Theories that underpin teaching and learning

In this essay I am going to discuss a range of theories of learning, looking at behaviourist, cognitivist and humanist schools of theories. I am going to look at how theory applies to teaching in general and in my own teaching. I am going to look at how humanistic theories differ to the more science based behaviourist and cognitivist theories.

Behaviour is key to learning, looking at several behaviourists such as Pavlov and Skinner I am going to discuss how learning does link to behaviour.

Ivan Pavlov was a Russian psychologist who came up with a theory of learning known as classical conditioning. He said ‘learning is a change in behaviour’ Gould (2012 pg. 10), his teachings suggested that learning takes place from an external environmental stimulus and then a response to this stimulus. Pavlov did experiments on dogs to demonstrate his theory, he would ring a bell before he fed them he found that after a certain amount of time the bell alone would make the dogs salivate and expect the food. This is classical conditioning because the dogs cannot control the salivation it is a learnt response to an environmental stimuli. This is learning according to Pavlov, he says there is a response there that wasn’t there before therefore it is learnt.

Pavlov’s theory doesn’t have many values in learning and theory that can be applied. One thing that does is if the stimulus is negative then the response will be negative too, you have to show a positive teaching manner to students so they don’t develop a negative response. Their view to the subject could be affected depending on the environment the stimulus is given in. There is a danger of ‘unconsciously teaching learners to like or dislike a subject’ Gould (2012 pg. 11).

There are not many ways to link Pavlov’s theory to the classroom because of how it is so science based. I use some of Pavlov’s conditioning in the classroom when I get a new group for the first time it helps with the behaviour management of the group. To get them to be quiet and signal the beginning of the lesson I move to the board and tell the class to be quiet, they do so after having to ask for quiet the first few times, after a while I only have to tell a few students to be quiet when I reach the board. When the class is more established with the routine they hush themselves when I get to the board. This shows my stimulus of telling them to be quiet whilst moving to the board gives the required response of them being quiet.

This theory shows how it can help in situations such as this but it is quite clinical. It would work better in fact based subjects because it requires remembering facts and acting upon them. You can condition students by the behaviour of the teacher. This then lacks support of the student in lessons, did Pavlov take into account that if one of the dogs didn’t react to the stimulus as quick as the others and what he would have to do about this. There is no emphasis on the students experience through this theory therefore making it seem quite a cold way to teach, this may put students off your lesson because you don’t show you care.

The other type of conditioning is called operant conditioning this type of conditioning is more flexible, it is a reaction to the environment too but it’s not a natural reflex or as ridged as classical conditioning. Operant conditioning uses positive and negative reinforcement to affect behaviours. If a new behaviour is right then it is reinforced by being rewarded on the other hand if it is negative then it is punished, it can simply be punished by not rewarding the behaviour.

Skinner a behaviourist psychologist did some experimenting with operant conditioning again he used animals too. He used a method that he created called skinners box where he placed rats inside a box with a lever. If the rat pressed the lever it would be rewarded with food, he repeated the process instilling the pressing of the lever with a reward thereby the animal had learn that action.

This idea of rewards and punishments is commonly used in teaching; I use rewards and punishments in my own teaching using stickers in books, PRIDE card signatures (schools reward system) and prizes for students who show they are putting effort into the lesson. These rewards have to appeal to the students for it to work; some students don’t find the appeal of the stickers or signatures they respond better to things such as a positive phone call home, the appraisal of the teacher or positive body language. It is important to find what works with your students for operant conditioning to work. Rewards in lessons can make it more interesting maybe even create some friendly competition in the classroom amongst students but this could lead to some students being left out or feeling uninvolved because they haven’t received a reward yet. Another way you could lose students interest in the lesson is if the reward was not needed for instance some students are already intrinsically motivated before the reward. There is another problem with this theory it takes away the importance of the subject and learning and puts emphasis on getting the reward; it takes away any room for exploration of a topic or discussing the answer to activities where the student can truly understand a topic rather than just repeating information for a reward. Behaviourism tends to favour closed questions and topics where the answer is just learnt as a fact, relies heavily on correct responses off students. It would favour Maths the subject I teach because of the nature of the topic its very fact based and not much discussion is involved.

