I have been working as a trainee teacher in an English ...
Transcript of I have been working as a trainee teacher in an English ...
201915287771699 - Reflections on Teaching and Learning in Secondary – Essay (SCITT)
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I have been working as a trainee teacher in an English department since
September 2019, observing and teaching classes from Years 7 to 10. The
school environment I have been working in since September 2019 is my host
school, hereby HS, a secondary school in a semi-rural location. It has a wide
catchment area, and, as such, comprises 1,449 pupils aged 11-18 years (HS
Administration, 2019). The school was rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ by
Ofsted in 2017 (HS Administration, 2019). HS is non-selective, but is under a
local authority that does offer grammar schools (HS Administration, 2019).
Currently, 16.8% of pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium (PP) funding, with
9.7% of pupils eligible for free school meals (HS Administration, 2019). HS has
approximately 100 pupils with English as an additional language, and
approximately 98 pupils with special education needs (HS Administration,
2019).
In writing this essay, I seek to reflect on pedagogical ideas on teaching and
learning in secondary schools, and the effect they have had and will have on my
practice as an English teacher in secondary schools. I have first described the
school setting of my first placement this academic year, in order to later
describe some of the practices I have seen encouraged in the school and
department and to relate these to my reviewed literature. Secondly, I will
provide a brief overview of how epistemological ideas affect how teachers help
pupils to learn. I will then review historical and contemporary literature across
two of the broad and overlapping schools of thought prevalent in pedagogy,
cognitivism and social constructivism, exploring how these ideas in pedagogy
can be linked to the teaching and learning that takes place in my subject area of
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English, and referencing events that I have observed or experienced, as noted
above. Finally, I will critically reflect on how such research and events will
impact my future practice, and conclude.
Epistemology is the academic study of three areas: what knowledge is, what the
best ways of acquiring knowledge are, and what the value of knowledge is
(Wong, 2008). In teaching, what we hope to pass on to students is what we
deem knowledge – valuable knowledge. This is much more politically and
culturally – at global, national, and school levels of politics and culture –
determined; for example, the study of literature has often focused on the
‘Western canon’ to the exclusion of much else (Stevenson, 2007), whilst the
current curriculum of the exam board OCR excludes American literature in
favour of British authors, admitting such a move was under influence from
politicians (Kennedy, 2014). The other debate currently prominent in education
is whether the focus of a curriculum should be on ‘knowledge’ – as information
– or ‘skills’ (Oates, 2018), as the value of knowledge is debated, rightly or
wrongly. Unfortunately, however, this essay will not have scope to explore all
these debates, as the focus required is on the best ways of acquiring
knowledge – the pedagogical debates on how best learning takes place.
Epistemological beliefs are prominent in their effect on knowledge interpretation
and cognition (Pajares, 1992). Teachers must have an awareness of their own
values and beliefs with regards to epistemology, as well as those of their
students, which form early, and will have been influenced by their family and
upbringing, their peers, their educational experiences thus far, and wider culture
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(Pajares, 1992). This awareness must be sought as teacher’s and students’
beliefs will affect their teaching and learning (Schommer, 1990; Schommer,
1993; Tillema, 1995; Elliott & Chan, 1998). For example, Schommer (1990)
found that students who had stronger belief in ‘speed of learning’ – that learning
is either quick, or not at all (Elliott & Chan, 1998) – were overconfident in their
ability when tested, whilst those with stronger belief in the ‘certainty of
knowledge’ – that knowledge is certain over indefinite (Elliott & Chan, 1998) –
made “inappropriately absolute conclusions” (Schommer, 1990:498).
Pajares (1992), however, acknowledges the difficulty in challenging and
changing such beliefs, as they persevere even when presented with multiple
contraindications to them being correct, a barrier to reflection (see below),
although Pajares (1992) notes that belief change is easier and more likely
before adulthood. Therefore, teachers have an obligation to challenge negative
epistemological beliefs in students; for example, if a student believes in ‘speed
of learning’ (Elliott & Chan, 1998), this might lead to antagonism when a student
is presented with material they have seen before to recap learning, as beliefs
doubtlessly affect behaviour (Pajares, 1992).
