. which would now make the walk a lot easier, my estimation is that the journey would have taken us 4 or 5 days back when the pilgrims made the original journey.

I wondered if perhaps we missed the point from the beginning? I thought that we hadn’t really considered the point of a pilgrimage. I sat in the car with the others, and been to Stonehaven before; and we did not really talk about the journey very much while we were on it. I have done a little research on what exactly a pilgrimage is, and The Scots Magazine says:

“It’s been described as a journey or search for moral or spiritual significance, in many cases a journey to a location of some importance to the person making the pilgrimage.”

This made a lot of sense to me, as it explains that a pilgrimage is more than a journey, its about some kind of spiritual, or enlightening moment. Now our journey was only to simulate a special journey, and we were unlikely to have any kind of epiphany, but I did wonder if we should have taken it a little more seriously. Our main mistake was not researching the pilgrimage enough before we started. I think that we could have stopped throughout and thought about what the original pilgrims were thinking and feeling throughout their journey.

Having said this, I think that perhaps I did learn something important. While writing this post, I have started to think, and I have realised that  by the end of the day we all felt tired, hungry and uncomfortable; just like I thought the Picts probably did. Also, as a group we set aside the whole day to do this task, which was a significant time out of our reading week. We all felt a sense of accomplishment for lasting the whole time. I wonder at this point, was it really so different from the Picts? Naturally we had not spent the whole week doing this journey, but the feeling that we had upon completion felt very similar. I also think that I learned from some our mistakes, specifically that pilgrimages are not meant to be easy or taken on lightly, and that they have to be significant to be considered a meaningful experience.

From a teaching perspective, I think that I learned that when teaching about pilgrimages. I think that I would not take a class outside without fully learning about it beforehand. I would want to teach them about pilgrimages in general and then take them out to mimic one and consider their feelings. I would take them out on a walking mini pilgrimage and have them consider how it would make them feel to be walking like that for several days, how hard it would be and the physical and mental strength it would require to complete. I would then like to work with the pupils to discuss these feelings and think about what a pilgrimage would mean to them, and consider what their personal journey would be.

I think that I have learned to appreciate the concept of a pilgrimage a little more. I even began to consider what a pilgrimage would mean to me. I feel that a non-theist, a pilgrimage would be difficult for me, because it is hard to determine what would be a significant personal experience.  I think that for me it’s about going somewhere I have always wanted to go, and will have to work hard to get there. In recent years I have thought about New Zealand a lot. I would love to go there one day, and perhaps move there to work. I know that I’ll have to work really hard to get there, as it’ll require a lot of saving up, but also a lot of work to get my degree to be allowed to go over and work there. I believe that, should it happen, this will be my pilgrimage. Now that I understand what it means to me, I believe that I am in a better position to teach the concept to the children that I will work with.

We made it to the end!

We made it to the end!

https://www.scotsmagazine.com/articles/pilgrims-trail/

Mosque Visit Reflection

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Beginning the RME module, it was suggested that we go as a group on a trip to the Dundee Mosque to the Open Doors day. I was very curious going in, as I had never been in a Mosque before. I would have been the first to admit to knowing only a little about Islam,  so I had absolutely no idea what to expect. What first struck me when we went in was how welcoming and pleasant all of the volunteers were. Of course I was not expecting anything different, but I felt that it was great how open they were, and how willing they were to share their own thoughts and experiences of their religion. I felt very welcome, and it was very interesting to see the religion! I feel more confident teaching Islam in a class, and I would definitely take a class there on a trip, as it was a great experience which I would like to share with any children I work with.

 

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Our group trying on scarves in the women’s prayer hall

 

To learn more about Islam, I watched the following video. It follows the lives of two young Muslims: Sara and Kaisan, and gives them the opportunity to explain and demonstrate what their religion means to them and their families. I felt that it was a great way of showing children what it mean to be a muslim in the UK. I believe this it is a great resource to use with children as it explains Islam in practice, and from the point of view of a child, which is very important.

 

It is quite different to what some children may have seen in the media about the religion and its practices. A simple google search of “BBC News Islam” had the following top two results:

“Islamic State conflict – BBC News”

“Islamic State group: The full story – BBC News”

And other versions of this search all brought up similar results, pages and pages about extremism, conflict, and many other negative images. On a personal level I struggled with this, as I  saw no similarities at all to the real Muslims I met at the Mosque. The people were so pleasant, kind and open to us, that I found it uncomfortable to read the pages that my web search brought up. It seems wrong to me that these are portrayals of the religion that children can see. I considered the representations of Islam I have seen myself recently and came up with two very different ones which  portray it in very different ways.

One was a recent television drama called ‘Our Girl’, set in Kenya, where a young female army medic is kidnapped by an extremist group and then rescued by her friends. I do not feel I can say whether or not the storyline was realistic, however it did make me think about the way that Islam can be shown in a negative and even scary light. Alternatively, the second was ‘My Jihad’, a series of ‘shorts’ – four 15 minute episodes of a drama about Nazir and Fahmida, two young British muslims, who meet by chance and decide to marry. The story follows them as they attempt to  navigate their way though their relationship while maintaining a strong devotion to their religion. To me, this show was a far more realistic and fair representation of Islam. While I accept that the two shows are very different – being set within two very situations; in different countries; and of course with very different characters, I believe that they evoke different reactions in the audiences, and the portrayal of Islam in a negative light has contributed to there being a sense of unease around the religion, which my own trip to the Mosque simply proved was completely wrong.

 

Want to watch these two shows for yourself?

