1. Self and Identity Session 5 22 nd October Self and Identity 19 th November Revisiting critical incidents, the role of the critical friend and teaching to support diversity and differentiation

2. Today’s session Feedback from Student Rep – Reanne; Revisiting critical incident sharing and analysis – the role of the ‘other’ as critical friend; Critical incident sharing x4 (components 1 and 3). Move rooms Equity and diversity quiz and chocolates! Planning for differentiation audit; Differentiation explored; Teaching strategies checklist activity; Negotiation of next week’s content.

3. Revisiting - why is it important to share our critical incidents from practice?

4. Teaching as White-Water Rafting Periods of apparent calm are interspersed with sudden frenetic turbulence. Tranquilly co-exists with excitement, reflection with action (Brookfield 2005, p.8). http://www.turtlecreekcabin.com/Sarah%20Grus_WEB.jpg

5. How do you know it’s a critical incident? People often ask what a critical incident is and how to recognise one. The answer is, of course, that critical incidents are not ‘things’ which exist independently of an observer and are awaiting discovery like gold nuggets or desert islands, but like all data, critical incidents are created. Incidents happen but critical incidents are produced by the way we look at a situation: a critical incident is an interpretation of the significance of an event. To take something as a critical incident is a value judgment we make, and the basis of the judgment is the significance we attach to the meaning of the incident. (Tripp 1993, p.8)

6. …they are not at all dramatic or obvious - they are mostly straightforward accounts of very commonplace events that occur in routine professional practice which are critical in the sense that that they are indicative of underlying trends, motive and structures… (they are) rendered critical through analysis. (Tripp 1993) Critical explorations of commonplace(?) events – 4 per week for 4 weeks Listeners – what trends, motives, structures emerge? Assumptions, misconceptions – values?

7. Equity and diversity Awareness raising quiz – in small groups

8. Diversity, equity and equality – individual audit... do you? Watch the Teachers TV video – what are the key issues for you in your teaching?

9. Differentiation – what is it?

10. Differentiation (enacting and enabling equality and diversity) is... recognising and accommodating differences in our student groups; challenging; an approach that plans for and supports through teaching and learning strategies, each individual learner in a class to arrive at the same endpoint, BUT by different routes.

11. In most teaching contexts, differentiation is NOT: Individualised instruction all of the time  ; The arbitrary division of students into ability groups  /  /  ; DIVISIVE  ; A lot of extra work for you  ; Differentiation IS a shift in focus when planning and delivering.

12. Well-managed differentiation involves: Enabling all of our learners, from the high flyers to those who need the most support, to develop and achieve to the best of their potential; The use of multiple approaches, resources and teaching and learning methods; Accommodating different learning styles/modes/preferences and pushing beyond the comfort zone; A flexible approach that can accommodate the teaching of key/basic/functional skills into subject teaching; Flexibility to accommodate individual learning plans and target negotiations; Integration of learning support in the classroom; Effective use of classroom time and blended learning opportunities; Support and feedback.

13. In order to differentiate we need to know as much as possible about the individuals in our groups including the following e.g.: their preferred ways/modes of learning; difficulties/disabilities/supported learning needs; any emotional or behavioural difficulties; their linguistic needs including stages of language acquisition; their motivation for being there; their social and cultural background; the group dynamics; their interests; their strengths and weaknesses; what else?Differentiation is an ongoing project.....

14. We also need practical training, skills and techniques to support differentiated learning including: learning/knowing how to write learning outcomes to differentiate; knowing how to use targeted multi-level/ability questions to differentiate; knowing how to produce and develop resources to differentiate; knowing how to facilitate collaborative tasks to support mixed level/ability working; knowing how to observe in a focussed manner and reacting quickly: knowing how to design and undertake tasks that reflect the range of experiences and cultures in the classroom. Do you? Do your resources/references reflect the differences in your students? Or do they reinforce your cultural ‘norms’? What’s your Christian name? What does your husband/wife do? Ask your Mom or Dad to.....

15. Starting points... a suggested code of conduct for differentiation. We should... Create secure and purposeful learning environments; Have high expectations for ALL students; Be committed to raising educational achievement; Respect students' social/cultural/ethnic/religious/linguistic backgrounds; Treat students consistently; Explicitly value diversity; Understand how learning can be affected by external conditions; Set challenging learning outcomes; Recognise and respond to equal opportunity issues.

16. Thinking about how to differentiate. A crude example, but one worth considering – Bloom’s taxonomy, scaffolding and cognitive development. BloomBloom (1956) – behaviourist/rigid/simplistic in terms of development and aquistion, but is it helpful? Cognitive ----- affective ----- psychomotor domains The cognitive domain is concerned with the continuum of thinking skills. There are six major categories arranged in a hierarchal structure from lower order to higher order skills. Higher order Evaluation - the ability to judge the value of the material based upon movement through the levels. Synthesis – the ability to combine separate entities to form a new whole involving deduction and logical thought. Analysis – the ability to break down learned material into component parts in order to analyse relationship of the parts of the whole.

17. Teaching strategies as differentiation In 4 groups consider the teaching strategies against fig. 5, the pros and cons of the strategies and your experience of the strategies as learner/teacher Group 1 - case study – round robin Group 2 – flexible learning - dyads Group 3 – triads - seminars Group 4 – role play to workshops

18. Next week? Some ideas? Conflict handling – behaviour management – assertiveness? What would YOU like?