I have learned a lot about concept-based learning through my reading. I realise how effective it is because it opens so many more doors into learning for children.

It is a three dimensional model allowing for: generalisation, principles, concepts, facts and skills. This allows children to gain deeper understandings of what they’re learning by thinking deeper rather than the contrasting two-dimensional model of just fact and skills. The 2D model really limits pupils capabilities as it is all about memorising facts and recalling them.

Concept based learning is a much better approach because it allows pupils to really grow as learners by pushing themselves to reach their full potential by really thinking, giving them motivation and an intercultural understanding through active engaging learning with others. Whereas the 2D approach causes pupils to become less motivated and it is more isolating as you don’t normally memorise facts collaboratively- it doesn’t necessarily develop pupil’s interpersonal skills or get them to think deeper as they are only parrot learning facts, they’re not applying the information to anything.

Concept based learning is an amazing approach that works very well and I can’t wait to see it in practice, however I do have one question. How might evidence of conceptual understandings be documented? Because with the 2D approach, evidence can be documented with exam question papers, however if we are trying to steer away from this, what would a new different approach to assessing concept-based learning be like?

“90% of what we teach in school is a waste of time… It doesn’t matter.”

From reading this statement I do not agree with it. Some may say that certain topics being taught in school may be a waste of time, however, they may not see the bigger picture.

For example, some may say learning about a certain topic in school such as ‘dinosaurs’ is considered ‘pointless’. They may think “What does my child gain from learning about dinosaurs?” or “What is the point when dinosaurs have no relevance to our everyday lives”. The sad truth is that people might not realise that as well as learning about dinosaurs, the children learn about other things in the CONTEXT of dinosaurs. They miss the benefits of it.

Dinosaurs are very interesting to children, as I have seen on placement as my class has it as a topic. If they learn different subject areas through the context of dinosaurs, ultimately they will be more motivated to learn things like maths or English if lessons are in the context of dinosaurs as it will  attract them to the subject much more than if it were just an isolated English or maths lesson- the children see it being relevant to them as the context is of great interest to them as people.

From my experience, I taught language in the context of Harry Potter, which was a great success. The children were developing their reading and writing skills through the context of Harry Potter and through this it made learning more fun and enjoyable to them. The children always looked forward to my lessons which made me see how context-based learning works so well. Some may think that all they’re learning about is Harry Potter when in actual fact they are learning key skills needed for life and gives them the motivation to want to gain these.

Everything we teach in school has a purpose for pupils later in life. It is important to create a context for learning that does matter to the children in order to allow them to e fully engaged and immerse themselves 100% in every lesson because if pupils were interested, the lesson will be way more effective- pupils will be motivated to learn key skills needed for life.

I want to be a teacher because I want to make a difference. Through learning in the International Baccalaureate elective I have learnt that PYP schools also want to make a difference by creating a more peaceful world. Just as I like to learn from others in any context, I decided to choose the International Baccalaureate as an elective as I wanted to learn about how other different education systems from my own worked well, such as the PYP. Through learning in this elective I already notice the differences to CfE the PYP has to offer such as embodying a Learner Profile. The Learner Profile is a set of qualities that the school wants every person, whether they are a pupil, teacher or janitor, to embody to create a good learning community and a better and more peaceful world. The attributes are as follows; inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective.

Throughout my journey, I have been an inquirer in many ways. For example, on placement I always took advantage of asking questions to different members of staff about the job and also to inquire on how I could make lessons the best quality they can be. I also inquired through reserach of things such as ASD and bilingualism so that I would know more about the topics as I had children in my class who these applied to. Through inquiring I learnt more about my class which helped me to meet the needs of every child.

I tried to make sure I was knowledgeable of each subject I was teaching through research, however I would say I need to develop this further because with even more research I would have been even more knowledgeable with what I was teaching the children. For example, their topic was ‘transport’ and I could have done way more research to consolidate my own understanding even more so that I would have felt more confident in the subject.

I believe that being a thinker gets you very far through being a pupil in school and also as a teacher. I make sure that during lectures that I think very hard about the different discussion points being addressed as I can think about these discussion points when I come across them in practice. In addition I also made sure to think hard about how I could develop my practice by thinking of good ideas to improve.

