Activity 3.4 Using the minimum criteria to improve teaching – the example to Kevin, a student teacher

Activity 2.6 Minimum Criteria for LCE

·         Are lessons engaging to students, and motivating them to learn?

·         Do the atmosphere and conduct reflect mutual respect between teachers and learners?

·         How realistically are learning challenges building on learners’ prior knowledge?

·         What evidence is there to show that authentic dialogue is used to interact with students, including open questions?

·         What criteria is used to determine the relevance of the Curriculum to learners’ lives and perceived future needs, in a language accessible to them (home language preferred)?

·         Curriculum is based on skills and attitudes but does not ignore content.

·         What assessment instruments are used to determine different thinking skills of learners?

Why do you think Kevin is teaching like this?

Kevin had no facilitation skills in

• Lessons or training sessions which build on prior knowledge and understanding
• Opportunities for dialogue and considering open questions: Using open-ended questions meant that she assumed all the students learnt at the same rate with the same level of understanding without giving opportunities for the children to contribute.

• Assessment which gives credit for a range of skills, hence he was standing in the front of the class and so could not assess the level of participation of learners.

What do you think it would be like to be a child in his class?

Schooling would be boring and unattractive.

Use the minimum criteria to suggest three small changes he could make to lesson to make learning more active?

In his lesson, Kevin could have:

• brought different types of leaf into the classroom (e.g. from trees in the school grounds),and asked his students to work in pairs to identify what they had in common (engaged students/related content to their lives/surroundings), thereby give them the opportunity to develop thinking skills.
• asked his students to read aloud from the book and then answer questions on the text in their pairs. They could have then swapped work with another pair and reviewed each other’s work (providing the opportunity to talk about their work)
• moved around the room while they were working and supported individuals as necessary (opportunity to build on prior learning/provide individual support)