ESCalate HE/School Learning Group Mike Ollerton St.Martin's College 2004
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
ESCalate HE/School Learning Group
Mike Ollerton
St.Martin’s College
2004ESCalate HE/School Learning Group
Introduction
How student teachers’ experience the various processes involved in Qualified Teacher
Status (QTS) courses is varied and complex. In helping students develop pedagogy, the
quality of the corporate experience is clearly of great importance and, with this in mind,
the paper considers aspects of ‘good’ practice as described by mentors and tutors in a
range of institutions and from different locations within the UK.
As well as seeking to disseminate ‘good’ practice, this paper also considers some of the
complexities and, in particular, the interfaces between students, schools and Higher
Education Institutions (HEIs). To make sense of these interfaces the following Venn
diagram is offered to illustrate interfaces not just between pairs of elements but also
between all three elements; this is the intersection set at the centre of the diagram.
Students
Schools
HEIs
The above diagram opens up the possibility of 7 areas of experience for exploration:
1. Students (T),
2. Schools (S),
3. HEIs (H),
4. Students and Schools (T-S),
5. Students and HEIs (T-H),
6. Schools and HEIs (S-H)
7. Students, Schools and HEIs (T-S-H).
How students make sense of their experiences: what they learn in schools, what they
learn in higher education institutions, how they transfer knowledge between contexts
and how they manage different demands placed upon them has a significant impact
upon their developing pedagogy and, therefore, upon their future students’ learning
opportunities.
There is a need for student teachers to develop knowledge, beliefs, values and identity
in ways that can be transferred from one context to another and can be communicated
and developed through a range of different types of discourse to meet different
demands of becoming a teacher.The dangers of over-generalisation of a notion of what ‘good’ practice ‘looks’ like are
omnipresent and over-simplification can be a hostage to fortune. However, if we can
learn anything from What worked well for Bill (see appendix 1) there are some clues
about schools and HEIs working together and the conditions upon which such a
relationship can exist. This relationship is aimed at supporting trainees to experience
for themselves what ‘good’ practice looks and feels like. This in turn requires trainees to
be encouraged to plan lessons that may differ from and possibly challenge the
perceived orthodoxy within a department. Such an event may be a departure from a
given scheme of work and involve some measure of risk-taking.
For trainees to be able to develop a generality of knowing they must, as a minimum, be
provided with opportunities to recognise that a ‘good’ lesson plan is the basis of an
effective lesson in any classroom, in any department. There are tensions however
between how a school and how an HEI might define a ‘good’ lesson. This tension
arises partly as an outcome of reductionist forces that define, quantify and measure
schools’ success: narrow-focused testing and league tables. Whilst HEIs are similarly
accountable, the same immediate pressure of testing does not exist and this is largely
because of the way assessment and measurements of achievement remain within the
domain of the sector. This tension can, at worst, create difficulties and mistrust
between a school mentor and a HE tutor, manifested by:
a) a mentor feeling that a tutor does not understand the pressures a school is under
to teach in ways aimed at getting students to pass tests, and
b) from a tutor’s perspective a ‘failure’ to understand why a mentor does not
encourage a trainee to take risks and experiment with different ways of teaching.
What worked for Bill, however, provides clues that the effectiveness of a partnership
between a school and an HEI is built upon trainee-centred approaches where trainees’
needs, in terms of developing as effective teachers, in any department, whatever the
peculiarities of schemes of work are, is uppermost. Trainees must be helped to develop
skills and teaching strategies that are transferable to any classroom context. As such it
is incumbent upon both sectors to provide trainees with knowledge and opportunities to
develop a range of teaching strategies and the pedagogy to underpin action. Somehow
a balance between risk-taking and teaching-to-the-test must be rationalised, understood
and articulated, so both sectors recognise that both these ways of being are necessary
aspects of trainees overall development.
Challenges presented by the different subsets and areas of learning student
teachers need to contact
The aim of the HEI/Schools relationship is to develop student teachers who can:
• teach successfully;
• critically reflect on their teaching.