Communicating is key to being an effective teacher. In my practice I always tried my best to express myself in order to connect with the pupils to earn trust and respect. In addition, in workshops I always make sure that I am working as a team with everyone I work with and make sure I listen to what everyone has to say. I communicated very well with my mentor throughout placement as we would communicate outside of school via email if I had any questions or queries about my practice and he would give me advice on how to plan my lessons the best they could be. I also encouraged my pupils to be good communicators through including lots of discussion in my lessons that were paired, group and whole class. This got the pupils to work together with their peers and taught them to respect everyone’s ideas and points. I feel that the more lessons I planned the more I acquired this aspect of the learner profile because I found it easier to include discussion points the more I practiced.

The principled attribute is very important in my journey as it is important for me to make sure that I treat every child fairly and respect their rights as pupils. I never had favourite pupils as I made sure to focus on every child by making sure they all had a voice in class and all had opportunities to answer out or speak to me if they had problems. I followed the class rules as well as the children which created mutual respect.

I believe that I am a very open-minded person as I appreciated all the children’s different cultures and stories as a number of my pupils were from different Eastern European countries. Through being open minded it allowed me to learn things about different cultures that I would not have known before. I also respect that other teachers and my friends who are also students have different ways of doing things to me and through seeing different approaches it allowed me to grow by seeing methods I never would have thought of.

I am also a very caring person as I always make sure that I put others first over myself. I showed empathy to my pupils on placement through understanding what they were going through when they would tell me about issues that bothered them, developing trust and respect. Through my studies, I have learnt that If you are not caring to your pupils then there will be issues when trying to gain their respect because if you show you care, then it will show the pupil that they matter to you as a teacher. This allows for the pupils to connect to you more as people rather than a child just being ‘one of thirty pupils’. Strong relationships are key to being an effective teacher and through myself and my mentor being caring, I really found that we were making a difference to their educational experience. The fact that I care so much shows me how right this career path is for me, as I find it so rewarding knowing that I create a positive impact on pupils.

Encouraging pupils to take a risk helps them to become better people as it gets them out of their comfort zones, which is a skill needed for later in life. I made sure to always challenge my pupils on placement by pushing them to their full potential. I created challenges for fast finishers which was very beneficial because if pupils can take the risk and complete it, perhaps by completing a piece of work that may be more difficult than usual or by speaking out in class, it gives them the confidence to push themselves even further to improve. With regards to myself, when planning lessons I took risks by not really knowing how a certain aspect of my lesson would go, for example I had a station activity that I thought would work very well, however it ended up being quite chaotic and not as effective as I thought. When lessons wouldn’t work out on more and more occasions, I build up the resilience to move on and used making mistakes as a door to seeing how I could have done something differently, which constantly improved my practice . Trying out new approaches is good for my development because through being afraid of taking the risk, it would mean that you would never know how a certain activity or lesson would work out, it could have been amazing for all you knew and if you don’t try you would  never know for sure.

Throughout my life, I have always tried to be balanced, though it is something I find quite difficult. I often overwhelm myself with everything going on in my life such as my studies, social life, hobbies and my own wellbeing. During placement, I didn’t balance these well, as a result of this I only spent my time working, which was good as I could really focus on doing well in placement and being the best I could be, though it meant that I gave up my social life and hobbies and I also did not look after myself properly as I lacked sleep and did not eat a lot. It is important that for my next placement I focus on taking care of my own wellbeing more as well as taking care of my progress in my degree. This will make me feel much more happy and healthy when on placement as I will make sure I get enough rest to recharge and give it all that I’ve got to really push myself to the best of my ability.

Lastly, I have always made sure to be as reflective as possible during my course, whether its writing reflections for my ePortfolio or whether its reflecting on how my lessons went or just any experience I encounter in school in general. It is important I am reflective as it makes me think deeper about what I experienced and develop through thinking of other possible ways I could have been better. Through writing this blog post it has really got me to reflect on how I’m doing in my course and what my strengths and weaknesses are. It allows me to develop and grow as a teacher which is vital for improving my practice.

