1. You have been imagining yourself in scenarios in schools
You have been imagining yourself in scenarios in schools. In doing this you have been seeing yourself being closer in role to the teacher than the pupil.
It may therefore be useful to you to understand a little about the professionalism of the teacher.
The following slide shows how the competencies used in training are clustered in three groups.

2. Values and attitudes Professional and subject knowledge
Teaching skills.

3. I have emphasised the first of these for the following reasons
You bring with you into your school a range of values and attitudes shaped by your own experiences.
As you become more aware of other perspectives and priorities you will become more effective in your work with other people.
You might also recognise greater sensitivity to others as a challenge for personal “growth”.

4. What is a “good school”?
What are the characteristics of good science lessons?

5. Different priorities emerged from your conversations on the first question
…….for example
A good school:
produces good exam results.
is a strong community
enables individuals to fulfil their potential.
…and within this there would be different perspectives of “community” and “potential”!

6. We didn’t discuss the second question about what makes a good science lesson.
However, we did later discuss changes to the National Curriculum at KS4 (years 10-11) that have occurred since you were at school.
This provoked some argument particularly about the building of a sound science concept base for future development, about what is science, and how it is distinguishable from other parts of the curriculum.

7. The following slide is a synopsis of the values and attitudes section of the teaching standards.
I have included them because they could apply to any professional training programme.
It might be useful or interesting for you to think of your development in this ambassador/teaching role in these terms.

8. “the teacher(ambassador) in you”
…have high expectations of children
Demonstrate positive values, attitudes and behaviour….
Communicate effectively with children…
Have a commitment to collaboration…
Reflect and improve….
Have a creative and constructively critical approach towards innovation…
Act on advice ….and be open to coaching and mentoring

9. Professional and subject knowledge
Values and attitudes
Professional and subject knowledge
Teaching skills.

10. If you are to be effective in helping school students to learn then knowledge is also important.
There are different kinds of knowledge that you will find useful or interesting.
You need knowledge of the science, biology, physics, maths that you are teaching.
You also need to understand the teaching and learning aims and how these relate to the curriculum and the development of the children.

11. Sources of knowledge
Reading sources from the school eg schemes of work, text books, exam papers.
National Curriculum NC online
Relevant GCSE or A-level syllabus (from AQA, Edexcel or OCR)
Relevant websites for example…..
….BEEP and PEEP (biology and physics sites focusing on ethical considerations)
….Subject associations especially IOP, RSC, IOB
….Project sites eg Salters, Nuffield (Re:act)
….Teacher’s TV

12. The following slides are about being helpful to learners
The following slides are about being helpful to learners. The most important aspect of this is to have negotiated what you will be doing with the teacher.
However, you may well be in situations where there is the possibility of helping.
In general I think a good approach is:
…to observe what learning is happening particularly against the purposes shared by the teacher with the class
…To intervene with supportive questions and feedback.

13. Visualise a context
Think of a challenging activity you did at school…not necessarily a practical one.
…we chose to talk about dissection of a heart or a rat.
Imagine you are working with a group or individual

14. How as an “ambassador” might you support the learning in such an activity?
…we discussed particularly the kinds of questions we might ask.

15. Question – rather than provide answers
Give feedback on how successfully learners are doing the tasks.
Be aware of trying to raise or preserve self-esteem.
Provide background information (science) when appropriate.
Provide some personalised information:
eg. This is the way I learned this. What way do you like to work on this kind of problem?
Help the learners to articulate their learning problems.

16. I hope you enjoy your experience in your school and find it rewarding.
If you are interested in finding out more about a teaching career or want to apply for teacher-training then go to “tda” (Training and Development Agency for Schools) web-site.
link to tda