To support these outcomes both HEI staff (tutors) and teachers (mentors) need to be
clear about the features of high quality teaching and be able to recognise it and critically
reflect on it. How far it is necessary/desirable for teachers to actively reflect on their
practice in order that they can observe, support and enable inexperienced students to
reflect critically on their emerging practice is an important question. Research byMedwell J., Wray D., Poulson L., & Fox R. 1998 (Effective Teachers of Literacy. Commissioned by the TTA. Exeter, University of Exeter) suggests that teachers find it difficult to analyse their own practice – making their implicit knowledge, explicit. This would seem to have implications for tutors and mentors. Research by Lave and Wenger on ‘Legitimate Peripheral Participation’ provides the crux to partnership between HEI and schools. Schools become communities of practice where there exists a definite learning curriculum which students become a part of. By slowly taking on more responsibilities through observation, by picking up the language of the school, involving themselves in dialogue and slowly beginning to ‘talk within the practice of the school rather than about it’, students can gain productive access to the community. Some schools take this approach and see this as a vital part of students’ learning. Such schools recognise and fully understand their part in students’ learning and how they can best support, challenge and extend the experiences, learning and thinking of the students. However others do not and there are, therefore, inconsistencies between expectations, approach and assessments. Engaging with the thinking, therefore, behind Lave and Wenger’s work is crucial to the school experience for both the students and the teachers involved. Models of partnership in operation in different UK countries Trying to ascertain different models of practice and seeking to share ‘good’ practice, however this is defined, is a key aspect of this paper. To try to unearth such models and to share ‘good’ practice we have sought to provide outline information from a number of sources and below are case studies drawn from different providers in Wales and England. Each case study describes different approaches to various aspects of student teacher development. Case study 1: Connecting CPD to a SCITT programme This is a Primary school centred Initial Teacher Training course (SCITT) and is based in Cumbria. Tutors and mentors have attempted to address the issue of teachers finding it difficult to analyse their own practice and make their implicit knowledge, explicit by producing a Coherence Booklet. This draws attention to the challenge of delivering a coherent programme for students in terms of their experiences in schools and in sessions run by HEI tutors. The SCITT team found, however, that ‘drawing attention to certain strategies’ was not enough in terms of teachers fully appreciating why certain strategies e.g. talk partners, were considered important for students to experiment with. Consequently a teaching and learning project was developed and has been operational since 2000. This inservice project has formed a basis for Cumbria Primary Teacher Training (CPTT) schools to investigate the features of ‘high quality teaching and learning’ and the rationale underpinning them. Headteachers have been involved (to ensure they support the development of teaching strategies) and two teachers per school attended half day sessions each half term.
Underpinning the project (for both headteachers and teachers) has been the possibility
of experiencing a range of strategies themselves as they grapple with the ‘content’ of
the course, and then explicitly reflecting on these strategies as learners in terms of how
they teach.
The project has been supported by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) through regional
funding. Currently negotiations are underway with the TTA for funding to carry out a
formal evaluation.
Case study 2: Collaboration between schools to teach General Professional
Studies
This is taken from a group of schools in North Wales, called the Wrexham consortium,
in partnership with Bangor University. The specific focus here is upon how student
teachers (approximately 30) from different subject areas in the secondary age range are
brought together, to work on issues relating to general professional studies, on each
occasion by professional mentors from the schools. There are 11 schools involved and
13 aspects of the General Professional Studies (GPS) curriculum are worked on
between the end of October and the beginning of March (see appendix 2). Each aspect
of the ITE programme is constructed by and, therefore, ‘owned’ by the professional
mentors within the consortium. During the planning stage professional mentors
determine what elements need to be included in the programme and decisions are
taken about which professional mentor will plan and teach a specific aspect of the
programme to all the student teachers in the consortium.
Bringing together all the student teachers into different locations on several occasions
has a number of benefits and these are:
a) For students to be able to share anecdotes and experiences.
b) For students to meet different mentors and, therefore, gain a range of
perspectives.
c) To cut down the workload of professional mentors as a consequence of sharing
out the curriculum.
d) For students to gain knowledge of another school, even though this may be fairly
cursory.
This approach, therefore, of bringing together student teachers from different schools
and across different subject areas has several benefits.