I will continue to keep making sure I embody all of these attributes as a person not just in my degree, but in life in general as they do help make me a better person to help create a better and more peaceful world. The more people who embody these attributes the better our world will become!

IB TDT- Inquiry about inquiry

Tuning in…

Experiences of Inquiry

• Contexts: in school, at home, at university

Benefits

• Good because you learn new things you didn’t know before.
• Get issues that concern you sorted out by asking the right people for help/ clarification/ reassurance.
• Curiosity will get you far in life because if you don’t ask, you will never know.

Challenges

• Myself personally I am really shy so I sometimes find it nerve-racking asking questions in front of a class full of other people- fear of being judged.

Opportunities of Inquiry

In primary and secondary school I used KWL approach when learning about a new topic (what do I Know, what do I Want to know, what have I Learnt?)

How did/does it make you feel?

I feel it is an amazing method as it is very stimulating for pupils in the sense that it gets them thinking about their own learning actively as a class. It gets pupils to think about what they already know and be curious about what they want to know- making it very pupil led. It also helps the teacher prepare lessons better as it allows them to teach the pupils things they want to learn and prepare the best they can to provide high quality lessons. Personally when I was a pupil, I found it very stimulating, giving me curiosity about the topic and intrigued to learn more.

Did I see it on my MA1 placement

I experienced inquiry-based learning on placement by seeing the KWL activity in action when the class started their new topic of Transport. The teacher did the activity as a whole class, getting all the pupils actively participating together and teaching them to listen to each others ideas and inputs. I will definitely use this approach in future as the pupils found it really interesting and it was a very useful tool for the teacher himself.

Finding Out…

Questions about inquiry

Why do we make inquiries?
How do we inquiries?

How can we promote inquiry-based learning in schools?

What ways is inquiry- based learning beneficial to learners?

What barriers can exist that lessen the impact of inquiry- based learning?

Sorting Out…(Using Inquiry in the Classroom- Teresa Coffman)

Question- Why do we make inquiries?

Sentence:“inquiry ensures that students are not only memorising required factual information, but are also applying the facts to the development of meaningful questions and their own understaning.”

Phrase: “special interest”, “actively involved”

Word:“curiosity”, “explore”

Question- How can we promote inquiry based learning?

Sentence: “As a teacher, you can develop inquiry skills in your students by helping them to develop a curiosity of the world around them and then to question and seek answers to help solve relevant problems”

Phrase: “functional skills” “unique interest”

Word: “motivation”

Making Conclusions…

New questions:

• Why wasn’t inquiry-based learning reinforced as much in the past in schools.

Taking Action…

I am going to make sure I implement lots of inquiry-based learning throughout my future placements in my career by teaching pupils about concepts that truly interest them and make them feel a sense of passion when learning. I will use the KWL approach when beginning every topic so I can achieve this.

Inquiry Reflection

What was it like to learn through inquiry

It was very interesting learning through inquiry as it prompted discussion as a class and got us as pupils to think deeper about what we wanted to find out, giving us the chance to make our own decisions about our own learning by choosing things that are of great interest to us. It brought out our curiosity as a class which I feel is fundamental for children to feel when learning something new as they will fully immerse themselves in what they are learning about.

What do you notice about yourself as a learner

I felt that as a learner it was of great benefit to me as I learned in class in an active way, and I felt much more engaged during lessons and found myself participating more rather than just sitting quietly in the corner. I feel it brings learners out of their shell because it encourages them to feel more comfortable in the classroom to speak out by creating a friendly ethos throughout the discussion. Personally, it helped me massively at university as I feel more and more comfortable answering out in workshops when before I would not open my mouth, even when I did have ideas.

How will that impact on

• my future studies:I will try to make sure to take advantage on all inquiry-based learning in future as it will help me to communicate my ideas and also listen to what others have to say and I can learn from others too by thinking about ideas I may not have considered before.
• The work I do with my pupils:Now that I understand the benefits of inquiry-based learning, I will use the KWL approach when beginning every new topic so that I introduce this method of learning quickly and early. It will allow pupils to feel comfortable expressing their thoughts collectively as a class which will hopefully get them over the hurdle of the intimidation of speaking out.