In my own teaching I find that operant conditioning works better with behaviour management. If a table is sitting quietly waiting for the teacher they are rewarded as an example to others. The lack of reward for the ones not doing it right is reinforcing the good behaviour. Influencing behaviour through this way works better if you have clear ground rules, this way the students know what is acceptable or not. ‘Rules are best kept to a small number’ Gould (2012 pg. 39) The school I work at has ground rules called non-negotiables these 5 rules are just simple ones about positivity, respect, innovation, determination and excellence and each one has conditions such as excellence is achieved by being fully equipped and having the correct uniform on. These ground rules provide a good base for rewards and punishments in adhering or not to these. Operant conditioning works better with a small number of ground rules, rewards work better than the punishment s which is why this behaviour system is heavy on rewarding students with their signatures off staff. They can get several positive signatures per day but receive a detention for breaking any of the non-negotiables.

In behaviourism the discovery of learning is not taken into account, behaviourists just want an observable behaviour and actions shown in response to stimuli. There is no mention of differentiation for students taking into account learning patterns of students; pace of students or even special educational needs, these are just dismissed.

In planning behaviourists use ‘action verbs’ Gould (2012 pg. 23) in learning intentions. These words such as list, define, state give measurable answers. Other words such as ‘to know’ or ‘understand’ are not preferred by behaviourists because they don’t provide a way of measuring learning or specific to a specific answer required. If you wanted to plan taking behaviourism into account you would have to use SMART learning intentions because they are based on actions and not things that happen in the mind which are not reliable. In my own teaching I use, to be able to (TBAT). I use this the most, I teach maths so my LI does favour the behaviourist view whereby I am looking for an action that can be completed by the end of the lesson.

For behaviourists learning is ‘relatively permanent’ Pritchard (2009) if it is reinforced. It is linked to power and control to have the theories work also it has mainly been tested on animals by the psychologists, this is not reliable because human behaviour differs so much to animal which is easily controlled by desires and fears. Also it fails to address the free will of human behaviour; this could impact the effectiveness of the theory.

Cognitivist theory looks at the relationship between different pieces of information; there is more emphasis on meaning and understanding in the mind. They argue that the mind works like a computer, in comparison to behaviourists there is less importance on just the stimuli and response and more on what happens in between these. They say this process is individual to the learners.

Cognitivists say that learning builds on knowledge that already exists to the learner it just adds to it. The meaning of information is important and it needs to build a relationship with the information to learn it affectively.

Piaget is a cognitivist theorist who worked with children mainly and looking at how they viewed the world and learnt from it, he called each mental organising of information a schema, this schema stored all the information about a specific object or topic or movement. He said this is how we function in the world, all the schemes we have for each different thing are being added to constantly to develop our cognitive structures.

Piaget says that when we have a scheme for something already this is called equilibrium because it makes sense, when new knowledge is introduced the schemas become disturbed and disequilibrium occurs. The process that the brain takes to sort and add this information to existing schemas is called assimilation and accommodation making the new knowledge joined with the old thereby improving the schema. There is an internal need for achieving equilibrium; this is why this theory can work in learning and teaching.

This theory works in lessons especially in maths; they already have a schema for a specific topic and know what to do such as finding a percentage of an amount. Then new information is added such as how to apply the topic to exam question or real life problems, such as in shop A there is an increase of 60% and you only have £20 pounds to pay, do you have enough money? This creates disequilibrium to the student. It is then put into context for students, they need to take the original information for finding percentages and assimilate it to this for them to achieve a state of equilibrium again. This theory can be applied to a lot of fact based subjects again where the assimilation of the information would not require too much deep-thinking or discussion. Cognitivists focus a lot on the learner and what happens to them during information processing rather than the teacher.

