PGCE Portfolio - Chemistry Lesson Observation.Year 7 Practical Burning Metals in Oxygen: Making a Sparkle

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PGCE Portfolio – School Visits

Year 7 Practical – Burning Metals in Oxygen: “Making a Sparkle”

14/11/08

The lesson I observed was part theory, part practical demonstration and had a qualified teacher, one PGCE Science student assisting and myself observing.

The lesson began with a starter activity (DCFS 2008) where the teacher asked the students what they thought the aim of the lesson was going to be, what an investigation was and from drawing on knowledge they gained from their previous lessons on how elements react with water and how they thought the same elements would react with oxygen. The pupils were asked to discuss within their set groups of 2-3 pupils and come up with a few ideas while the PGCE student walked around the class asking the pupils what they had come up with. The importance of pupil-pupil interaction is stressed by Lemke (1990) as a way for pupils to share their own ideas and to gain a better understanding of those ideas. While the pupils were discussing the task, the teacher used the interactive white board to put up a number of key words; reactivity, risk assessment, element, hazard, safety, variable and constant which the pupils were again asked to brainstorm before the practical demonstration took place. Although I didn’t pick up on it at the time, this was to be scaffolding for a task set later in the lesson.

The main part of the lesson was a practical demonstration. The teacher asked for five volunteers to take part in the demonstration. The teacher had a Bunsen burner set up with five different metal filing samples. These were placed onto a spoon and each pupil was allowed to burn a different sample. After each sample was burned, the teacher asked what they had observed, ie if there were sparks, the colour of the burning flame and the colour of the residue. The pupils filled their observations into a table . I saw this as a good scaffolding technique for the pupils next task which was to design their own firework and to state which element(s) they would use to produce the colours and sparkles, Bruner (1985) “The tutor in effect performs the critical functioning of ‘scaffolding’ the learning task to make it possible for the child to...internalise external knowledge.” This task again, gave pupils the opportunity to share their own ideas and knowledge.

The class was handed over to the PGCE student to give the plenary. During the plenary, the main points were put up using Powerpoint and the interactive whiteboard. The trainee went over the points asking the pupils what they had learned, and then putting emphasis on their answers which were right. The ‘design a firework’ task was to be finished as homework.

If I were to have been a pupil in this lesson I believe I would have enjoyed it. There was a range of teaching styles used, helping to keep the class motivated and focused on the lesson. Kyriacou (2001) stated that “an awareness of different learning styles can help teachers to sustain motivation by encouraging and facilitating pupils’ use of preferred styles but also providing support when using alternative approaches.” The practical session not only made the lesson more enjoyable but also aided in the understanding of the concepts being studied and acted as a good scaffolding for the written task.

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I had the opportunity to observe the same topic being taught by a different teacher to the same age group. This lesson relied solely on the interactive whiteboard being used by the teacher to effectively ‘ream’ off the information required. There was much less interaction with the class, and although questions were asked and tasks given, these were to be completed and thought about by the pupils on their own, with no pupil-pupil talk. The practical was demonstrated by the teacher, again with no pupil interaction. This class was much rowdier than the first class I observed and I think ...

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