What are the most effective aspects of teaching which emerge for you?
Actively using numbers as opposed to writing down
Asking the children what they already know
Peer assessing each other’s work
Effective use of technology
Lesson linked to children personally
Included all children
Recapping on what had been learned previously
Effective use of visual tools
Cross-Curricular learning – maths and Spanish
Teacher took on the children’s ideas
Worked individually, in groups, in pairs and as a whole class
Final activity to consolidate what had been learned
What are the least effective?
Potential for some children not to be following the lesson
Some children may just be copying each other
What are the factors contributing to success or problems?
Temperamentality of technology
Children’s ability to work independently
Children’s ability to work unsupervised (ie. without the teacher sitting with them)
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 a very effective method to start the lesson. I think that to use the numbers where children had to actively be the numbers worked really well, I imagine that this is a recap of something that they had learned before, which I think would be an effective way of keeping up with past learning. I also thought it was good to have the other children to peer assess what they were doing and correct each other’s mistakes, I think they will have remembered their mistakes and not made them again. I think that when I am teaching, I am going to try to use this idea and use starter activities to help to focus on learning and to remember previously learned knowledge.
I also think it was a really good idea to link the children to the lesson, to make the data for the lesson the children themselves and their characteristics made them feel more involved. To use all of the children meant that they all felt included in the lesson, which would mean that they pay more attention and learn more. When I am teaching, I think it could be an effective method to include all the children and to use them as the subjects of the lesson.
I think that the way that the teacher has included Spanish in the maths lesson is a really good idea. I think that to include another subject in a lesson is what the Curriculum for Excellence is all about, so when I am teaching, I will have to try to do this. However, I can see how effective this is in the video and will be very active in my attempts to do this as a teacher.
I also think that it was effective to use different groups. I think that using groups, pairs and working as a whole class allowed children to learn from each other as well as the teacher allowed them an opportunity to consolidate their knowledge, and helped to improve confidence, which I think is very important. When I am teaching, I am going to remember this, as I think to do this is very important and it can also improve social skills, which is a valuable skill to have in children.
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.
Make links between these and the constructivist theory of teaching
Concept cartoons are pictorial aids to help with learning, in this case the learning of science. They allow children to consider different scientific concepts and make informed hypotheses and choices. This should lead to greater understanding, as children are able to think for themselves without as much teacher input to over-guide their thinking. It will stimulate them to make mistakes and then be able to investigate why they thought they were right, and why they might be wrong, which should lead to greater understanding of the concepts as opposed to simply knowing the answer.
Constructivism in the classroom calls for children to learn through active problem- solving, and the use of a concept cartoon could fit perfectly into this model. If I were to use one in through a constructivist approach, I would show the cartoon to start with and ask the children to hypothesise the answer, and then have them conduct an experiment to find out the correct answer. I believe this would help them to understand the science behind the experiment.
For example, one could use the concept cartoon on the left to test the stated hypotheses. When suitable weather conditions became available one could ask the children what they thing, or which of the children the agree with, and then go outside and build two snowmen and put a coat on one and have them monitor which melts faster or if they melt at similar speeds, which would allow children to learn about insulation and the melting process in an active way which should consolidate their understanding. With older children, one could do a similar experiment and allow them to make their own concept cartoon. Or give them some resources and allow them to create their own experiment and a concept cartoon to be completed by peers.
Before watching the above clip, I would have said that I could understand the arguments that schools do stifle creativity, through making them wear uniforms, and learn uncreative subjects like mathematics and providing them with a structured day. But I would also have said that many schools do provide what I would deem adequate facilities for children to express their creativity, through the compulsory inclusion of the expressive arts.
Having listened to the ideas of Sir Ken Robinson, I find the concept of ‘compulsory expressive arts’. This seems ironic now, as we are attempting to structure our children’s creativity. I now agree that we probably do educate children out of their creative capacities, as we move through the education system, less and less emphasis is placed upon the expressive arts subjects, unless one has a specific talent in it, at which point we again attempt to structure their work, while we have the other children learn ‘more useful’ subjects.
I also accept his point that children begin to lose the ability to have a go and make mistakes, I see it all the time at university. I myself do not volunteer to answer questions or otherwise contribute incase I am wrong or look daft in front of other students. I think that children are almost conditioned to think that mistakes are bad as they go through school, and I hate to think that the children I will work with will have this worry.
I remember sayings like “Don’t do music, you won’t be an musician” and “Don’t do art, you won’t be an artist”. And while I did not have a specific interest myself, I have friends who did and I am sure would have done well, but they had parents who did not think that there was a lot of value in it, though on the other hand, I also had friends who received scholarships to school in music and have now left school and gone on to pursue their talent.