The pedagogic ontologies on which I will focus are as follows: the area of
cognitivism, which focuses on the way information is processed within the mind
of the learner, and how this can best be optimised (Svinicki, 1999), and
constructivism, which understands learning to be a process of co-construction
of knowledge (Svinicki, 1999). Cognitivism asserts that teaching is the
transmission of information to learners, and learning is the processing of that
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information, whilst constructivism asserts teaching to be the facilitation of
activities where learners make meaning, and learning to be such making of
meaning through doing (Bates, 2016). It should be noted that cognitivism,
constructivism, and behaviourism, which is not the focus of this essay, are not
distinct and obvious schools of thought within pedagogy and teaching practice;
much of theory and research builds on and borrows from each of the broad
schools. However, I will briefly note here how behaviourism influenced
cognitivism in the chronological timeline of development of teaching and
learning theories, before then introducing more on cognitivism, and then
constructivism.
Behaviourism builds on research first performed on animal subjects, effecting a
response through applying a stimulus (Bates, 2016). Applied to learning in
human subjects, behaviourist advocates assert that humans learn through trial
and error, and by being either punished for wrong behaviours - incorrect
answers to assessment - or rewarded for correct ones (Bates, 2016). Ultimately,
as Svinicki (1999) notes, behaviourism provided insufficient answers for
questions raised about thinking and learning, as it was so focused on external
performance.
Bandura’s work was a bridge between behaviourism and cognitivism. He stated
that learning involves four processes: attention, and retention, two cognitive
process that he melded with behaviourist work on reproduction, and motivation
(Bandura, 2006, cited in Findon & Johnston-Wilder, 2019). First, he proposed
that we cannot learn if we are not paying attention to the learning task at hand.
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He also stated that we learn through retaining information in our mind, and then
by reproducing that learnt information as required. Finally, he argued that we
require motivation to learn, and this motivation is often in the form of visible
reward (Bandura, 2006, cited in Findon & Johnston-Wilder, 2019). Cognitivist
theories examined in this essay tend to seek to optimise the attention and
retention of information parts of Bandura’s (2006, cited in Findon & Johnston-
Wilder, 2019) theory as those most important to learning.
Svinicki (1999), a Professor of Educational Psychology, relates such ideas on
learning to instructional strategies, in an article discussing the changes in
learning theory since the journal New Directions for Teaching and Learning’s
inception in 1980. She first discusses the paradigm shift within research on
learning in the early 1980s, when cognitive psychology began to overtake
behavioural theories (Svinicki, 1999). Relevant teaching strategies for this
essay that relate to early cognitive theories of learning include: those for
emphasis on the organisation of material, those that makes information more
meaningful for the learner, and those that understand the limitations of the
learning system in the mind of the learner (Svinicki, 1999). Later theories within
cognitivism sought to fill gaps in cognitivist research by taking the role of the
learner in the learning process into account more fully (Svinicki, 1999). These
later cognitive theories emphasised the following for the instructor: direct
instruction of strategies, and supporting metacognition, perhaps by modelling
how a teacher thinks about their own strategy choice (Svinicki, 1999).
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Finally, Svinicki (1999) notes that there has been a shift in learning theory
following this turn to the learner in cognitivist theory, to incorporate the learner
even further and to situate them at the centre of any learning, by integrating
active learning theories and constructivist world views (Svinicki, 1999). The
instructional strategies this initiated were as follows: instructors might allow
students to self-monitor and self-regulate their own learning, learners can be
directed to learn in groups, problems or tasks given are to be situated in
authentic practices, and the teacher might take the role of a master in a
‘cognitive apprenticeship’ (Svinicki, 1999). Thus, it can be seen here how
cognitivist and constructivist theories might struggle to be separated in literature
as noted above.
The key theorists I will discuss that I understand to use cognitivist principles are
as follows: Sweller’s (1988) cognitive load theory, and Bruner’s (1960, cited in
Harden & Stamper, 1999) concept of a spiral curriculum. I have chosen these
theorists as these have been a large part of my first teaching experiences.
