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Introduction

Reflection on my own practice is something I have always done, this has come from my personal background and my drive to come into the teaching profession. I only thought about teaching first aid after attending a first aid course seven years ago which I was disappointed with. This has given me the drive to make my teaching as effective as possible and an enjoyable experience. As I have been given the opportunity to observe and reflect on others teaching and learning I want to utilise it as much as possible. My preference was to observe, analyse and evaluate two other people who teach in a completely different sector to mine, as described in my Journal entry one. My current teaching practice is teaching first aid. These courses are either one or three days in length. Both courses require practical participation of all learners as it is such a practical skill they are learning. The courses and syllabuses are very strictly governed by the awarding body and not much flexibility is given. I therefore grouped myself with peer one, who teaches beauty therapy within a college setting. I read a copy of her personal background and teaching influences essay and found similarity here were this is quite a practical subject like mine but the teaching is within a college setting and the course is over a full academic year. This allows the teacher to build a longer term relationship up with the students which is completely unlike mine. The second person I decided to group with is peer two who is on a secondment from her normal job to teach in a University teaching first year Foundation Degree students. The degree is in Policing and is a three year qualification. The difference here between myself and peer two is the level of academia and again the length of course. I observed peer one for one hour of a three hour teaching session, as described in my Journal entry five. ...read more.

Middle

I must use this in order to reflect on my practice as I believe that I sometimes do the same. Open questioning was used at the start of this session which linked back to the previous session from the day before. This was possibly used as a form of assessment to see how much learning took place the day before but I also think this open questioning acted as a motivator at the start of this session. In my own practice I normally ask if anyone has any questions on the previous session before moving on to a new session. Maybe I should use open questioning like peer two to motivate my learners. I think the best time for this is maybe after the lunch break to reinforce what was covered in the morning session but also to motivate the learners after lunch which is typically when some start to flag. The main aim of the session was "How to issue a summons & reporting offenses". The legal side to the summons and offenses were covered in the previous session, so this session was about how you would conduct yourself and what you would say while issuing such a document. I noticed that peer two saw the practical side to "Issuing a summons" so she thought of using role play as a teaching and learning activity. This made the session practical, which would suit the kinaesthetic leaner. As this session built upon last sessions of abstract conceptualization and this session was practically issuing the summons this was active experimentation which are two parts of Kolb's Learning Cycle. Scales, P. (2008). There would be a few problems by using this type of teaching and learning method and I believe some of these were shown in peer two's sessions. Firstly the type of room this session was in was not best suited to role play activities. ...read more.

Conclusion

As per my reflective Journal point number five. During the planning stage of my teaching I must ensure that my classroom will aid the learning taking place and not hinder it. I think that peer twos room created barriers for the learners and made it hard for the role plays to work. This is very hard for me sometimes due to the fact that I go onsite to companies premises and deliver a day's training in a room assigned, therefore I do not get to see the room until an hour before I start teaching. The only way of ensuring this room would be suitable for teaching is to agree with the company beforehand that their room meets my criteria. When using role play as a teaching and learning method, I need to ensure that all learners know what they need to do and that they know the aim of the session before I set them any task. This is very pertinent to me as I use role play as a method very frequently. After discussion with my team colleagues we all agreed that this sort of collaborative learning, of observation between teaching peers, would be better suited to those within the same teaching subject, establishment or type of learners. Although we have observed good practice in the lesson's of fellow group members, we felt that we would be more likely to gain ideas for our own lesson's from those used by other teachers within the same subject area. This is backed up by Armitage (2003); "The chance to view different teaching styles can focus your attention on classroom activities and lead to improvements negotiated with those who are operating in the same environment as yourself. This is a non-threatening way of providing dynamic, ever-developing practices." (p.51) After this sort of collaborative learning experience it would be beneficial for groups to communicate back through network meetings, about what they have observed. For this to continue to work, or be sustained, the process would need to continue on a regular basis. ...read more.

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