Gestalt psychology is looking at the whole picture rather than each individual part. Like a jigsaw puzzle unless all the parts are put together with meaning then you don’t get the whole picture. During the process of putting the pieces together understanding is reached. This is a cognitivist structure using the bits of information you receive and processing them in a way that shows you the whole in a way you understand it. Koehler experimented with this theory saying it was like a puzzle that you can solve and find the light bulb moment when all the pieces fit and you understand.

We need to have meaning in what we see and experience and if some information links to other information our brain wants to place it there because it has a link or relationship to that, this is called closure so when there is information that is perhaps puzzling we link it to the closest piece of information to give it a meaning. We all have that innate curiosity to find meanings and this intrinsic motivation comes being curious and the process of discovery. Using this information you can use this intrinsic motivation to use activities that have a discovery theme to them such as experiments, inquiry based activities. The ability to be able to play with a topic and see how it would fit creates deeper understanding in your students. Using the law of proximity in this theory it shows how you have to teach topics that are closely linked such as addition, subtraction and multiplying to avoid confusion in students or for them not to be able to see the bigger picture. This theory works in my job role with younger year groups such as year 7 because they are coming to these topics for the first time but when you teach older year groups they need to be moving from different topics to keep their retention of revision up. Gestalt psychology can be used in a variety of ways to improve teaching and learning.

Ausubel and Bruner are both cognitivists, they also agree with learning being linked to previous knowledge and that it has to be meaningful and structured. The only difference between them is the questioning of where the structure comes from, the teacher or the student.

Ausubel believes that the information should be organised in a meaningful way, if you present the information in this way then learning is linked to the previous knowledge that the person has.

He says an advance organiser should be at the start of the learning process to link back to what was previously learnt, this could be like a fascinator or a starter at the beginning of the lesson relating back to the previous lesson so it has some meaning. This is quite fact and memory based the student has to remember what was previously learnt and link it to that, a good strategy for revision lessons. This is called meaningful reception learning.

Bruner says that learning should be a problem solving journey which lets the learner discover where the link is in this new information and arrives at their own point. They are allowed to make sense of the topic as they wish; this theory shows you cannot assume how progressed a learners previous knowledge is. This creates independence in learners to discover learning for themselves and not rely on others. The teacher in this case is a resource and there for support and guidance, this is called discovery learning. I rely on this type of teaching when I teach my year 12 resit GCSE group. In my feedback from an observed session it was stated that I left room for students to discover their own learning. I put them in groups so they could discuss on how to get to answers, you have to monitor these grouped sessions to see if all members take part are they all exposed to the same points and on the same page of understanding. Each person in the group has their own individual understanding and the experience is different for each one. I also used some of Ausubel’s teacher led theory at the beginning of the session, explaining the structure we were going to use in the lesson to answer the questions. I think that the use of both of these theories are important in teaching, It depends on the age and maturity and level of the students.

Bruner also looks at how children learn and he came up with 3 levels of learning, the first being enactive which are to do with actions or objects the second being iconic which is an image or a model of the learning and the third is symbolic where the language explains the learning. This process of learning can be applied to any learners and not just children. The best use of this learning theory is to have all 3 stages present when teaching to fully understand.

Cognitive psychology tries to understand the processes of the mind but it is not an easy task as there is no accountable way of measuring what happens in the mind because of this the learner needs to be aware of their previous understanding of a topic to learn something new.

The humanistic approach is all about the person; it’s positive and hopeful and looks at the individuality of a person and how they can maximise their growth depending on their own circumstances. Stresses the uniqueness of the person and how they are self-determining and can make free choices depending on their circumstances, seeing how the individual deals with it, walking in their shoes.

Maslow was a humanistic theory his hierarchy of needs is important as a base for the needs to be met before achieving potential growth. The triangle of his needs was physiological factors first such as food and shelter, next was safety and security being out of danger, belonging comes after this which is love and understanding. Esteem is next which is approval/respect from others.