Within my role, in the English department, and the wider HS environment, there
are several cognitivist practices that are commonplace. Firstly, there is a
school-wide focus on meta-cognitive processes. Students are encouraged,
through tasks in lessons, to ‘think hard’ using 12 devices: reduce, transform,
deconstruct, derive, prioritise, categorise, criticise, find trends and patterns,
practise, make connections, compare, and extend.
There is also a focus on the cognitive process of learning; lessons are taught
with explicit reference to prior learning, as well as plenaries implementing
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‘recap’ activities in order to restate and recapitulate learning. The curriculum is
designed as a ‘spiral curriculum’, revisiting topics and skills more than once, a
system developed by Bruner (1960, cited in Harden & Stamper, 1999). Finally,
as discussed further below, there are periods of direct instruction within the
lessons. Within the department, it is policy to read the text being explored aloud
to the students before moving onto higher-level thinking about the text such as
language analysis. The text should also be read aloud by the teacher rather
than the students themselves, with no urging to ‘follow along’. These methods
seek to reduce cognitive load (Sweller, 1988), which is the stress placed onto a
child’s working memory in order to learn.
First, I will look at Bruner’s (1960, cited in Harden & Stamper, 1999) idea of a
‘spiral curriculum’, which seeks to structure any learning curriculum in a series
of constant loopbacks, in order that each time the information taught on the
curriculum is revisited, its presence in the learner’s memory is reinforced and
built upon (Bates, 2016). The difference between this theory and simple
repetition is that increasing levels of difficulty are introduced each time (Harden
& Stamper, 1999). Each time knowledge and skills are revisited, the learning is
related back to prior learning in order to make explicit the links and to reactivate
schemata in the mind of the learner (Harden & Stamper, 1999). Schema theory
makes up part of cognitive epistemology: it suggests that knowledge is a series
of mental frameworks, pathways within the brain that store information and
process it in specific ways again and again. The more the pathways are utilised,
the stronger and more reflexive they become.
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HS’s English department has recently restructured their schemes of work to
form a spiral curriculum. For example, in Year 7, students are introduced to the
work of Charles Dickens through focusing on Oliver Twist for a whole term, but
the book they read at first is a simplified version of the original text. This
scheme introduces them to the Victorian era, to the context in which Dickens
was writing, as well as concepts such as poverty and redemption, in a simplified
and age-appropriate context. In Years 8 and 9, novels from the same era are
taught, so by the time students are in their GCSE year working on A Christmas
Carol, they will hopefully be encountering nothing new other than the actual plot
and text – many of the concepts, contexts, and language will be familiar to them
due to their consistently-trodden schema pathways.
This style of curriculum design is difficult to find research on, but more broadly
Hattie (2009) notes that “[i]t is less the content of curricula that is important than
the strategies teachers use to implement the curriculum so that students
progress upwards through the curricula content” (Hattie, 2009:159), which the
implementation of a spiral curriculum certainly seeks to do. Further, Mccrea
(2017) notes that such “predictability builds trust” (Mccrea, 2017:50), and, as
discussed below, Hattie (2009) also shows that positive and strong teacher-
student relationships have a good influence on student achievement. Such work
that involves regular recap and review is also supported by Rosenshine’s
(2012) research-based principles of instruction.
I will now look to Sweller’s (1988) cognitive load theory, which builds on schema
theory. Cognitive load theory is highly influential within teaching practice, as not
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only does it receive wide support in research literature, it is one of those
theories that just makes intuitive sense – if too much information is presented at
once, at too high a level, learning becomes onerous. There are, however,
criticisms of the theory; de Jong (2010) writes that there is no reliable, valid
measure of cognitive load yet. However, even as a very new teacher, I feel that
I have experienced several times the moment when cognitive overload occurs
in a student, and it is then hard to backtrack from this moment. Equally, it is
difficult to balance where each student’s load-bearing capacity sits, without
painstakingly providing personalised learning for each student; Webb (2019)
states that in order to create the right conditions for learning in an English
literature class the impact on a student’s cognitive load should be reduced as
much as possible whilst still creating challenge or ‘struggle’.