I think that there are some children who have to ‘move to think’, though I was not one myself, preferring to sit and listen. I think that there is probably more that schools could do to help these children to learn effectively, though I would have to do some more research to give any examples. I think that an increase in the amount of time spent on the expressive arts may be a good place to start.
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.
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.
Today in the French Workshop we were looking at numbers. Immediately I was significantly more relaxed than last week, I believe it was because I am more confident with numbers than with greetings.
The most memorable part of the workshop was the ‘Kings and Queens’ game, we sat in a circle and all had a number associated with the chair we were sitting on, and had to say a number and if someone made a mistake then they had to go to the end of the circle. I found this to be quite stressful, in that I was really very nervous about being in the hot-seat and really did not like everyone looking at me when I spoke. Though I had to think about how I would feel if I was a primary school child. On one hand, if I was a nervous type of person I would be thinking that I wanted to not lose and may feel quite stressed about being the only one to get things wrong. If I was more of a confident person, I would be concerned with winning, possibly beating my friends.
I think that the activity was good, but I think that I would have to be aware of the different personalities in the class, I may split the class into smaller groups so that they will be more confident that they are not speaking in front of the whole class. Another option would be to play the game in English for a few week so that they could become really confident in the game so that it would not be too stressful in French.
I left feeling less panicked and stressed than last week, but I am not feeling very confident and would like to have done a lot better. Next week I am going to try to participate a little more and boost my confidence levels.
Before I start, I would like to make a few points. First, I am not attempting to write a scathing report on the UK Independence Party, nor am I even planning to demonstrate my opinion on any matter than education. Also, this is not an attempt to convince anyone to vote in a certain way, simply, it is my own reflections on the policies of the party, both positive and negative, and anyone is completely welcome to disagree with anything I say! I know that education is devolved to Scotland, so is unlikely to affect my education or my future career, but I do believe that my reflections are worth making.
I have copied some of the main points from UKIP’s manifesto from their website:
Ease teachers’ workloads by cutting down on assessments, data collection and appraisals
Scrap teachers’ performance-related pay
End sex education for primary school children
Bring back grammar schools and support a range of secondary schools including vocational, technical and specialist schools
Waive tuition fees for science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) subjects at university
Make First Aid training part of the national curriculum
“Ease teachers’ workloads by cutting down on assessments, data collection and appraisals”
I can see the point that they are trying to make, which is to reduce the bureaucracy and allow teachers to spend their time planning and teaching. However, I believe that assessments, data collection and appraisals can all be of value. For teachers, these things can be used to set targets and improve practice. I think that they key is in how individual schools and individual teachers use these things so that they are not aimless uses of time, but rather it is extremely meaningful. Assessments are not the be all and end all within education, but I can see that they can be beneficial if used correctly, so they should not be cut down. Ultimately, I can understand what this policy was attempting to do, but I cannot agree with it.
“Scrap teachers’ performance-related pay”
I am aware that we do not have performnce-related pay, but I think this point is worth consideration. Basically, it is saying teachers should not be paid based on their performance as teachers. A survey on the opinions of teachers in Wales about performance-related pay, it was found that “it would be problematic to isolate the performance of individual teachers and deleterious to collegiality and teamwork in schools” I agree with these points, I wonder how teacher would be assessed. Would it be based on attainment within their class? The problem with this is that children develop at different rates, so children who take longer to develop would bring a class average down. This could potentially result in a teachers trying to avoid having certain children in their class. I also wonder if teachers who are low on the pay scale would perhaps give up, and not put in as much effort. Of course, the counter-argument is that performance-related pay could be highly motivating to some teachers who would strive to be the best, but that begs the question: would they simply do it for the increased money, or would they do it because they loved it and they enhanced pay be a bonus? While I can understand this argument, I do not agree. I can see that performance-related pay could become a negative tool and therefore this policy is a sensible one.
“End sex education for primary school children”
This one speaks for itself, it means that many children will reach 12 years old with no understanding of sex education. I believe that it is essential that children know about sex and relationships, but also about their bodies. For me, the aim of sex education is to promote healthy habits in the future, not teaching children to do things that they are too young for.