The growth of an individual can only happen if these needs are met only then can they reach self-actualisation. These needs have to be met in order for the next level to be achieved. In a school setting these needs are almost fully catered for or the provisions are there so that students can achieve their best. Breakfast is provided in the morning the school is heated and secure the gates outside provide safety. Teachers and students are expected to treat one another with respect and understanding and esteem is provided in lessons by verbal rewards and recognition. If all these needs are met for each student then they all must be in a place for self-actualisation. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs sound easy enough to instil but you need to make sure that students do feel safe and secure that they do feel approval of others and that they are physiologically catered for. Neither behaviourism or cognitivist theory takes any of these factors into account before the learning is to begin; they assume students are already at this level without addressing it.

Carl Rogers has a client centred approach, he believed that experiences where the most important thing. He also believed that people were good, positive most of the time. He believed the same self-actualisation tendencies as Maslow but the self-actualisation was dependant on positive conditional or unconditional regard, this develops the self-concept.

The self-concept is made up of 3 parts, the self-image, self-esteem and the ideal self. If a person is balanced with these 3 parts then they are an adjusted person, if any of them are not balanced the person could have psychological problems and lead to unhappiness with the self.

In life the person knows what is wrong with the self and have the ability to make themselves well balanced again by identifying and solving their problems.

Rogers’s talks about a facilitator to help the person achieve self-concept, this facilitator needs to be genuine and honest they also have to be empathetic to the learner and their needs. The third value of a facilitator is being respectful and being accepting of the learners needs.

Roger’s theory moves the control from the client to the patient, more student centred activities such as discussions, games and open questions versus teaching from the board with no other input.

I play the role of the facilitator in my own teaching; I try to be as genuine and honest as I can so students can feel that I am approachable when they are in need of support. I try to be empathetic to the students and see the situation from their side; whilst I am doing a college course myself I can empathise with them because we are going through similar educational experiences. I try to be respectful when teaching to accept all the different type of learners and give frequent positive regard. I try to be accepting by including differentiated work so that all students feel included. Another way of making them feel inclusive is by using lollypop sticks or a random name generator when questioning so that no one is missed out.

The important thing in this theory is the attitudes of the learner and the teacher if they both include all the parts of the self-concept then this makes for the prime learning environment.

This approach is more philosophical than the other approaches in behaviourist and cognitivist theories, learning is not always solely cognitive and has to include personal drive of the students for them to succeed. In behaviourism there is no mention at all of feeling and the person, it is very cold and clinical an innate response to information, whereas humanism takes the person into account before reaching the cognition of learning.

The Summerhill School in Suffolk is based on humanistic principles, the founder believed that children should be allowed to explore on their own free will. The school had optional attendance to classes and also rooms that could be used for art and music whenever they wanted under the belief that children learn best when they want to learn of their own accord.

Children were also allowed to learn at their own pace and learning was not set by age but by maturity/ability of the student. The school itself is managed by the students and the teachers, the concept of freedom is quite important to this school. It is said to promote self-discipline and create children who are better thinkers and criticisers. The role of the facilitator in this school is important and plays a key role in order for it to work, again the students have to trust the facilitator and the facilitator should be non-judgemental and try to see the world from the students view.

Relationships can be difficult to maintain but when a successful relationship with the students is achieved then you can help them achieve their best. I believe that I follow a lot of Rogers’s views and theories in my own teaching; I incorporate a humanistic approach with the cognitivist when teaching from the board. A topic sometimes cannot be allowed for discussion by students before it is teacher led and explained properly so students can find some meaning to it before allowing them the free will of fully understanding the topic in their own methods.

