Continuity and learning
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# 3 Learning lives

In the video that you will now watch, the following six people talk about how they came to be in their roles working in primary schools and how they continue to learn ‘on the job’:

- Vicky Grant, a teaching assistant who is also training to be an occupational therapist
- Tina Blundell, who began working as a teaching assistant after her own children had started school and is now a higher level teaching assistant
- Jean Ionta, a pupil support assistant who also began work in a school after being a full-time mum for many years
- Hugh Kelly, a grandparent and retired police janitor, who helps younger children in the school who sometimes require a bit more support
- Lucy Allen, a teaching assistant who used to work in a temporary supply capacity, often having to learn on the spot
- Pam Crawford, a parent volunteer studying for a teaching assistant certificate and who has an interest in special educational needs.

## Activity 2 Examples of learning lives

As you listen to these adults talk about their roles, jobs and backgrounds, or afterwards, think about the following questions:

- What kinds of formal learning can you identify in their comments?
- What kinds of informal learning can you identify?
- What knowledge, skills and understandings have they developed through formal and informal learning?
- How do they apply their learning to their current jobs?
- How are they continuing to learn in their workplaces? What knowledge, skills and understanding are they developing in their current roles?
- Can you identify dimensions of Hodkinson and Hodkinson (2004), or Vygotksian concepts about learning through interaction with others, in their commentaries?
- Linking this video to the Tedder and Biesta reading you did earlier, how far do their commentaries reflect a sense of ‘biographical learning’?

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Working in primary schools and learning ‘on the job’
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