“Bring back grammar schools and support a range of secondary schools including vocational, technical and specialist schools”
This is an interesting concept to consider. They are advocating the use of grammar schools, which are “the only state schools… that are allowed by law to select all their pupils on the grounds of high academic ability”. This means that children can be put on a completely different track based on whether they do well in the admissions test. To me, this is wrong as it limits the opportunities offered to children, and I think it could be detrimental to their confidence if they fail to gain entry. “The specialist schools programme is a UK government initiative that encourages secondary schools in England to specialise in certain areas of the curriculum in order to boost achievement.” I also have a problem with this, it is all very well to join a specialist school but I do not feel that it gives children enough opportunity to change their minds. They may want to be a dancer or performer when they are aged 11 or 12, and then decided they want something entirely different from their lives by the time they’re 16 By then it would be too late to change their minds.
“Waive tuition fees for science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) subjects at university”
This could seem like a positive move, but to me, I see strong bias in favour of people who are more academic who would be most likely to study a STEMM subject. This would mean any creative subject would require the payment of tuition fees, such as: Art, Music, English Literature or Performing Arts. These people on lower incomes may feel pushed to apply for STEMM subjects just because they would not have to pay for them and go on to struggle with the course content. This means that creative or arts subjects would only be accessible to those who could afford tuition fees, limiting the choices for those from lower income families
“Make First Aid training part of the national curriculum”
I do not see any problems with this policy. The number of people I know my own age who have no first aid skills is very high. St John’s Ambulance’s research says that two-thirds (59%) wouldn’t feel confident trying to save a life. This is a huge number of people with no skills in this area, and that does not account for the number of people with out-of-date skills. If every child had this as a mandatory part of their education it would allow them to build up a highly useful skill set which they will be able to use throughout their lives. Also, I believe that it may be something that children who struggle with academics may find they are good at and could be a means of building up confidence in some children. It goes without saying that any training would have to be age appropriate.
My final point comes as a result of a group activity. We had to get into groups and research a political party and I was in the UKIP group. Something that I became aware of was that some people did not even try to be impartial and talk about their party without also giving their opinion. While this was in a peer setting, as opposed to a teaching one, I have become aware that there will almost definitely come a point in our careers where we have to teach about the political parties. It will be essential at that time to be completely impartial. On 1PP1 last year, I taught a bit about politics around the time of the 2015 General Election. I had to be very careful, even not to agree with anything children said. This is something that I think will be very important to remember throughout our teaching careers.
Ordinarily, I would say that I am quite good in my grasp of English language, but I have an Achilles heel, in that I am rubbish with commas! I don’t know what it is, but for some reason I cannot get them right. I have identified it previously in my OLA as a weakness, but I have never made much of an effort to tackle the problem, until now that is!
I took to the internet and found a video on Youtube:
The video goes through the 3 main types of comma: listing commas, joining commas and bracketing commas. It explained what each is and how and when to use them.
Around 4 1/2 minutes in, you are asked to look at 4 sentences and pick the ones with incorrect use of commas. I originally thought there was a trick, as all looked correct to me. I think my problem is with the joining comma. I find that I use commas too often, and in place of other punctuation, such as full stops and semi-colons which would be more grammatically correct.
I also looked up a video about the Oxford comma. Which is a comma which comes after the word ‘and’.
The Oxford comma was something I had heard of, but not ever learned to use. The video explains that it is neither correct or incorrect and can avoid ambiguity. The problem is that a text will be consistent, either using it or not using it. I wonder if I have been using it when the OLA will not recognise it and mark it as wrong.
I looked through one of my essays to find an example of my own use of commas:
‘On placement I observed a classroom which utilised space effectively in this way, all small resources – pens, crayons and show-me boards – were kept in labelled trays at the front, meaning pupils knew exactly where to find them and where to return them, so the gathering of resources was kept to a minimum and did not affect learning and teaching time.’
This is all one sentence, and it is clear that it could be broken down and does not need anywhere near as many commas as I have used. This is a good example of what I do regularly and therefore what I need to teach myself out of. I am going to resit the OLA and try to improve the points I get specifically around the comma questions. I’ll update when I have done so…
This image, from an unknown artist, depicts a classroom where the parents are all identical wooden people, the children are identical wooden people, the children entering the system are still natural trees and the teacher is an axe. My conclusion is that this image is intended to show that the education system is flawed, as it stifles creativity and dreams clones.
The teacher being shown as an axe suggests coming down bluntly upon the children’s creative thinking, which has aggressive and scary connotations Painting the teacher as scary and aggressive suggests the artist’s disillusion with education and creates a negative image of it.
The children in the classroom make me feel sad. It suggests that school is rigid and structured, discouraging of independent thought. The image of the children links to the image of the adult. The parent is exactly the same as the children, only bigger. This suggests that the children are being viewed as mini-adults, unlike the view of Piaget. The adult seems to be throwing their child back into the system, likely because they do not know any better.