Andragogy is another theory based on humanism and is the nature of adult learners and the art of helping them learn. The theory is based on 6 main points, the first is self-concept this is their own view and feelings towards a situation. The second is experience this is looking at their age and maturity towards learning. The third is a readiness to learn they can choose when they are ready to learn and when it fits to them. The fourth is the orientation to learning, this is the order in which they complete tasks or time management and can solve problems now rather than leaving them till later. The fifth is motivation this is the internalised incentive for the learner to achieve success. The last is the 6th point which is the need to know benefits and negatives of the learning process before they can finally commit.

Behaviourism favours the teacher led role and is very clinical and talks about natural responses to stimuli. This is a behaviour that can be modified through conditioning. It requires a passive role from learners; they have no control over their learning. There is no room for independence of learners to explore such as in the humanistic view where discovery and inquiry is supported and encouraged to improve students learning. The behaviourist view conflicts the view of education, instead of educating you are merely getting the required response to a stimulus the students may not understand it at all but be able to repeat it all. An example of this is in primary schools times tables are taught mainly by chanting so students learn the order of numbers through the rhythm of the chant only remembering the answer to the sum but not explaining how or why that is the answer.

The humanistic view is favourable in my opinion because the subject I teach already has a negative outlook from most students, unless they have the intrinsic motivation to learn maths then you have to motivate and be open and genuine to students for them to change their viewpoint of the subject.

Humanism tries to remove the barriers to learning ‘my own memories of maths in school are associated with fear’ Scales (2008) this quote shows that maths is often taught in the cognitivist way because it is a factual subject but if you were to include some humanistic ways of teaching it then it would maybe not be feared so because the student was allowed to develop their own understanding of it.

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Reference list

Curzan, L. B (2003) Teaching in further education 6th edition. London: Continuum.

Illerus, k. (2009) Contemporary theories of learning. Abingdon: Routledge.

Jarvis, P. Holford, J. and Griffin, C. (2003) The theory and practice of learning 2nd edition. Abingdon:

Routledge.

Gould, J. (2012) learning theory and classroom practice in the lifelong learning sector 2nd edition.

London: Sage publications.

Prichard, A. (2009) Ways of learning 2nd edition. Abingdon: David Fultan.

Scales, P. (2008) Teaching in the lifelong learning sector. Maidenhead: Open university press.

Woolard, J. (2010) Behaviourism. Abingdon: Routledge.

Appendix

1. Reflection

2. Feedback of observation from mentor

3. Feedback of observation from Kate Toch

4. Observation lesson

5. Lesson plan

Reflection

In this reflection I am going to use Gibbs reflective cycle, to understand my lesson that was observed and the feedback I got from it.

Description

In my lesson I taught a year 12 GCSE resit class, the topic was mean from a grouped frequency table. I took the register and had a mixed question starter for them to do. Then I took them through several worked examples of questions on mean from a frequency table, after an open discussion and a few demonstrations I let the class practise some similar questions, I also provided a help sheet for students who needed extra guidance. I walked around and helped specific students whilst they were working and asked if others needed any help, whilst checking their work. After sharing some answers I gave them some exam questions out of a paper to practise their skill.

A lot of the lesson was teacher led by me using Ausubel’s work I structured the learning for the students and then they had to repeat it. This is a structured way of teaching the theory of the work. I also used a bit of Bruner’s problem solving journey when I set the task and allowed for students to discover how the same method worked with different style questions.

Feelings

I was feeling nervous because of my lack of resources due to my laptop being stolen; I felt like I wasn’t in the correct state of mind for an observation but didn’t cancel because I wanted the experience. At the start of the session I was a little nervous because I had prepared a lesson but it wasn’t to the best of my ability and also it was my first official observation in a teaching role. I thought the lesson went well and the students were at ease even though I was being observed. I thought the pace of the lesson lacked momentum and some parts drifted a bit. I felt towards the end I did not allow enough time to finish properly and rushed a bit to finish on time.

Evaluation

The good part of the experience was that I could spot my own flaws in my teaching style and my feedback was very informative on how I could improve. Looking at my teaching style in that lesson I would say I have a humanistic approach to teaching where as I am very genuine and open to the students, I allow them to discover parts of the lesson they cannot grasp as well. I play the role of Rogers facilitator where I led the students be aware that I am there as a resource, I don’t take control of the lesson as much as I should.

