Enhancing Engagement in Secondary PGCE Professional Studies

1. School of Education The other half of the course: fostering student engagement in Secondary PGCE Professional StudiesJoan Smith & Phil Wood www.le.ac.uk

2. Outline • Background to the study • Areas for development • Strategies trialled • Evaluation • Next steps

3. Background to the study • Co-ordinators appointed mid-year 2009-10 • TDC offered on full cohort lecture basis + set of ‘directed tasks’ to undertake in schools

4. Areas for development: • Improving the coherence of the programme • Offering greater scope for personalisaton and choice • Introducing strategies to foster student agency, ownership & responsibility; • Improved links between the aims & purpose of the professional studies programme and related school-based tasks; • Practical issues relating to length of sessions and students’ capacity for concentration

5. Strategies being trialled 2010-11 4 strands to the course: • Professional Values • Classroom Management • Reflective Practice • Career Development

6. Professional Values: core • What do we mean by teacher professionalism? • Diversity, inclusion and ECM • SEN and inclusion: statutory requirements • Teaching pupils for whom English is an Additional Language • Safeguarding • Mental health awareness • Removing barriers to learning • Literacy, numeracy and functional skills across the curriculum • Citizenship: a whole school approach

7. Professional Values: optional sessions & visits • Pastoral care and the role of the form tutor • Disability from the pupils’ perspective • Inclusion and ECM in practice (school visit) • Visit to an EBD school • Sustainable schools • Visit to a special school • Inclusion and looked after children • Teaching in the multi-ethnic school • Talking about bullying • Supporting bereaved children • Dilemma-based learning • Innovations in teaching and learning through the UFA • Understanding Autism

8. Classroom Management: core • Observing in the classroom • Planning for positive behaviour management • Body language and verbal communication: using drama techniques to establish a classroom presence • Understanding and improving learning • Fostering creativity in teaching and learning • Transforming learning: educational change for the 21st Century • Working with teaching and learning assistants

9. Classroom Management: optional sessions • Introduction to managing classroom behaviour • Every child matters, every teacher matters: establishing partnership learning • Using your voice effectively and looking after it for the long haul • Getting the best out of students using restorative practices • Managing challenging behaviour • Can schools personalise learning? • Assertiveness: evaluating behaviour management • Behaviour management drop-in

10. Reflective Practice: Core • Becoming a reflective practitioner • An introduction to the PGCE at Master’s level • Reading and writing at M level • Research and writing at M level • An introduction to practitioner enquiry and social research methods in education

11. Reflective Practice: optional sessions • Using the library to find relevant information • Undertaking focussed classroom observation • The teacher as researcher: writing up your research • The teacher as researcher: making sense of research evidence • Undertaking your professional enquiry

12. Career Development: Core • Your career starts here: making the most of the PGCE year • Roles and responsibilities in the secondary school • Applying for your first teaching post • Professional Learning Communities • Being a Newly Qualified Teacher

13. Career development: optional sessions • Writing a letter of application • Preparing for an interview • Being a subject leader • Being a SENCO • Teaching in an EBD school • Teaching Sport

14. Other strategies: • Increased involvement of classroom teachers & other education professionals • 2 full-day themed conferences: ‘Stay Safe’ & ‘Enjoy and achieve’, plus a themed ‘Career Development’ day • Greatly increased scope for choice and personalisation from a large menu of optional sessions

15. Other strategies: • Introduction of student-led workshops & discussion groups • Review of school-based tasks

16. Professional Foci • Getting started • Using critical incidents for your professional development • Teaching and learning • MARRA • Inclusion • ECM, pastoral work and PSHE

17. Practical changes • 4 x 90 min sessions per week (1 per strand) • Linked optional sessions in the afternoons • Breakout groups built in where rooms are available

18. Evaluating the strategies • Feedback from current cohort via end of phase questionnaires, a student focus group and observations of sessions; • Feedback from partnership schools via partnership steering group

19. Initial findings • The introduction of the 4 strands seen by schools to improve the coherence of the programme • Students welcome the involvement of teachers and other education practitioners • Optional sessions valued and seen as of practical application • Breakout groups popular and successful • Professional Foci well received by schools

20. Next steps • Build in more opportunities for student-led groups to take responsibility • Training/preparation for chairs • Replace some large lectures with readings, to be followed up on either in student groups or other sessions

21. Summary • Range of strategies trialled in order to encourage student engagement with Professional Studies • Some successes, especially student-led groups, teacher involvement and increased range of optional workshops • Future plans: improved preparation & support for student chairpersons; further improvements to Professional Foci; replace some large lectures with readings/tasks to report back on