In the classroom, the children are learning from an apparently un-stimulating environment, judging from the image. There is nothing on the walls and, and the teacher is just standing at the front talking and the children appear to be listening passively, having been broken down by the system. The windows of the classroom do not show anything outside, and the walls of the room are completely bare, giving the impression to the occupants that they are enclosed in the room, and by extension enclosed in formal education.
The new child is depicted as a tree in its natural form meaning that they have not yet been damaged by the formal education system, and suggesting a sense of innocence and freedom which is about to be taken away from them. I feel a sense of dread seeing this child being thrown into the classroom, much like they do not know what else to do with them. Looking at the picture, I can see a lock on the door, and can see that the child is too small to reach it, meaning that they cannot physically leave the room. This suggests that the children are trapped within the formal education system until they are released at the end of their schooling, by which point they will be as stifled and generic as the children in the image.
This portrayal of the education system leaves me feeling unhappy. When I become a teacher, I would like to think that I will not come across as scary or aggressive in any way, as I believe that it is not a good way to learn, and I will want children to feel as comfortable to approach me as possible. I believe that children are all individuals and should be treated as such. Therefore I dislike the way the children appear to be sitting as I think it would allow them to work together together, which could impair their learning. They seem to be being taught in a way that does not involve discussion or any kind of group work, which I believe is the most effective way to learn and consolidate learning.
When I am a teacher, my classroom will be the polar-opposite of this one. Children will sit in an arrangement that allows them to interact with each other effectively. The classroom will be colourful and the walls will have things on them to encourage learning. They will be encouraged to speak to me as well as each other, and I will do my best to ensure that the children do not fall through any gaps in the system and become confident individuals.
Before I start, I feel I should point out that this post is about me, not the tutor leading the workshop or the other students that are part of it.
I went up to the room feeling normal, walked into the room and the tutor greeted us by saying “bonjour!” and I could feel myself begin to panic. I am not ‘bad’ at French, I got an A at Int 2, and I still remember quite a lot of what I was taught. The second that the tutor started speaking French, however, I was transported back to sitting in French class in high school feeling awkward, uncomfortable, and wanting to hide under a desk the whole time. It may sound dramatic but that’s how I’ve always felt about French. I hated speaking it in front of anyone or doing anything in a french class to draw attention to myself!
This workshop was particularly stressful. The tutor had us doing actions to go with some of the vocab, I avoided joining in as long as possible, then when I had to I put in as little energy as possible. When she was asking unto say things out loud I found myself pretending not to know things, or pretending to write just to avoid making eye contact and being asked to participate by speaking out loud.
Looking at the workshop objectively, I thought what we were learning was very good, I thought that all the games and speaking out loud would be fun to most people. I think it is probably a very effective way to learn a language. I wonder if my reaction to French could be similar to ‘Maths Anxiety’ (explored in another post), do I have some kind of a phobia of French? If so, then it will need to be sorted. As a teacher I cannot pass my own feelings about the subject on to the children that I work with. If I do not come across confident in teaching a language, then the children will not be confident in my ability to teach them, which would significantly impact on their education.
I decided to look up my feelings and came back with ‘Foreign Language Anxiety’. It is described as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the (foreign) language learning process” which makes a lot of sense to me. I also found the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLACAS). It is a questionnaire which asks participants to read statements and rate how much they agree. Questions include “I start to panic when I have to speak without preparation in language class.” and “It embarrasses me to volunteer answers in my language class.” Looking at the questions, almost all of them apply to me!
So what should I do now? Realistically I think that languages are always going to be the cause of some anxiety for me. Now that I am aware of it, I have to deal with it. I think that I should start participating more often in class, there are only 20 people, and realistically they are not there to pounce on me if I speak and make mistakes! For all I know, many of them may be feeling the same way that I do. I think knowing this will make it easier for me to teach languages to children who feel nervous or anxious too. I will be able to differentiate better as I will be able to recognise children who feel this way and perhaps allow them to do slightly different tasks, for example working with a partner as opposed to a large group.
I feel that this small amount of research and reflection has been very useful to me. I now know that I am not alone in panicking over learning a language and I am confident that I can overcome the worst of such feelings to be an effective teacher in the future.
Out of 5, I would give my anxiety levels a 1.
Al-Saraj, Taghreed M. (No Date) FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY: WHAT IS THIS? Available at: https://www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ssemme/file67903.pdf (Accessed: 16 October 2015)
Horwitz, Elaine K., Horwitz, Michael B., and Cope, J (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. Available at: http://www.studyabroad.purdue.edu/Resource/InterculturalLearning/ForeignLanguageAnxietyScale.pdf (Accessed: 16 October 2015)
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