The bad experience about the observation was the students were more carful of their answers and were holding back a bit when I questioned them specifically, also the pace of the lesson got out of hand and the end of the lesson did not go as planned.

Analysis

I understood that the lesson has flaws as I didn’t differentiate as well as I could have only providing one differentiation resource. The beginning of the lesson could have had some more links to previous learning and I could have broken down the lesson into more stages to shown gradual progression.

Conclusion

I need to use a different method for questioning the students such as a random name generator or lollypop sticks. I could have sat the students in a better seating plan so that they could have help from their peers or to allow room for discussions.

I needed to time the activities so that I didn’t lose pace of the lesson and the students had a better structure of their time, this could also have been used to peer assess their work.

I need to have a clearer teacher presence at the front of the classroom and to let students know that when something is being explained I should have their full attention.

Action plan

Next time I need to plan well, taking into consideration the time of the lesson and the transition from one activity to another. I also need to differentiate more so students who are struggling have the help they need.

I need to implement a better seating plan that fits in with student needs such as a higher level learner with a low level learner so they can support each other.

I need to work on my confidence and delivery of a lesson; I need to work on m behaviour management so that low level disruptions don’t occur during teacher led activities.

I need to work on the type of questioning making it more specific and aimed at certain students to get a deeper understanding of their knowledge.

Incorporate school policies such as literacy into my planning so there is some adherence to the school plan.

Make sure students understand what they are learning and why, spend more time on giving a clear clarification of the topic.

SBG Year 12

Observer APa

29/01/14

LI displayed and explicit SCLevel or grade not displayed on front sheet, do students know how this matches to their individual needs?

Ensure LI is displayed at all times.

Literacy Li displayed- supporting whole school focus

Starter supports Literacy skills definition of averages

Students are expected to recall prior knowledge

LI shared with students- we are going to look at finding the mean for grouped data

Matched to students targets

Why? How does this fit into the bigger picture? Why is it the estimate?

Questioning, directed at students to check understanding.

Open and probing questions used to seek clarification from students and to ensure students explain fullyAvoid telling the students the answer.

Make it clear what type of response you want to a question e.g Hands up, shouting out, lolli pop sticks. Is it important to you that only on person speaks at a time?

Strategic seating plan, students grouped to support each other.

Paper copy of seating plan?

Extra support sheet provided for studentsUse RAG pages of journal?

Students are encouraged to work collaboratively and discuss.

Learning put into context, students given a past exam question to complete.

Literacy- could you ask them to highlight key words before answering? Missed peer assessment opportunity, provide them with a mark scheme, useful to let student see were marks are awarded.

Learning tasks suitably match to LIVariety and Pace? How did it show progress?

Strengths

· Motivation of disengaged students

· Subject knowledge

· Calm manner

· Movement around the room providing instant constructive feedback

AFD

· Ensure Teachers Planning Folder is available with class data, seating plans SOL and individual differentiation comments

· Provide a lesson plan which gives a detailed outline of the lesson structure and when planned progress checks are to take place.

· Rationale for the teaching group. How has the data been used to inform the planning? Why are you teaching this topic? What did they do last lesson? What will they do next lesson?

· Work on your presence in classroom and confident delivery

Teacher Observed: Sophia Begum

PCET course and year: PG Dip Yr. 1

Observer: Kate Toch

Observed course/ level: Yr.12 Maths GCSE mixed re-sit and first-timers

Date & time: Weds 29.1.14 11.40-12.40

Location: Tong High School

No. of students:

8f, 2m

Session Context & Focus– linked to trainee’s rationale of session:

Computer with two years’ worth of planning stolen two days ago, so Sophia working hard to prepare for teaching and learning, however, no planning documents for this session – they will be provided retrospectively. Well done Sophia for seeing it through and not cancelling the observation.