My Jihad: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01ssrp2/my-jihad-1-a-bus-a-burka

Our Girl: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0452t2n

SQA? SQWhy?

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These pictures are of my 17 year old sister, who is in fifth year of secondary school, all taken this afternoon in the space of around 4 minutes. She sitting Higher History at 9am tomorrow morning. I sat this afternoon trying to help her to revise the materials she needs for tomorrow and I was struck by just how irrelevant most of the questions were. I accept that history is about things that have happened in the past, but I simply do not understand why the questions ask students to simply remember past events. One example of the 2015 exam is as follows:

How effective were the Liberal reforms of 1906 to 1914 in dealing with the problem of poverty?                                                                                                                   20 Marks

What is the point in this question? What does it really test?  I genuinely do not know the answer! I know that my qualification is primary teaching, but I believe that this is still pertinent, as it refers to where the children I will work with will end up at the end of their school education. I do not mean to say that we cannot have exams, but I believe that we do not use them in the right way. For example, the history exam  now consists of two papers, one which asks pupils to answer questions like the one above; the other asks them to answer source questions.

I believe that the source questions are a far better test of history. The exam asks pupils to use historical sources to draw conclusions from it. To me, this is better, because it is ‘using’ history, as opposed to knowing and regurgitating it; then forgetting it straight after sitting the exam.

I find it a little depressing, that we are told that primary education is all about learning experiences and opportunities, yet by the end of their education they are expected to sit formal examinations and remember facts they have learned at school. I feel that it goes against everything that we do in the primary years. This is why I am against the introduction of standardised testing in primary schools, I feel that it sits in direct contrast to the aims of the Curriculum for Excellence, for children to have experiences and to learn freely.

Not sure? See for yourself: http://www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/papers/papers/2015/H_History_all_2015.pdf

Uncut Lesson 1- Rachel Atkins

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http://www.playbackschools.org.uk/programme/1330/uncut-lesson-1-rachel-atkins

What are the most effective aspects of teaching which emerge for you?

  • Choice of what to do
  • Stations
  • Some children were outside while others were inside
  • Teacher did not do things for the children – got them to try themselves first
  • Teacher did not give the children the answers – the children had to think about it first
  • Stickers, star chart, ‘happy face’ board – positive reinforcement
  • Use of the specialist teacher
  • Pairs work
  • Hands up
  • “1,2,3” – method to get children quiet
  • Actively involved in the story
  • Going back through the story at the end
  • Realising that the kids were thirsty and bored, so changed what they were doing to accommodate that
  • Mixing with the other classes

What are the least effective?

  • Children working on their own – could lose focus and start wandering around
  • Took a long time explaining/getting started

What are the factors contributing to success or problems?

  • Respect for each other
  • Individual personalities
  • Engagement with the lesson
  • Level of interest in the lesson
  • Willingness to cooperate with the lesson

How could you use some of the success factors?

I think that the teacher here used some very effective methods to teach. I think that by giving the children a choice of what they wanted to do, she was engaging them better as they had an interest in what they were learning, which I think would make them more focused on their task and likely to take more from why they were learning. When I am teaching, I am going to remember the idea of having stations and letting children choose between them, as I think that it was a very effective method of teaching.

I think that when they read the story, and all the children felt like they were a part of it was a good idea. When I am teaching I am going to remember this practice, as I could see on the video that the children were enjoying it, and that they were not sitting passively listening, so they were taking more in, which I think is really important, as it gives the reading of the story a point during the lesson.

When I am teaching, I am going to remember the resilience of the teacher in the video. When she realised that the children were all thirsty and becoming bored, she changed the plans and sent them to get a drink and to find an activity to do. I think this is very important, as I can imagine that it is very easy to want to stick to your plans, despite how the children feel and how they are acting – especially with the inspector there.

Productive Failure: A Recipe for Success!

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Productive Failure, it sounds strange, basically it is a teaching strategy by which children are set up to fail. They are set a mathematics task that they have not learned yet: standard deviation; parabolas; algebra, and they have to try to do the problem by working through it. The method was first coined by Dr Manu Kapur, who is the head of the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education of Singapore. His website – see above – is well worth a read of to see more of his work.

I have been thinking a lot about this method of teaching. Essentially children are being asked to complete problems that they do not know how to complete, it is completely beyond their abilities at this point. Initially I wondered how this could possibly be helpful, we all know the dangers of setting work at a level that is too difficult for the child to complete, with their self-esteem and confidence especially in a subject such as mathematics as it is the cause of much anxiety in and of itself.

But then I though more about it and it struck me that there were strong links with Productive Failure and Vygotski’s Zone of Proximal Development.

zpd-graphic

Essentially, Productive Failure asks children to work within the red section of the Zone of Proximal Development, as they are asked to complete problems that they cannot do. Now that I can see this, I realise that Productive Failure could be a highly useful classroom tool if used in the right way. I think that the method would have to be talked through first, so that children understand fully that it is not to catch them out, it’s not a test, and that it is a chance for them to see what they will be learning and look for possible links to topics they have done before. I also think that it would have to be a collaborative activity where children could work in small groups or pairs to work on a problem to bits of it work out. It would very much be about scaffolding and building up knowledge.

I think that this is a concept that I would like to use, possibly on my 3rd or 4th year placement to see if it works well in practice, and whether it is easily adapted to different ages and stages and even subjects, perhaps for beginning new topics or learning spelling words.

 

https://getyourheadaroundit.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/zpd-graphic.gif

http://qz.com/535443/the-best-way-to-understand-math-is-learning-how-to-fail-productively/

http://ideas.time.com/2012/04/25/why-floundering-is-good/