Name of Pilot Project: Developing pedagogy through collaboration, action research and reflection. Aim of the Project: to set up a collaborative partnership between ITE students, link tutors and school staff in order to enhance pedagogical practice through guided action-research.
Donaldson Report Teachers need to increase their understanding of the why and how of teaching as well as the what. Furlong Report Strengthening links between theory and practice. Integrating university and school based provision. To link ITE to CPD. School and university link school based experience with research in order to help students to reflect, analyse and challenge what they learn in their practical work. Donaldson, G. (2015) The Donaldson review of curriculum and Assessment. Cardiff: The Welsh Government Furlong, J (2015) Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers. Cardiff: The Welsh Government
School context: renewed focus on delivering quality teaching and promoting reflective practice as part of its CPD programme. Whole school teaching has been delivered on metacognition strategies/Outstanding Teacher Programme, with two recently trained as facilitators. Programme of focused lesson planning and observations with planning and reflection training Estyn inspection deemed the quality of teaching to be excellent.
Trainees to undergo guided research based on the following foci: Term one: Questioning. Term two: Differentiation and Assessment. Term three: Metacognition (enhancement). The stages in the project are: A seminar is held to introduce the theoretical context of the research. A guided observation day follows, with a focus on how theory links to practice. A research plan is devised by the tutor and students. A period of action research where students trial a strategy with a class. Monitoring of the lessons by mentors, link tutor and other students. A review and reflect session where students present their findings.
Role of the school: To offer places for approximately 10 student teachers across departments. Staff work in close collaboration to deliver high quality ITE. To complete an audit of excellent practice in the classroom and organise focussed lesson observations of excellent practice. Mentor support in each subject and weekly in-house Professional Studies seminars. To promote implementation of excellent pedagogy. To devise a programme for each term with link tutor. To devise an evaluation report.
Success Criteria: Students to show enhanced pedagogical awareness. Students to be able to use evidence to evaluate their own practice. Students to be able to reflect on their practice and plan for continued progress. Staff ‘buy into’ the project as part of their own CPD. Data will be collected in the form of observation/reflective notes, pupil voice surveys, work samples where appropriate, filmed lessons, filmed student review and reflection. *All necessary ethical approvals will be collected prior to any data collection.
At Cwmtawe we look forward to working closely with SWWCTE to: Strengthen school’s delivery of ITE programme. Continue professional development of staff involved. Make use of latest pedagogical research, thus impacting upon CPD and driving INSET needs. Continue to sharpen the school’s focus on delivering quality teaching by encouraging thoughtful planning and deeper reflection. Audit outstanding practice and excellent team teaching. Further enhance the school’s ‘open door’ ethos for lesson observations. And finally we look forward to working closely with SWWCTE to: Develop the future of teacher training. Any questions?