A shared observation with mentor who will observe again within the next three weeks. The school works with the Teach First initiative with which the established staff seem more familiar with than the PG Dip. The latter, however is recognised an appropriate route for some of the established HLTA staff.

It is good to hear that you work well as a support for one of the Deputy Heads, doing joint planning and leading the class when necessary

Summary of any outstanding features and particular strengths:

· You are confident in your subject and able to explain with clarity

· You are responsive to students when they ask for clarification and support

· You monitor and observe students carefully as they work on tasks

· You draw students in to the starter explanations with questions and are able to differentiate through this practice

A session in which you demonstrated your own resilience and ability to ‘run’ a class of GCSE maths; it would be good to see you ‘lead’ the class more in future. As you gain more experience and reflect on your practice, I think that you will see where you need to take your own professional development. Don’t be afraid of asking for support and clarifying your development needs as you move from satisfactory to good and outstanding – you have the potential, for sure.

Summary of Areas for development:

· Teacher presence – think about how you could use your voice and posture to reinforce this

· Transitions between class activities – how can you create greater impact?

· Planning – please email me your session plan for today as soon as you have managed to do some catching up after the car break-in. It would be good too to see a scheme of work or other form of long-term planning to see where this session fits into the whole and how you link topics.

TARGET COMPETENCE (Standards refs in brackets)

Evidenced

Domain A professional Values and Practice or X

Encourage reflection amongst learners (AP 2.2)

Support and promote inclusivity and diversity (AP 3.1)

Communicate and collaborate with colleagues and outside agencies (AP5.1,5.2, BP4.1EP5.3)

Conform to statutory requirements and maintain learning environment – Health and safety (AP6.1,6.2)

Keep accurate records (AP7.1)

Ensure professional boundaries are maintained ( FP2.1)

You quickly established the start of the session with the register and the starter activity followed smoothly thereafter. How could you signal the start of the session and establish your authoritative presence in the room to command the start? You didn’t introduce me to the students – something here about Maslow’s security needs? As you worked through the examples of averages on the board, you called on students to contribute, sometimes with open questions and a couple of times by naming a student and inviting them to respond. Do consider how you draw in each student at eh beginning to ensure that they are part of the session – names on lolly-sticks or random selector IT programmes – plenty to be found through Google.

Domain B Learning and Teaching

Establish purposeful and motivating environment (BP 1.1,1.3)

Manage behaviour and challenge discriminatory attitudes (BP1.2)

Use a range of appropriate, flexible and varied teaching and learning techniques (BP2.1,2.2,2.4 CP 3.1)

Develop independence amongst learners (BP 2.3)

Engage, enthuse and motivate all learners (BP2.1,2.3, CP2.1)

Communicate effectively and present information clearly (BP3.1,3.3)

Question and listen effectively (BP 3.2)

Use inclusive and effective resources including new technologies where appropriate (BP5.1,5.2)

The starter activity engages students as they write definitions for the terms associated with average. A group of students were chatting and one talked about a song that could be used as a memory aid – could you have quietened them quickly but saying that they could share it later? The song might have been useful for other students.

You move on to sharing responses to starter activity and ask open questions. I think that you can do this reasonably effectively with this small mature group, but what might be the value of establishing a ‘stricter’ Q&A routine? The progression activity was teacher-led and this demonstrated the use of a frequency table with lots of open questions: do consider the use of the ‘Pose, Pause, Pounce and Bounce’ strategy for questioning that includes all students and creates a clearer transition between activities. A confident use of the white board and IT.

You are a competent communicator, but have you thought about how you could use your voice and posture to create a more confident ‘teacher’ persona? I think that this will develop with experience, but you could perhaps help it along by giving it some thought? For the first independent activity, you offered a ‘crib sheet’ for the less confident learners; could you encourage the use of peer support to work things out – a more humanist and collaborative solution? Do use students’ names (like music to your ears when someone uses your name) as you work through the task on the whiteboard. Lots of low-level noise, which might be great for the collaborative learning, but when you want the whole group’s attention, how do you command this?