In my department, when a new text is commenced, the scheme of work tends to
provide some introductory lessons on the context; to continue the example used
above, before reading Oliver Twist, lessons covered the Industrial Revolution,
who Charles Dickens was, and what orphanages and workhouses were like in
Victorian England. The book is then read to the children in full by the teacher,
split over as many lessons as required, with only some starter recap activities
and some quick checks for comprehension as plenary activities. The children
are given the book to follow along the reading if they wish, but are allowed to
otherwise just sit and listen.
This technique is supported by Kalyuga et al.’s (2004) study on receiving the
same information at the same time through two presentations, auditory and
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textual. They found that receiving such simultaneous input meant that students
scored lower on comprehension tests and reported higher mental load.
However, this research was performed on only 25 students, so further research
is required to support the conclusions. Riches (2019) proposes that this
overload, which exists in contrast to other research that supports verbal and
non-verbal input being presented simultaneously, is due to the fact that when
we read, the information is not actually processed as visual information, but as
a voice in our heads, which then competes with the second voice being
presented auditorily. This research will be particularly relevant for children with
SEN requirements that mean they struggle with processing such input, which
will help me meet ‘Teacher Standard 5: respond to needs’.
Though there is some reference in my HS to meta-cognitive ideas, which Hattie
(2009) rates as having some of the strongest effects on achievement (Hattie,
2009:188-9), I have not found a strong adherence to the work of Shayer and
Adey’s (Shayer & Adey, 2002; Adey, 2008; Adey & Shayer, 2013, cited in
Burton, 2019) cognitive acceleration programme, which aims to teach pupils to
‘learn how to learn’, ultimately increasing ability to learn across subject areas
(Adey & Serret, 2010, cited in Ireson & Davies, 2019). This is something I will
seek to explore and perhaps implement more concretely in my future practice,
particularly as Husbands and Pearce (2012) also state that effective
pedagogies incorporate metacognition and development of higher-order
thinking.
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The key theorists I will discuss that I understand to use constructivist principles
are as follows: Vygotsky (1978, cited in Watson & Myhill, 2019) and his work’s
application to modelling and scaffolding, and the work of Brown et al. (1989) on
situated cognition and cognitive apprenticeship. Critique from the perspective of
Clark, Kirschner, and Sweller’s works on direct instruction (Kirschner et al.,
2006; Clark et al., 2012) will also be offered. I have chosen these theorists as
these have also been a large part of my first teaching experiences. Within my
role, in the English department, and the wider HS environment, there are
several constructivist practices that are commonplace.
Within the English department, modelling is understood to be a key cornerstone
of ‘making every lesson count’, per Allison and Tharby (2015). Each lesson
should include an instance of the teacher modelling good practice for a task set.
The structure of a lesson is encouraged to include at least once instance each
of an “I do”, a “We do”, and a “You do” learning episode. The “I do” is a period
of direct instruction from the teacher, the “We do” some questioning or
collaborative modelling between the teacher and the students, and the “You do”
instructs students to work self-directedly, whether independently or in pairs or
small groups. These three sections relate to Whittaker et al.’s (2006, cited in
Watson & Myhill, 2019) three-step process of modelling. This also utilises the
teacher as the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO), the facilitator of learning, in a
classroom, part of Vygotsky’s (1978, cited in Watson & Myhill, 2019) theories of
learning. As my subject area is also specifically focused on language, as well as
the school-wide use of the above, the second area I will focus on for my
literature review is constructivism.
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Vygotsky (1978, cited in Watson & Myhill, 2019) stated learning involves
language and is a social activity. Whilst such social constructivist ideas
presented a contrast to behavioural theories presented at the time Vygotsky
was researching, his work can be linked back to the principles of Socratic
dialogue, and have persisted until now. For Vygotsky, cognitivism and focus on
brain functionality lacked consideration of sociocultural inputs. Contrary to ideas
of making metacognitive processes explicit, constructivist thinkers state that
learners learn to learn through just learning itself. Vygotsky’s work centred the
child’s social connections and how language is formed to facilitate them
(Vygotsky, 1978, cited in Watson & Myhill, 2019).
