John Edwards

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John Edwards

• Admiral Lord Nelson School Portsmouth
• City of Portsmouth Girls' School Portsmouth
• Springfield School Portsmouth

Members of Portsmouth University Initial Teacher
Training Partnership
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The evaluation of Trainee Teachers with specific
reference to students observations

• How might students evaluations of trainee
  teachers in the classroom assist trainees in
  meeting the standards for newly qualified teacher
  status?

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The National Curriculum for England -Citizenship
Developing skills of participation and
responsible action
Pupils should be taught to

• Use their imagination to consider other peoples
  experiences and be able to think about, express
  and explain views that are not their own.
• Negotiate, decide and take part responsibility in
  both school and community based activities.
• Reflect on the process of participating.

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Action Research
Action research is a form of self-reflective
enquiry undertaken by participants, e.g.
teachers, students or principles, in social
(including educational) situations in order to
improve the rationality and justice of

• Their own social or educational practices
• Their understanding of these practices
• The situations and institutions in which these
  practices are carried out (Carr Kemmis,
  1986)

Case Study The Portsmouth ITT Partnership
The case need not be a person or enterprise. It
can be whatever bounded system that is of
interest. An institution, programme,
responsibility, collection or population can be
the case (Stake, 1980).
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A number of initial comments produced the
following consensual views

• Objective data on individual classroom
  performance would not always be possible to
  produce.
• Constructive comments by students should be
  welcomed and encouraged and adverse judgements
  should not be taken personally.
• Students who are participating in the project
  would be assumed to be honest and positive in
  their motivations and judgements.
• The advantage to trainees would be that they
  would gain a clearer insight of students'
  expectations and what teaching strategies in the
  classroom worked effectively.

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Some Initial concerns raised included

• The possibility that student-trainee teacher
  relationships might be adversely affected by the
  change in role and balance of power in the
  classroom.
• Students might be unrealistic in their
  expectation of trainee teachers abilities
  possibly expecting them to exhibit the same
  levels of confidence and competence as their
  regular class teachers.
• Students might not fully understand the criteria
  which they were using to evaluate trainees
  classroom practice.

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These initial responses from Trainee Teachers
were supported by some rich reflective comments
which included

• I think a student is going to see it as they
  have a say in their education more than the
  relationship with the teacher being badly
  affected.
• I dont see it as a student having an advantage
  over you. If anything I think theyll see it as
  an advantage to themselves to gain an insight and
  input into how theyre being educated.
• Their feedback to us is vital well know what
  students expect in a teacher which is like a
  golden nugget of information to find out what
  kids actually want and what will motivate them to
  work is ideal.

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Responses Continued

• Having feedback from students I think, is going
  to do nothing but aid how you pitch and approach
  a lesson.
• Because students (observing) know other students
  very well, what we think is disinterest due to
  boredom may be a significant difficulty or
  refusal to work for other reasons which we might
  not know about, so they might observe their peers
  very differently from an adult, either the
  teacher sitting at the front of the class or at
  the back It would be interesting to gauge what
  they felt the rest of the classs engagement with
  the lesson was because obviously were going to
  misjudge that sometimes.

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Personal features include

• Being friendly but formal in manner
• Being smartly but casually dressed
• Being consistent in manner and approachable
• Being able to deal with difficult situations
• Being patient and willing to listen
• Being able to identify (and possibly solve)
  problems
• Being fair and firm

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Professional features include

• Being able to explain instructions clearly
• Being able to support individual learning needs
• Being able to control the whole class
• Being able to structure lesson activities clearly
• Being able to explain tasks in a variety of ways
• Being able to offer praise and sanctions in a
  calm and positive manner
• Being able to mark and comment on work in
  reasonable time
• Being able to respond to the mood of the class

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Outline of the process of recording that students
undertook

• Beginning of lesson
• Voice/presentation
• Capturing the attention of the class
• Stating aims of lesson
• Revision of previous work

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Teaching Technique

• Questioning
• Practical work
• Organisation of lesson
• Explanations and clarifications
• Use of board and resources
• Timing of activities
• Class management/trouble shooting
• Motivating students
• Seeking out, helping and showing concern for
  students encountering difficulties

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Assessment and Monitoring

• Revision of previous work
• Checking that lesson aims were met by the
  students
• Checking that lesson aims were met by teachers
• Target setting