50 minutes into the lesson, and I’m wondering where the pace is – are some students drifting? Did students have a time limit for the activity – use TeacherIT timer perhaps?

Domain C Specialist learning and teaching

Demonstrate up to date knowledge of specialist area (CP 1.1,1.2)

Make links between specialist area its wider context (e.g. work, legislation, current issues) (CP1.2)

Ensure own key skills enable effective support of learners (CP3.4)

Work with learners and colleagues to identify and address individual key skills needs (CP 3.2,3.3)

Use and promote benefits of new and emerging technologies (CP3.5)

Help learners identify transferable skills (CP4.2)

You work seamlessly with your mentor as she too circulates round the room to monitor student progress. You are responsive to students, as they ask for clarification you are quick to work with them. A good activity to get students to work with a ‘real’ exam question towards the end and to share with the students that this is the sort of question they could face. You offer reassurance to those who express concern about the layout. Do you need to interrupt and re-focus the students during an activity? What could be the value of encouraging some peer assessment in the processes? What could be the disadvantages of interrupting individual work in this way? The impact of working with the real exam question seemed to be lost as the end of the session approached. Try to manage the time rather than allow ‘drift’.

Domain D Planning for learning

Planning takes into account curriculum and learner needs (DP1.1)

Express and share learning outcomes for group and individuals ( DP1.2, DP2.2)

Planning is flexible (DP1.3)

Include opportunities for learner feedback (DP2.1)

Success criteria shared on the PowerPoint and key skill criteria about speaking and listening. Resources prepared and available. How did you plan for the different parts of the session – Remember Petty’s ‘Present, Apply, Review’ (Beginning, middles, end) structure and be aware that middles each need that sort of structure too. So for this session, where did one activity end and another begin? How did you handle the transition between the parts of the session? Did the students complete the summary task? The bell went and they were out of the classroom without an end – endings are as important as beginnings, so do give them some thought and remember Ausubel’s bridges – begin to build to the next one.

Domain E Assessment for learning

Devise and use appropriate assessment tools (inc. appropriate learning technologies) (EP1.1,1.2, 2.3)

Use peer- and self-assessment (EP1.3)

Use formative assessment to check all learners’ progress

Make assessments accessible and clear for all learners (EP3.1,3.2)

Give constructive feedback, involving learners in feedback activities where appropriate (EP4.2)

Assessment records are accurate, standardised and relevant to awarding bodies (EP5.1,5.2)

You are observant as students work individually through the tasks. One group working well collaboratively. You give feedback and praise as you circulate and monitor. What strategies could you build into a lesson to encourage peer assessment? What summative assessment could there have been for this session? You talked about how the students are grouped to allow for differentiation and your mentor and I suggested ways that this could be varied over the weeks to encourage different sorts of working. It would be interesting to read your reflections on these possibilities.

Domain F Access and Progression- standards discussed and met elsewhere

Thank you too for your hospitality – you make a good cup of tea!

A satisfactory session

YES

NO

To be able to practise Active Listening during class discussion

Learning Intention:

Literacy Objective:

Level or grade

Date

Thursday January 23rd 2014

Success Criteria:

To find averages from grouped data.

Know the different types of average.

Find the modal class from grouped data

Find an estimate of the mean from grouped data

Know why we can only calculate an estimate of the mean

C

Starter:

Large amounts of data are often grouped together. Why?

What does 5 < n ≤ 15 mean?

We cannot work out the actual mean, why?

We can work out an estimate of the mean, how?

What do you think the modal group would be? Why?

Modal group

Estimate of mean

Modal group

Estimate of mean

Modal group

Estimate of mean

Group containing the median

What do we need to add here?

Modal group

Estimate of mean

Group containing the median

What do we need to do here?

Modal group

Estimate of mean

Exam question

32

Sophia begum