Bates (2016) writes that Vygotsky used scaffolding to help a learner “reach a
higher level of understanding than would be possible by the individual’s efforts
alone” (Bates, 2016:46). Schaffer (1996) uses the example of someone
experiencing completing a jigsaw puzzle for the first time. The MKO with them
might allow some independent exploration, then should either suggest or model
some strategies for completion to scaffold the learning, letting the learner
become more independent again as they learn. Therefore, this learning is
completed through social co-operation (Schafffer, 1996).
This is used in classrooms, where the teacher most often takes the role of
MKO, but not always. I have rearranged the seating plans for the classes I
teach, making use of prior assessment knowledge and my mentor’s prior
knowledge of the class. In rearranging the class, in a room where the seat are
arranged in tables of four to six, I endeavoured to consider the needs of all
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students, but I also was aware of positioning weaker students with students
working at a level they could reasonably aspire too, making the student with
high prior attainment the MKO on their table. This also benefited behaviour in
the classes, as each student remained more engaged as they could look to
someone on their table for help rather than waiting for my help and getting
distracted if there was any wait time for my attention.
Furthermore, in looking at students’ literacy learning, Mariage et al. (2000)
found that teachers don’t just have a strong level of subject knowledge to
support learning, but also give students “a language for talking about spoken
and written text” (Mariage et al., 2000:299). This can be related to my own
classroom practice, where, when work is modelled, key vocabulary is displayed,
used, or provided as prompts to underline how to talk about the work being
examined. Students can then use higher-level vocabulary to practise withs such
scaffolding, in preparation for future work where scaffolding will be more limited
in order to develop learning. Webb (2019) further supports this idea; though
meaning of language can be co-constructed, she agrees with Vygotsky that
cultural meanings might need to be taught to those children who have not
encountered the concepts before in life.
It should be noted that models and scaffolding need to be provided with due
consideration to broader application; Brown et al. (1989) write that the MKO
should act as if the learner is their ‘cognitive apprentice’, “by enabling students
to acquire, develop and use cognitive tools in authentic domain activity.
Learning, both outside and inside school, advances through collaborative social
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interaction and the social construction of knowledge” (Brown et al., 1989:39).
Both Hattie (2009) and Rosenshine (2012) find support for the idea of providing
models and worked examples in educational research literature.
However, Clark, Kirschner, and Sweller’s work greatly urges caution for the use
of constructivist pedagogical practice (Kirschner et al., 2006), and instead
preaches the use of direct instruction (Clark et al., 2012). To further the
example used above of a jigsaw puzzle novice, they advise, based on evidence,
to not allow the learner to use attempt the puzzle without first offering a “direct,
explicit instruction” (Clark et al., 2012:6) for completion. Their theory is
supported by Stockard et al.’s (2018) meta-analysis of 328 studies on direct
instruction, which reports entirely positive estimated effects on a multitude of
factors related to teaching and learning, including reading, language, and
spelling, factors key to my subject area. Further, Hattie’s (2009:205) even larger
meta-analysis offered similar support of direct instruction on achievement.
Reflective practice when used best is useful for two main reasons: identifying
attitudes or practices which are convenient in the short term, but ineffective in
the long term, and pinpointing hegemonic effects (Bolton & Delderfield, 2018).
This section will lay out Gibbs’s (1988) model for reflection, and then undertake
that reflection in six parts. Gibbs’s (1988) reflection model requires description
of what happened during a chosen episode and my feelings during that period,
evaluation of the experience, analysis of the situation, drawing of conclusions,
and creation of an action plan for the next episode in order to meet these aims.
Whilst Willis (2010) critiques Gibbs’s (1988) model as confusing, given some of
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its stages might be easily combined, Starr et al. (2013) and Bolton and
Delderfield (2018) describe the model as useful for beginners such as myself.
The first and second steps in Gibbs’s (1988) cycle are to describe the events
and my feelings during them. Although this model requires description and
evaluation of the event, Moon (2008) writes that good reflection is neither just
“conveyance of information… [nor] simple problem solving” (Moon, 2008:187),
so I will aim to bear that in mind in performing the reflective practice. This
essay has described the epistemological background to teaching and learning
theories. I have then reviewed some historical and contemporary literature, on
the two broad schools of cognitivism and constructivism, relating these theories
to practices in my subject department and host school. In doing this, I have read
many journal articles, more journal article abstracts, and books on teaching,
learning, and education.
