1. Welcome to PC4021 Self and Identity Julie Barron & Julie Hughes

2. What’s this module about?
Theory
YOU and your personal and professional development as teachers.
This module has two core strands which will increasingly overlap during the year.
Practice
Key outcomes of the module:
You as teacher theorising your practice and practising your theory.

3. What will the module include?
Teaching practice – 150 teaching hours in placement. Usually teaching between 6-8 hours per week. In block placement this may rise to 12 hours per week;
Lesson observations – 8 over the course of 2 semesters;
University mentor, placement mentor, joint observation and peer observation each semester;
Lesson planning, resourcing and evidence of assessment of learning;
Peer observations – you will observe your peers/colleagues at least 6 times.

4. Reflections upon self as learner and teacher
Learning Autobiography;
Journal blog;
Sharing critical incidents and
community blogging;
Action planning.
Moving to a theoretically engaged exploration of self and identit/y/ies.
Formal presentation and word assignment in semester 2. This is a Master’s level piece of work.

5. Teaching practice evidence
e-portfolio
Teaching practice evidence
Personal and professional development evidence
Critical incident sharing
Essay
presentation

6. Some thoughts on reflective practice – what do you think about this?
Reflective practice involves thinking about and learning from your own practice and from the practices of others so as to gain new perspectives on the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in your educational situation, improve judgment, and increase the probability of taking informed action when situations are complex, unique and uncertain. With ongoing reflection, your practice can develop into a systematic inquiry that begins alone with reflection on your own teaching and learning experiences but becomes collective when informed by your interactions with colleagues, students, and theoretical literature.
(italics mine) adapted from Brookfield(1995)

7. Some thoughts on reflective practice – take a few minutes to read and reflect - what are your ‘norms’?
Teaching practices often reflect an unquestioned acceptance of values, norms, and practices defined by others about what is "in the best interests" of students and teachers, and a lack of awareness of alternative practices. Both uncritically assimilated practices and new alternatives need critical examination from several perspectives so that the learning and teaching strategies you use are consistent with your values, beliefs, and assumptions about learning.
Brookfield (1995)

8. So, how will we develop this reflexivity?
With colleagues/peers/buddies;
From reflective practice to collective practice?
Making your thinking public and therefore open to dialogue with others;
Checking your readings/narratives of problems, responses, assumptions, and justifications against narratives and readings offered by other teachers – new and experienced;
By having colleagues who engage in critical conversations, and who describe their versions of situations that they face can help you notice aspects of your practice of which you may be unaware, and suggest surprising new readings of situations you all share.

9. Assumption hunting
 do I question and examine my own passionately held ideas and assumptions about teaching? If I don’t – why don’t I?
 do I examine my own positive and negative learning experience to help me understand why I gravitate toward certain ways of doing things and avoid others?
 am I articulating a set of critically examined core beliefs, values, and assumptions about why I do what I do in the way that I do it?

10. Through the looking glass
Reflection =
unquestioning questioning, certain uncertainty and serious playfulness.
(Bolton 2000)
How do you feel about certain uncertainty?
The role of theoretical literature
The theoretical literature can illuminate general aspects of what you may think are idiosyncratic events and processes, provide multiple interpretations of familiar situations, help you to name and understand your experience by approaching it from different perspectives, and provide resources for alternative practices that may be unfamiliar.
Julie Hughes 2007

11. Some practicalities
Reflection as dialogic activity insists upon mutual respect and reciprocity – what does that mean in practice?
Reflect again upon the ground rules for this group.
What should I be doing before next week?
Continue with your journal blog and action planning – what’s changed and why? how do you feel about the course/yourself as a teacher this week? what have you identified that you need to develop? what have you enjoyed? what has been difficult and why? what are you looking forward to?