Held at the Prince of Wales hotel in Southport. A fine sprawling Victorian hotel on Lord Street - lovely fire in the entrance hall. We were in the International suite, quite apt. Some images to come tomorrow.
Margaret Roberts
Friday evening session: chaired by Maureen O'Shaughnessy, followed an earlier New Tutors' conference and lunch.
Please note that this is my summary and any misrepresentations are entirely mine.
Alan P - me - see my SLIDESHARE for an edited version
Clare Brooks
Does Masters Level Work give teachers the capacity to be better ?
MA in Geography Education at the Institute of Education
- Teachers as "an activist profession" (Judith Sachs) - greater accountability and working with networks.
- Implications for training and educating geography teachers.
- Survey of PGCE student on MA course: very strong feeling that they would be challenged academically and that it would develop their intellectual and scholarly capacity, but number dropped when asked whether they thought it would make them a better teacher. It would however increase their career prospects.
- Concerns were workload and time mainly.
- Felt that people most likely to be unsupportive when teachers carried on masters study were school colleagues.
"Unless you've taught in this school for 2 years you know nothing" - Head to PGCE student.
Masters tends to change the way that teachers think
"Teacher thinking" rather than "teacher doing".
Masters part of a wider CPD landscape.
Technical: QTS, Induction, Threshold, LfM, NPQH (prescribed outcomes)
Academic: PGCE, MA, EdD
Professional: CGeog, GA Quality Mark
Exam Courses / INSET / Local alternatives
Steven Chubb, University of Cumbria
Cautious Revolution (or evolution)
Curriculum Change at Key Stage 3
Last year, had a presentation on the use of SPORT in Geography lessons.
"Planning the curriculum is a strange mixture of rational organisation and serendipity" (Rawling, 2007)
Eleanor's continuum (from financial adviser)
Cautious
Balanced
Progressive
Adventurous
Approaches to curriculum change. Cautious may be for positive reasons, rather than inertia.
Some issue of nomenclature, and changes in staffing within a department, and the influence of the HoD in decision making.
Pressures on schools to change.
David Lambert made a point about the current financial situation and the impact of 'adventurous' financial advice.
Subjects "dropped": Italy, Brazil, Japan being dropped...
Also losing Weather & Climate, Farming, Tourism, Industry, Development and Sport.
Subjects added: Sport, Geography in the News, USA, Global Issues, a more "local focus"...
Flexibility leading to more emphasis on local geography.
Health, "Music and Geography" - dropping industry and farming as "not relevant" and staff/pupils find it "boring".
A reminder of the topics that we offered to students when we changed our KS3, back in 2007-8
Chance to introduce a more critical geography may be being missed.
To educate or to train ?
Reflections on being a PGCE tutor
Talking about dialogic pedagogies in late 1960's... not a new thing.
Countesthorpe Experience - 1977 - teachers trying to understand what was going on in the children's heads - pupil voice being used
1980: Michael Armstrong: "Closely Observed Children" - the diary of a primary classroom...
Standards: Q15: Know and understand the relevant statutory frameworks - can't deliver a curriculum - it changes as it develops - need to engage with the curriculum. Needed to have creative engagement.
Q25: Enable learners to meet learning objectives - pervasive...
There are only ever choices.... When choices are made and accepted by a sufficient number of teachers, they tend to become 'common sense' (Castree, 2005)
Q25: Use a range of teaching strategies and resources.
E3: Have a critical understanding of the most effective strategies
5Ws could produce a very 'old fashioned' geography.
Frameworks we use aren't neutral - they produce different geographies
Using pre-planned plenaries...
Should be "whole group" could be anywhere, but tends to be used at the end...
VAK - visual - shouldn't they do more auditory if they're a visual learner ?
Kinesthetic learners in geography ?? - labelling students - some schools have different colour planners dependent on their 'preferred learning styles'.
Seeing lessons through tick lists rather than professional judgements - dangerous.
"When we teach we are making constant choices" (Castree)
Discussion followed later (after the session, in the Wetherspoons) on the idea of CHOICE as being very important. Who makes the choices ? Also relates to the development of social networks and the importance of being able to choose not to use them...
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