Dye (2011) notes that “[e]ducational theory and teaching practice are not
always comfortable bedfellows” (Dye, 2011:219), and though I have sought to
alleviate some of the discomfort in this essay, reflecting on this experience of
completing a reflective assignment, my main feelings have been of frustration. It
is often difficult to reconcile the deeply academic language of education theory
with the day-to-day reality of a classroom, where the most pressing issues are
often lost pencil cases, newly-broken hearts, and whether the newly-arrived
student from Spain understands what the Victorian era even is, let alone
Charles Dickens, the workhouse, or Oliver Twist. I have also found it difficult to
find research that relates most specifically to the curriculum I have been
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directed to deliver as an English teacher in England; lots of literature focuses on
learning English as a foreign language.
The third and fourth parts of Gibbs’s (1988) model are to evaluate and analyse
the experience. Despite the above feelings described, when I have found
theories that have achievable practical applications, I have felt interested and
curious. Overall, there was good and bad in the experience of writing this essay
and reflecting on theories of teaching and learning., I have taken away the
applications of cognitivist theory, direct instruction, and cognitive acceleration,
as areas of study that I am specifically interested in applying as my practice
grows in autonomy. This essay has also been useful as I reflect on the Teacher
Standards, specifically those that look at the ability to promote progress (2),
respond to needs (5), and manage behaviour (7), all of which, and the above,
seek to impact on pupil progress as a teacher’s ultimate goal.
Furthermore, comfort can be found in the work of Hattie (2009), whose
landmark work, the synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to educational
achievement, points out that realistically, most things teachers try work, and in
actuality there is very little we as teachers can do to actively cause negative
effects on achievement and progress. The key point Hattie (2009) highlights is
that teachers must just try; particularly the most positive effects on achievement
are seen when teachers have consider their relationships with students before
anything else, because as such they can have high expectations of all students
and can communicate what that expectation of progress should look like to
them (Hattie, 2009). I am aware of the difficulties in challenging one’s own
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views and epistemological beliefs, and therefore I am both keen and nervous to
receive feedback on this essay which may challenge me.
The fifth and sixth parts of Gibbs’s (1988) model require drawing conclusions on
what else could have been done, and creating an action plan, describing what I
would do in future based on those conclusions. I feel these two steps are the
main ones that can be combined as Willis (2010) discusses. Gibbs’s (1988)
model might not prove useful for every situation within my teaching practice, as
it does not aim to account for underlying power dynamics that may have also
affected a situation, the second part of best reflective practice according to
Bolton and Delderfield (2018), so in the future, I will look to further address this.
Broadly, reflective practice as a teacher should involve using the ‘four lenses’ of
critical reflection: looking at our practice through our own eyes, the experiences
of our students and our colleagues, and through the lens of theoretical literature
(Brookfield, 2017). This essay has aimed to consider all of these, but most fully
has explored the experiences of myself and my colleagues, as well as the
pedagogical literature on teaching and learning. In the future, I will look to do
the following: incorporate more structure and rigid reflection into my practice;
incorporate specific practices to balance my student’s cognitive load; explore
further the applications of cognitive acceleration in the classroom; and feedback
to my department on the importance of direct instruction in the classroom.
Reflecting on the teaching and learning undertaken while completing my HS
placement, how it could have been done differently, and learning more about
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the usefulness of reflective models in this essay has led me to the first
conclusion, whilst the rest of this essay have lead me to the next three.
However, I will also bear in mind Husbands and Pearce’s (2012) warning: that
“[o]ne of the key outcomes of research on successful pedagogies is that there
are no ‘magic bullets’ in terms of classroom strategies” (Husbands and Pearce,
2012:8). This essay grapples throughout with what Cochran-Smith (2003) calls
“the incredible complexity of teaching and learning” (Cochran-Smith, 2003:4),
and, ultimately, through investigating epistemology, pedagogies of cognitivism
and constructivism, and reflecting on my own experiences, I have found it
worthwhile to try to understand some of the educational theory and research
behind practices in my work, school, and department.
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References
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