Observations

This is a blog post I don’t know if I will actually post. It might be too self-indulgent, not something I actually want other people to know I’ve written through this process. It reminds me of doing the reflective writing as part of my PGCE. It’s that kind of mindset.

I’ve had two days off work sick, due to a cold I picked up last week. I know why I picked it up: I had an observation window on Thursday – Friday. Yes, an observation window. The whole process of observation is so nerve-wracking, and simply getting everything ready is incredibly stressful. Although observations are useful, and should be reflective of your everyday teaching, you put so much effort into your planning, you make sure all your books are marked up to date, you make sure your data is accurate and presentable, and you have to explain these to observers who come for 20 minutes. 20 minutes! And based on that, they make a judgement on you.

It’s not just me. I’ve seen my NQTs, who were nervous but not over-wrought for their first observation (when they knew the lesson I would be observing) become nervous wrecks at the thought of an observation window. Having just checked my school emails, many people were off sick. The atmosphere of pressure and stress is seriously getting to us. The way I see it, OFSTED come in every three years, for two days. My school is putting each individual teacher through an OFSTED every term!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the observation that bothers me. It’s the window. The two day window. Observations are fine, they are useful. It often takes a second or third pair of eyes to point out something that could make your teaching better. Observations make you reflect critically on your classes – when I was observed with my Year 8 class last year, it was my only non-exam class, and so they took a slight back seat. Being observed with them made me re-focus my efforts with them. Observations also boost your confidence – a good observer will point out your strengths and the pupils’ learning.

It’s the window that bothers me. 2 days of not knowing when the observers will come in to judge you. I can understand why schools might do a mock-OFSTED, and that’s why the unions have agreed to the two-day window, but the reality of a school using it three times a year is breaking us. Or pushing us out. I just hope – perhaps in vain – that SMT will take notice.

Learning Styles

I have to admit, I've never paid that much attention to Learning Styles, thinking more about Teaching Styles (i.e. my own!). But recently, I've found it coming up more and more, thinking about a class that I'm struggling with. I think they are probably mostly kinaesthetic learners, and I'm planning on spending some time on Monday finding out.

Learners can be categorise as mainly:

Visual - Approximately 29% of people have a visual learning preference.

Auditory - Approximately 34% of people have an auditory learning preference.

Kinaesthetic - Approximately 37% of people have a kinaesthetic learning preference.

Most people are a mixture of these. The problem with English is that we tend to teach in a very Auditory - Visual kind of way, and that might not be the best for our learners.

In addition, learners tend to process information in one of two ways:

Wholists - process information in wholes
Analysts - process information in parts.

In addition, there is the whole realm of Multiple Intelligences, a theory posited by Howard Garner. According to him, there are eight different intelligences:

Interpersonal - communicating with others
Intrapersonal - for self-discovery and analysis
Linguistic - for reading, writing and speech
Mathematical/logical - for maths, logic and systems
Visual/spatial - for visualisation and art
Bodily/kinaesthetic - for touch
Musical - for rhythm and music
Naturalist - for studying and classifying the natural world.

Finally, there is the Honey and Mumford Learning Styles questionnaire, which will help you work out if you are an Activist, Reflector, Theorist or Pragmatist.

Try some of these links for questionnaires to help you to work out your and your students' preferred learning styles.

http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire
http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/a2_learnstyles/pages/roughandready.htm
http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/a3_aspects/pages/VAK_quest.htm