Being an effective primary school teacher

Being an efficacious radical coach instructorBeing an effective primary school instructorIntroductionThis essay discusses the question, What do you consider to be an effective primary teacher?. With reference to recent research, government initiatives and your bear experience, the essay explores this question, found on my own breedingal principles and the ways in which these will lowpin your professional work out in the next.The essay begins by reviewing the presidency policies and initiatives that argon germane(predicate) to the research question, discussing, in particular, the enterExcellence and Enjoyment A strategy for Primary Schools(DfES, 2003) and the sequent Primary Strategy poser for primary education. The essay and so moves on to discuss the trains of these policies and initiatives and the implications these have had for schools and teachers. The assessment framework is discussed, and how this impacts on teacher effectiveness is also noted. The essay t hen moves on to looking at the qualities of effective teachers, and effective learn in a primary setting, and concludes that some of the facets of regimen policies and initiatives such(prenominal) as continual assessments run counter to my ethos of effective teaching and really serve as little other than distractions from pure(a) teaching time, through all the administration such assessments bring and the amount of time this motors away from lesson planning, for example. late policies and initiatives in primary educationIn terms of Government polity towards primary education, in 2003, the Government launched the policy documentExcellence and Enjoyment A Strategy for Primary Schools(DfES, 2003)which set out a vision for the future of primary education built, dinner dressly, on the striving for higher standards through the formulation of a rich and varied course of study which is aimed at lifting small fryren in a number of ways. As explained by the DfCSF (2008), the ge t word to devising this vision a world lies in the need to empower primary school children to take control of their own learning, to be innovative and to develop their own character. The DfCSF (2008) also noted that the aims of the policyExcellence and Enjoyment A Strategy for Primary Schools(DfES, 2003)should also be get throughd through schools being able to set their own targets, based on ambitious but realistic targets for the carry on of each individual child, with LEA targets being set after this.In addition, the policy documentExcellence and Enjoyment A Strategy for Primary Schools(DfES, 2003)encourages schools to network to learn from each other and to develop good practice, in partnership with p arnts in order to help children as faraway as possible and to forge colligate between schools and communities (DfCSF, 2008). The policy documentExcellence and Enjoyment A Strategy for Primary Schools(DfES, 2003)was represented as an enabler, with leadership in schools be ing strengthened in terms of professional development of teachers towards the whole curriculum, and in terms of helping schools themselves design broad curriculum that links unalike areas of the curriculum and which thus provides children with as wide as possible a range of learning experiences (DfCSF, 2008).The policy documentExcellence and Enjoyment A Strategy for Primary Schools(DfES, 2003)argues that the best primary schools are those that offer a broad and rich curriculum, and that, based on this it is fundamental that schools develop their own characteristic character through taking ownership of the curriculum, by being creative and innovative, using tests, targets and tables to help every child to develop his or her potential (DfES, 2003). Essentially, the policy documentExcellence and Enjoyment A Strategy for Primary Schools(DfES, 2003) urged the promotion of excellence in primary teaching through developing on the advantage of the guinea pig Literacy and Numeracy Str ategies, using the naked Primary Strategies to extend this success in to other areas of the curriculum, including in foreign languages, sport and creativity, amongst other areas, measuring the success of this curriculum through assessments (DfES, 2003).The Assessment Process its implications for teaching practice and childhood attainmentThere are many another(prenominal) ways in which assessment activities scum bag take place in the classroom, including monitoring normal classwork activities, using specific assessment tests designed by the teacher, designating assessment tasks as part of normal classwork, providing assessment tasks as part of homework assignments, and others, which are the domain of higher educational levels than the foundation stage, such as the use of standardized National political program tests and/or formal examinations (Kyriacou, 1999 p.107). Kyriacou (1999 p.107-109) details each of these assessment protocols, portraying, for example, how, although monit oring classroom activity is a part of the normal routine of a teacher, the monitoring, when it establishs investigative and active nookie become a form of assessment (Kyriacou, 1999 p.107 Kyriacou, 1997). In this way, the monitoring can inform teaching practice, through leading to suggestions for improvements in how learning is delivered, based on observations of areas in which the children are failing to learn as quickly or as thoroughly compared to other areas, for example. In this way, monitoring and assessment can be a route through which teaching can be improved and teachers can become more effective.In terms of how the assessment is factually made (i.e., the actual accomplish of assessment), evidence is collected through an ongoing process, via the teachers knowledge of the child, information from other contributors who are in regular contact with the child, anecdotes about significant moments in the childs development, and foc employ assessments, based on observation wher e observation is understood to mean the practice of watching and listening to a child as they engage in an activity and demonstrate