Case study 3 (a): Students and mentors sharing perspectives
The next study describes the way Secondary PGCE Mathematics students, mentors
and tutors at St Martin’s work together during a specific session to discuss, in groups of
five or six, What makes a ‘good’ student teacher and what makes a ‘good’ mentor? The
event takes place between first school and second school placements and groups are
formed according to students’ second school placement. The discussions are
particularly valuable because students can explain what their first mentor had done inorder to offer support and the ‘new’ mentor can describe what qualities they are looking
for when the second placement begins.
Case Study 3(b) Collaborative planning between students and mentors
This session takes place during the same day as Case study 3(a). The focus is for
students and mentors to jointly plan a ‘module’ of work within the Key Stage 3
mathematics curriculum. Students are encouraged to take a lead in their groups and
mentors are asked to act more as consultants, to offer support, advice and ideas. Each
group is asked to develop several lesson ideas, taking progression and differentiation
into account. Groups are requested to focus on different areas of the curriculum in
order to avoid duplication. Finally groups disseminate their work to the whole group.
Apart from the important issue of modelling collaborative planning, students are
engaging with issues of developing a series of connected tasks, progression and
differentiation.
Case study 4: Mantle of the expert – Foundation degree students teaching PGCE
students
This is a further initiative from St Martin’s College, Lancaster and is based upon
Foundation degree students providing input on to the PGCE course. The initiative
focuses on issues involved and range of approaches a student teacher will need to
consider to make best use of the skills and talents of Learning Support Teachers (LST).
Prior to the session, the student teachers are asked to write some questions that they
would want answers to with regard to making best use of a LST in planning and
teaching. These questions are given to the LSTs before meeting the students and they
consider their responses to them. The actual session is structured as follows: In the
first part the LSTs, acting as a panel of experts, read out the most interesting questions
and offer answers; they then develop any further questions from students and this
continues for 30 minutes or so. In the second part each LST works with a small group
of student teachers with the brief of discussing different strategies for working together
in classroom, determining a range of ways a student teacher and an LST might
profitably work together.
Case Study 5: Metacognition and assessment
Year 1 students on a three year QTS course at St Martin’s College were asked which
college-based modules had most helped them in preparing for their block school
placement at the end of the year. Several subject areas were chosen by different
students but all students made reference to the mathematics module. The teaching in
mathematics was therefore investigated and key elements of the module organisation
identified as follows:
a) Students are introduced to metacognition as an awareness-raising vehicle.
Students are subsequently asked to work metacognitively in order to describe the
approaches they become aware of using themselves when solving problems.
This raises students’ knowledge of different mathematical thinking strategies theyuse in their own learning and which, in turn, they can encourage their pupils to
use. One outcome of this is for students to use a variety of ways of carrying out
calculations; this raises students’ awareness that mathematics teaching does not
have to be rooted in textbook schemes.
b) Assignments to link practice and theory: During school-based work students
gather and use data to explore the theoretical principles that underpin ‘good’
practice. E.g. (i) exploring the value of using a particular mathematical resource
to support pupils’ learning. Here the rationale is used as the basis for the written
assignment so students can try to apply theories of learning to actual classroom
activities. E.g. (ii) developing pupils’ mathematical thinking. This is based upon
students’ structured observations of a group of children, again with the intention
of linking theory and practice in a written assignment.
Case Study 6: Linking training with a school improvement project involving HEI,
school-based training and Local Education Authority provision: developing
purpose and diversity in training
This case study refers to work carried out jointly between year 3 BEd core subjects
students (2003-04) at the University of Derby, a local school in ‘challenging’
circumstances and currently in special measures, LEA advisers and Advanced Skills
Teachers (ASTs).
Students worked with a school facing challenging circumstances and in special
measures. In groups of 4-5 students developed cross-curricular activities with core
subjects. Support was provided by LEA advisers and ASTs. Groups then delivered
these activities in a team teaching basis to all the classes in the school.
Because of the context of the school, trainees found the project challenging. However,
with the support of LEA advisers and ASTs all students agreed the experience had
been an extremely useful part of their training, providing opportunities to gain
experience in areas that many placement schools could not provide.
