4. Balloon debate

Another statement from a 14 year-old student:

‘I don't want to do art – it's rubbish’

In addressing such a straight dismissal it is naturally worth considering the student's prior learning experiences, aptitudes and influences. However, this perception nevertheless encodes a declaration of value, which is not fundamentally different to some of the earlier quotes explored. It is perhaps unsurprising that negative perceptions voiced by policy makers, government figures and tho
Author(s): The Open University

6.4 After the school experience review

The mentor and school co-ordinator will formally record the student teacher's assessment outcomes in the school experience report, sign a copy of this and send it with the required documentation for each level to the Open University.

The student teacher will complete the assessment tasks for their assessment portfolio and send it to their tutor. The student teacher prepares for the next level of work by recording their progress and identifying priorities subject knowledge audit screens.
Author(s): The Open University

5.3.5 Discussion with the school co-ordinator

In this session the tutor should:

• thank him or her for making the arrangements for the visit and for the support they are giving the student and stress the importance of the partner school's training and assessment role, and the school co-ordinator's quality assurance role.

• seek confirmation that the school co-ordinator is actively involved in all summative assessments and check that they know the schedule for returning the school exp
  Author(s): The Open University
  

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4.3 Interviewing teachers and pupils

Asking questions and obtaining answers from teachers and pupils can be much harder than it might at first appear! How questions are phrased may lead to ambiguity in the answers no matter how carefully questions are prepared beforehand. Nevertheless, using interviews to collect evidence is one of the most fruitful ways of communicating and gathering information to develop student teacher practice. Interviews can range from the very structured to semi-structured with a conversational style. A s
Author(s): The Open University

1.1 Introduction

Mentoring as part of the initial teacher training process is now familiar to many teachers in schools. However, acting as a mentor and the tasks involved in that role will vary depending upon the course a student teacher is following. In the OU flexible PGCE there are specific roles and responsibilities for both mentors and student teachers and it is important for participants to understand the expectations for each as they work together in the school-based aspects of this programme.
Author(s): The Open University

1.5.1 Why is it important to be organised?

• 87% of items that are filed into a filing cabinet are never looked at again. STANFORD UNIVERSITY

• TIn 2010, the world’s digital information output was estimated to pass 1.2 zettabytes – A zettabyte is a new term which equals a thousand billion gigabytes. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA (BERKELEY)

• A new blog is created every second. TECHNORATI

• 10% of salary costs are wasted
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1.3.10 Official publications

It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the plethora of green and white papers, reports of advisory committees, guidance notes and circulars relating to education. You may be able to get access to some of them via the websites of relevant government departments and committees.

Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Unit Image strph / Stephanie Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed 6.1 Knowledge and society If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants. Sir Isaac Newton (Letter to Robert Hooke, 1676) At the foreground of this final part of the unit is one of its more important themes – that knowledge is something held, developed and perpetuated both by and in the context of communities, societies and cultures. Newton's declaration to Hooke (above Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed 4.1 From awareness to understanding In this section the mathematical content is more obvious as we talk explicitly about what it means to know and to think in mathematics. We will also address your own personal knowledge in the subject. Like any other activity, doing and learning mathematics involves: using and adapting existing knowledge; acquiring and constructing new knowledge through thinking and learning; building up links that enable known t Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed 1.2 What the unit is about This unit is about the ways in which we come to know and make sense of the world, in particular how we do this using the media of language, mathematics and science. There are many possible theoretical positions which can be taken towards early years curricula. Some people, for example, think of children as ‘empty vessels’ which can be ‘filled’ with knowledge that is transmitted to them by adults. This view has been associated with a behaviourist approach to teaching and l Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed 5.1 Thinking about successful teamworking Activity 7 0 hours 40 minutes The objective of this activity is: to think about your practice in relation to working with other professionals. Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed 2.2 Thinking about core values underpinning your work with other professionals Activity 3 0 hours 40 minutes The objective of this activity is: to examine your own practice in relation to working with parents and other pr Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed Learning outcomes By the end of this unit you should have: examined your own practice in relation to working with other professionals in order to make your underpinning knowledge, values and beliefs explicit; used a variety of ‘tools’ to examine the knowledge, values and beliefs underpinning your practice; identified contradictions between your underpinning knowledge, values and beliefs and your practice; seen where you might want to develop your p Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit: Illustration by E Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed 3.4 Evolving roles in teaching The impact of the expanding contribution of teaching assistants on the teacher's role is generally recognised as being positive. It is worth acknowledging, however, that many teachers have had to make adjustments to their practice in order to work with teaching assistants as team colleagues. Despite the presence of assistants in primary schools, the focus of much initial teacher training is on teachers working in classrooms on their own rather than as collaborators with other adults. While th Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed 3.1 What is the value of teaching assistants? Hilary Cremin et al. (2003) in their evaluation of the ways in which teachers and teaching assistants can work together in teams, suggest that, while there is enthusiasm for additional support, little attention is given to how this actually works in classrooms. It is true that learning support staff have been introduced into classrooms without clear research evidence that they can make a difference to children's learning, but then life often moves faster than the supply of research evidence.< Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed 1.6 Teaching assistants in Europe Teaching assistants and other related learning support staff are also to be found in the schools for children of British armed forces posted overseas, in the schools of other European countries and, indeed, further afield in countries such as the USA, Canada and Australia. A survey conducted by the National Union of Teachers (NUT, 1998) highlighted some interesting support roles found in European schools, and it is worthwhile to consider these in the light of the developing role of teaching a Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed 1.4 Ways of working and contributing The physical design of most primary schools certainly reflects the expectation that teachers work in classrooms with large numbers of children. In fact, given their large classes, most schools feel quite crowded. The employment of teaching assistants has doubled the number of adults working in some classrooms and, as Schlapp and Davidson note in the pdf document attached in Author(s): The Open University License information Related content Except for third party materials and/or otherwise stated (see terms and conditions) the content in OpenLearn is released for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share No related items provided in this feed Pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 Advanced search | Browse Resources Copyright 2009 University of Nottingham