specific knowledge, skills and meeting (NAA, 2007). As pointed out by Kyriacou (1999 p.106), it is imperative that an adequate record of the childs transactions, and their assessment, is kept, and that portfolios of childrens work are kept in order to exemplify the standards that are being sought, and so that teachers can use these records as a benchmark to build upon, through which improvements to teaching practice can be made and teacher effectiveness be improved.Teachers thus need to be competent in many areas in order to ensure that the assessment process goes smoothly for all concerned and that the assessment process is something that can be useful for teachers, in terms of improving teaching practices. The need for teachers to be competent in the assessment of children is reflected in the fact that the DfEE (2000) list of standards for teachers lists the ability to assess and record each pupils progress systematically as a competency (Kyriacou, 1999 p.106). In addition, it is fundamental that assessment judgements are agreed amongst all concerned, so that all those involved can dispatch the best, fullest, use of the information.The Primary Strategies outlined in the policy documentExcellence and Enjoyment A Strategy for Primary Schools(DfES, 2003)thus built on the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies to lead to the development of the Primary political program, with the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies being embedded in thePrimary Strategy(under the framework of the Primary Framework for literacy and mathematics that was launched in October 2006) (DfCSF, 2008). This new framework builds on the learning that has taken place since the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies were launched in 2003, providing new structures and new impetus to the vision embodied in the policy documentExcellence and Enjoyment A Strategy for Primary Schools(DfES, 2003), extending, as it does, the support withstandn only to literacy and to numeracy to other subjects (DfCSF, 2008). The overall ethos of the new Primary Strategy framework is that excellent education is an education that is tailored to childrens specific unavoidably, allowing them to engage with the educational process and giving them the start they need to be able to espouse in the context of lowly education (DfCSF, 2008).In terms of the future education of primary children, and how assessments at the primary level affect childrens future educational development, it is well documented that the level of educational attainment of a child (as assessed through identify Stage 1 assessments) cannot alone be used as an indicator of how well a particular teacher or school has performed it is therelativeprogress that needs to be considered in terms of making an assessment of how childrens future educational prospects are affected by the assessm ent process (Kyriacou, 1999 p. 106). Ways to do this include taking baseline measurements of achievement and comparing these with achievement following a certain time period of education, or taking value-added measurements (Kyriacou, 1999 p.106).In terms of tracking how children progress beyond the primary level, the relationship between Key Stage 1 assessments and attainment in terms of National Curriculum levels needs to be explored (AAIA, 2007). As discussed by AAIA (2007), however, Key Stage 1 attainments cannot be directly related to National Curriculum levels and any such attempts would result in spurious information (NAA, 2006). It is clear, however, that the higher the childs assessment at Key Stage 1, the more likely it is that the child would attain high levels following the National Curriculum tests (AAIA, 2007).Models of good archeozoic years educationCohenet al.(2004) provides information on how to plan and organise classes, and shows how the Qualification and Curricul um Authority (QCA) has set out principles for too soon years education (QCA, 1999 2000 2001), on the basis that, effective education requires both a relevant curriculum and practitioners who understand and are able to implement the curriculum requirementsbuilding on what children already know and can do, encouraging a positive attitude and a dip to learn and to protect against ahead of time failure. As the QCA (1999, 2000, 2001) point out, early years education should be carefully structured, providing different starting points, depending on what the child can already do, should have relevant and appropriate content, matching the different levels of childrens needs and should provide be after and purposeful activities which provide opportunities for teaching both indoors and outdoors, with teachers who are able to observe and respond appropriately to the children under their care. This is on the basis that parents are childrens first and most enduring educators (QCA, 2000, p.9), and that teachers provide a series of stepping stones through foundation stages, through primal schooling Goals, through primary level, which articulates with the National Curriculum which all children from age five are legally bound to follow (Cohenet al.,2004 parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, 2000).Cohenet al.