Discover how she got into teaching. I never saw myself becoming a teacher. I was working as a freelance curator having graduated from the Royal College of Art, but I was looking to find something more consistent.
My mum asked if I had considered teaching. I was a little resistant to the idea but I like to think I have an open mind, so I went to shadow the head of art at my old middle school for ten days to see what it might be like. I surprised myself, as I immediately and genuinely loved being in a school environment and making art with the students. Within a few days I was leading demonstrations and playing an active part in lessons.
In my short time at the school I helped out with a production of The Lion King by making props and masks with the children. I put in a fairly last minute application to the University of Reading's Institute of Education, which had been highly recommended and was delighted to be accepted as a returning student. You wouldn't believe the things that can affect your class, even how windy it is outside impacts the children's behaviour.
I will say that I am always busy, I spend very little time at my desk or at my computer and I love that the majority of my day is spent on my feet, interacting with students and continuing to learn alongside them in my favourite subject.
I honestly didn't find it a struggle to balance studying with classroom time. I think a lot of people see them as separate entities, with the former just being a box to tick but one should really inform the other - I certainly found this to be the case and when you realise this both sides of your practice are thoroughly beneficial to one another and neither feels hard to fit into your schedule.
The key, I think, is reflection. When you are reading or in a lecture regarding pedagogy, think about something you may have observed in the classroom and vice versa. This way you are getting more from both the academic and practical side of your practice, as well as using your time efficiently. There have been so many highlights in my teaching career and sometimes it's the smallest things that remind you why the job is so worth doing.
It's one of your naughtiest students asking if they can take a picture of their work so they can show someone at home and telling you how proud they are of what they've achieved. Pupils at secondary age are good at reading a teacher by observing their facial expressions, so keep your body language positive.
When it comes to communicating with your students Dr Kneen points out the difference between knowing something and being able to explain it effectively.
You need to be able to explain things to classes that consist of pupils of different experiences and abilities. This involves breaking a topic down into its constituent parts and then sequencing these parts in an accessible way. As well as being adept at explaining, teachers also need to be able to demonstrate how to do something.
Building this throughout your career is key but starting by having good subject knowledge through SK audits and Subject Knowledge Enhancement programmes really helps.
A teacher leads by example, so in order to engage pupils and drive their learning you will need to explore the subject fully yourself. It is not strictly a skill, but a sense of humour is a useful tool to all teachers. You're not there to be their friend but making lessons fun when possible will leave a positive impression on pupils. Happy students are more open to learning,' says Dr Reed Johnson. While academic courses such as the PGCE will give you the opportunity to learn and develop desirable skill sets, practical school experience is invaluable.
Try to gain as much experience as possible, either through a paid placement or by volunteering in schools. Observing teachers also provides you with a good sense of the skills needed in the profession. To get the most out of this kind of experience, aim to observe a range of teachers in a variety of subjects in different key stages.
Dr Reed Johnson also highlights the importance of staying up to date with current educational issues. You can keep track of developments in the education sector by reading the news and visiting government and educational websites such as:.
Jobs and work experience Search graduate jobs Job profiles Work experience and internships Employer profiles What job would suit me? Great teaching is not merely a predictable, observable, externally measurable fact as the social sciences would like it to be. Since educational leaders and board members are not always necessarily well-versed in educational research methods and since there is huge pressure on education systems to deliver, efforts to nurture great teachers can turn into a nightmare of absurd policies.
For example, grasping at bits and pieces of research, schools can start to insist that every teacher start lessons the exact same way, stop grading students, cancel homework, or talk less in the classroom. The clause 'the research shows that' will be thrown around eagerly, although rarely has the research been read from cover to cover and, when it has, insufficient degrees of confidence in findings and then need for further study are almost always prevalent.
Unfortunately, some myths in education persist despite fairly consequential debunking: such as the Mozart effect , Brain Gym , learning styles , multiple intelligence theory and a series of erroneous literacy strategies such as the ' three queuing ' reading technique.
Would the teachers working in schools relying on these theories be considered 'great' for implementing such strategies?
Here is the real problem: teaching only means something within its defined context. It begs the question of whether one can truly speak of great teaching in such broad brushstrokes that the same behaviours and habits are expected in every context.
In fact, what are known as epistemic practices suggest that learning and teaching are subject dependent; that seeking generalisable, transferable pedagogic practices is problematic because learning and teaching in chemistry is not the same as learning and teaching in visual arts or Chinese language instruction. Because of all of these complexities, numerous experiments do not deliver.
For example, The Gates Foundation poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a multi-layered experiment designed to boost teaching effectiveness through traditional approaches such as classroom observations, careful recruitment and performance bonuses but found that these created no significant gains in student learning.
Many efforts to answer this have provided results that make sense and seem reliable. This means a collective belief, by a group of teachers in a school, that together they can improve student learning. Nonetheless, it should be noted that many argue that the quantitative research that is used by Hattie to determine good teaching is flawed. These findings are not radical or counter-intuitive: who will argue that believing in students, the teacher knowing the subject matter or assessing well will not improve learning?
Can we and should we extrapolate further? The whole question of culture is worth investigating. To what extent is the transactional language of 'attainment', 'value-added', 'results' and 'scores' not so much an expression of scientific truth but of cultural bias? When administrators come across different teaching styles, different accents, different ways of communicating - and these are cultural - how do they feature on an observation sheet?
And which evidence from which countries involving which learners was used to determine the checklist in the first place? Qualitative studies among Aboriginal and Torres Strait communities in Australia make it clear that culturally responsive pedagogy is of vital importance to students.
Cultural aspects such as reverence for the land and the wisdom of elders might not fit into the Western constructivist paradigm, and why should it? A study carried out on Chinese students showed that the ethical framework of the teacher was of paramount importance to them, something that had not been mentioned in teacher appraisal documentation.
School leaders have to be culturally responsive, taking into account the cultures of students and teachers before jumping at standardised descriptions of what good teaching is.
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