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Hearing ITT .. from the children
Admiral Lord Nelson School
At first when I was asked to observe the student
teachers I was nervous about sitting at the back
of the classroom and making notes, but once it
started I found it was easy. I was also unsure
about giving them feedback in case they took bad
things the wrong way but I found that if I told
them something they needed to improve on then
told them something they did well it was
OK. Claire Wiggins
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When I was asked to do this project at first I
was excited, but as it went on I realised that
doing this would include me beginning to analyse
the student teachers, so I was very unsure. When
we sat in the classroom and began to write I felt
a bit nervous in case I wrote down the wrong
things. After the first part of the programme
we had to give feedback. This was the part I had
been dreading but when I arrived I found that the
student teachers were really willing to listen to
my points and ideas. It helped that we were in
partners as this made me feel a bit more
relaxed. Vicky Boulain
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From participation in this project I have
learned that being a trainee teacher is a lot
harder that I thought. They have to plan a
lesson, control a class they dont know, work in
a school with teachers they have to get to know
quickly, all the time being watched and assessed
by students younger than them. It was also hard
watching them. You had to write down where they
went right and wrong and later tell this to their
face. I learned that confidence plays a big part
in teaching. Matt Cope
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From this experience I now know how the student
teachers feel when teaching the class. I
understand that if pupils are behaving
inappropriately the student teacher may feel
under pressure and nervous. I know how hard it
is for the trainees to manage the class. They
dont just have to teach, but need to prepare for
the lesson too. I found it useful to learn how
trainee teachers can be helped to develop their
skills and how giving them advice can help me. I
have enjoyed my experience and hope it will be
useful in later life. Danielle Darby
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City of Portsmouth Girls School
The last part in the Teacher-Training project
was the most important part, for us to give
feedback to an actual trainee teacher. We were
nervous, Kelly and I sat at the back of the
classroom with 3 sheets the teachers lesson
plan, a sheet to write down our observations and
a sheet to write down feedback. I did not find
it as hard as I thought it would be. After the
lesson we had to sit down with the trainee
teacher, Mr Edwards and our tutor Ms.Cosh to
discuss the teachers way of teaching. We gave
both positive and negative feedback. I learnt
that when giving negative feedback, to also give
ways of improving too. Laura Adshead
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Overall it has boosted my confidence in giving
my opinions to others without being too shy to
speak. Kelly Brown
I think this course really helps out students
who are becoming new teachers. It helps them to
know how to control the children and see how they
can make everyone listen to them. Foujia Awwal
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We took part in a classroom observation. I
observed the student teacher that was currently
in my English class. I did the observation with
another pupil who was participating in the
project and we sat at the back of the classroom.
We did our class work as well as writing our
observations. We wrote our notes about different
parts of the lesson. Afterwards we gave feedback
to the student teacher. Lara Tollast
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This course is a great help to trainee teachers
as it allows them to not only hear feedback from
official observers but to hear the opinions of
the ones who benefit most from their methods
the children. They get advice from those who
have had previous experiences in teaching but not
from those who have previous experiences of being
taught. Lucy Wood
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Springfield School
Our first preparation for the project was a trip
to the University. We met the project
co-ordinator, Mr Edwards, and six other pupils
from the City of Portsmouth Girls School. We
began with a task to identify our Ideal Teacher
and then swapped our ideas. Mr Edwards recorded
our ideas. We then watched a video of a trainee
teacher working in London. We made notes on what
she did well and what she didnt do well. We
learnt about many of the skills we would need to
observe in our student teacher. Kate Borland
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During the summer term we each observed our
teacher once. To do this we worked in pairs so
that we could share ideas and our observations.
We had been given a lesson plan and we used this
to think about whether she went too fast or too
slow for the class. This was something our
teacher was keen to discuss with us. We also
looked at how well the teacher controlled the
class. As we observed we wrote suggestions and
ideas on record sheets provided by Mr
Edwards. Holly Courtneidge
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After we had all completed the observations, we
collected the information from the lessons and
met with our student teacher. We never said that
we thought she had done this wrong or that right.
Instead, we talked about the lesson from OUR
POINT OF VIEW. As she was nearing the end of her
training our student teacher was now quite
confident and knew us well. She said that she
found our comments very useful and that having a
lesson reviewed from the pupils point of view
was a valuable opportunity. Faye Hodges
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What the Trainee Teachers Said.
Generally I found it really helpful they were
really honest. The girls were a lot more gushy
in what they wrote the boys tended to focus
more on behaviour management.
It is a bit daunting in that it puts you in a
defensive position if anything should go wrong
its justifying yourself to the people that you
teach ...
What I was worried about was that the classroom
relationships would deteriorate some respect
might be lost the children were a lot more
forgiving than I had anticipated.
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Youve got the professional view from an adult
which is obviously incredibly important to meet
the standards but having the people you are
trying to teach come back and say this worked
well is very powerful.
The benefit of it was being able to see the
perception of me as a teacher from a pupils point
of view as opposed to another teacher.
I felt that their comments were very rational
and supportive.
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I think that actually considering the process of
being taught helps to value a little more of what
goes on in a school.
The pupils see teachers as human beings who can
improve in what they do and be praised I think
its the integration of pupils into adult life
that helps to bring them on a little bit.
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Quote 1

• Engaging in pupil consultation presents, for
  teachers, some potentially uncomfortable
  prospects in particular concern about being on
  the receiving end of personal criticism and
  concerns about what happens if the familiar
  hierarchical structure of the classroom is
  challenged by the principle of partnership.
• (Ruddock and Flutter, 2004, p.147)

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Quote 2

• For many teachers, student voice is seen as
  either peripheral, irrelevant or corrosive of the
  already diminishing legitimacy of teacher
  professionalism.
• (Fielding, 2001, p.105)

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Quote 3

• Student perceptions are valuable to our practice
  because they are authentic sources they
  personally experience our classrooms first hand.
  As teachers, we need to find ways to continually
  seek out these silent voices because they can
  teach us so much about learning and learners.
• ( Soo Hoo, 1993, p.390)

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Quote 4

• Are we witnessing the emergence of something
  genuinely new, exciting and emancipatory that
  builds on rich traditions of democratic renewal
  and transformation? . . . Or are we presiding
  over the further entrenchment of existing
  assumptions and intentions using student or pupil
  voice as an additional mechanism of control?
• (Fielding, 2001, p.100)

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Quote 5

• In most schools transformation will be about
  re-casting teachers and pupils in a more
  participatory and collaborative relationship,
  reviewing perceptions of pupils capacities to
  contribute actively to a range of school
  activities and allowing them to move outside
  their assigned cells as learners of the
  statutory curriculum into learning associated
  with a wider range of roles and purposes
• (Ruddock and Flutter, 2004, p.139/40)