In a joint conference to celebrate teaching and learning in the school, trainees and staff
explained their work, and how this supported the raising of standards within the school.Appendix 1 The following are notes written after an informal interview with Bill, a former 2-year PGCE Mathematics student. These notes have been checked for accuracy by Bill. What worked well for Bill, with regard to learning in HE. Having a range of ideas, gathered from the first year of Bill’s 2-Year PGCE course meant he was able gather a range of ideas for use in his own teaching in schools. The key issue here was to engage him in problem-solving type activities through which he became aware of both what he was learning in mathematics and how he was learning it. How he subsequently adapted such ideas for use in his own teaching was a responsibility Bill took upon himself to consider. What did not work well for Bill with regard to learning in HE. The least effective type of sessions were those which expounded theories about learning (e.g. the psychology of learning) but which Bill could not directly relate to practice within his professional year. Bill recognised such issues have some impact now, in his third year of teaching, however at the time they seemed to be too far away from his existing context. What did not work well for Bill with regard to school-based learning. Bill’s first school placement was very much focused on teaching in ‘a’ way that corresponded with the departmental approach. This meant that Bill was restricted to using a specific textbook resource that he felt did not enable him to try ideas out based upon personal initiative. This led Bill to feel he was being taught to teach in a specific and narrow way. What worked well for Bill with regard to school-based learning. In his second placement Bill was encouraged to try out a range of different ways of teaching and this was due to the ability of the mentor to ‘let go’ and trust in Bill’s developing expertise to teach effectively. The outcome of this placement and the appropriate degrees of freedom offered meant that Bill was able to develop his pedagogy by putting into practice the range of strategies and ideas for the classroom that he learnt through the school and through college sessions.
Appendix 2 The Wrexham consortium GPS programme in collaboration with Bangor University Date Venue Details 23 oct Bryn Alyn Welcome 6 Nov Morgan Llwyd Teaching and learning 13 nov Yale college Child protection 20 nov Penley SEN 27 nov Bryn Alyn Form tutors 4 dec Grango PSE 11 dec Clywedog Behaviour management SPRING 29 jan Darland Key skills 2 feb Yale 16-19 5 feb St Joseph’s Health and safety 12 feb Ruabon The law 23 feb Ruabon Trips and visits 4 mar Rhosnesno Bullying
Appendix 3
A St. Martin’s College tutor’s perspective
An effective way of bridging the gap between student learning in HEI and school
placement lies in the role of HEI in supporting teachers within Partnership schools to
become reflective practitioners. This support is partially dependant on how well HEI is
able to build strong school partnerships through a programme of Continuing
Professional Development (CPD). At St Martin’s, part of this staff development and
training takes the form of mentor training in order to support ITE students in their
school-based learning.
The mentor-training programme involves teachers in partnership schools being inducted
into the running of the teacher education programmes in terms of infrastructure,
expectations of school experience, reflection, and assessment. The programme also
encourages participating teachers to realise their skills as a mentor by enabling them to
reflect on what constitutes good practice in teaching and learning in relation to
themselves in the classroom, and in relation to trainees.
One way they are encouraged to develop skills of reflection is by considering the kinds
of questions they may use in discussion with a trainee in order to help the trainee
evaluate the quality of their teaching and identify areas for further development. Thus
the mentor training programme, in an indirect way, provides skills for teacher mentors to
help students reflect on practice in relation to school based learning as well as
encouraging them to make the link with what they already know (through college
modules) constitutes good practice in the classroom.
Further opportunities in terms of CPD are offered through the PGC/D/MA programme at
St Martins. This in turn may also impact on teacher mentors’ level of reflection and
consideration of a range of teaching and learning issues connected to their practice
which in turn may affect their classroom practice.
In order to probe how effective the mentor-training programme is in bridging the gap
between student learning in HEI and school, it would be useful to carry out focus group
interviews with teacher mentors
Discussion would focus on:
• What do they deem to be good practice in bridging the gap between school and
HEI in order to encourage trainees to make the link between their learning at
college and at school?
• What role might the mentor-training programme play in allowing practising
teachers to develop skills of reflection which then in turn can use to encourage
trainees to reflect on their own practice?You can also read