(2004) show how key aspects of effective learning at the primary level are active, integrated, socially constructive, cognitively constructive and linguistically rich learning, beginning where the individual pupil is at themselves, in terms of their learning process, so that the individual child is the agent of their learning, empowering the children to enable their own learning by casting learning as problem-solving (Morrison, 2000 Cohenet al.,2004). As Morrison (2000 p.122) states, the intention (of learning) is to extend play, to empower students and to enable them to take responsibility for their own, active and autonomous, learning and to develop in all aspects of their learning. This is conducted, generally, through quaternary key elements classroom arrangements (with such things as centres of interest), unremarkable schedules of plan-do-review sessions, key curricular and learning experiences and content and assessments through observation, recording and sharing, using authentic assessment and portfolios (Cohenet al.,2004).By following such suggestions for enabling learning at the primary level,continuityandprogressionare ensured. Continuityisgenerally defined, and understood, as ensuring that the overall aims, values and beliefs that give direction to, and put boundaries around, the scheme of work are consistent, regardless of who is teaching or answering later questions (Fabian and Dunlop, 2002).Progressionis defined, and understood, generally, as the process through which the schools planned activities gradually extend pupils thinking, their exploration of values and attitudes, enrich language, knowledge and strategies thro ugh increasingly demanding inputs and challenging explorations, matched to pupils chronological age, readiness and circumstance (Fabian and Dunlop, 2002). Through ensuring continuity and progression, children can be enabled to achieve the goals they want to achieve, within the frameworks that are set them.My personal teaching ethosThis section takes one or two of my principles to explain how I intend to be an effective primary teacher, using examples from your my school experiences. In essence, I concur with Cohenet al.(2004) that, effective education requires both a relevant curriculum and practitioners who understand and are able to implement the curriculum requirementsbuilding on what children already know and can do, encouraging a positive attitude and a disposition to learn and to protect against early failure and I agree with the overall stated ethos of the new Primary Strategy framework is that excellent education is an education that is tailored to childrens specific needs, allowing them to engage with the educational process and giving them the start they need to be able to succeed in the context of secondary education (DfCSF, 2008).Taylor and Hayes (2001) provide a discussion as to how educationshouldbe delivered, leading me to arrive at several conclusions as to how I should make my time as a teacher in order to provide the most effective teaching possible to my pupils. I agree with the aims of the Primary Strategy as set out in the policy document,Excellence and Enjoyment A Strategy for Primary Schools(DfES, 2003), whichencourages schools and teachers to network to learn from each other and to develop good practice, in partnership with parents in order to help children as far as possible and to forge links between schools and communities (DfCSF, 2008).The dictates of the assessment processes and the Curriculum mean I have to teach within these boundaries, but this does not mean that lessons have to be rigid and that assessments and tests and Curr iculum have to be terrorisation terms to primary age pupils. One of my responsibilities as an effective teacher is to prepare students, as well as possible, for the assessments and to teach the Curriculum in such a manner that the childrens sense of wonder is upheld (see Allen and Ainley, 2007) and that childrens awareness of themselves as part of a whole and as spiritual beings is also back up (Eaude, 2005). My aim as a primary teacher is to foster a sense of enjoyment in the learning process and, through this, to foster a love of learning that will continue well beyond the primary level, encouraging success at the secondary level and forging a long love of learning in each individual pupil, based on a sense of wonder at the world, its contents and its processes.I, personally, agree with Cohenet al.(2004), who show how key aspects of effective learning at the primary level are active, integrated, socially constructive, cognitively constructive and linguistically rich learning, b eginning where the individual learner is at themselves, in terms of their learning process, so that the individual child is the agent of their learning, empowering the children to enable their own learning by casting learning as problem-solving (Morrison, 2000 Cohenet al.,2004). It is my aim as a teacher, wishing to be an effective teacher, to foster the empowerment of children, through developing a sense of the wonder of learning and empowering the children to direct their own learning, within the context of the Curriculum, so that children feel they are capable of learning and are capable of achieving the standards they set themselves.The Success of New Labours insurance Towards Primary procreationTymms (2004) look at how successful the changes to primary education have been, following the introduction of the Numeracy and Literacy Strategies and finds that, whilst the introduction of these Strategies contributed to a rise in standards, nonparasitic tests of childrens attainment have shown that this rise in standards is not as widespread nor as high as claimed and that, as such, an independent body should be set up to monitor standards over time, with the purpose of testing how Government planning for education is actually being received on the ground, as it were. A recent Oftsted report (Ofsted, 2003) also shows that some of the aims of the National Numeracy and Literacy Strategy were not achieved (with weak subject knowledge being a common failure of schools), suggesting the Governments approach to primary education needs to be looked at further.Allen and Ainley (2007) back this suggestion, through their analysis of education in the UK, presented in their bookEducation make you fick, innit?Allen and Ainley argue that as institutionalized learning has become more common-place in the Uk, through schools and work-based training programmes, possibilities have been foreclosed for emancipating minds, something that is increasingly being applied to primary level education, through the introduction of the Primary Strategy, for example, and the assessment-based curriculum this embodies, which, argue Allen and Ainley (2007) forces teachers to concentrate more on training children in the Curriculum for the purpose of attaining high pull ahead on the assessments than on actually instilling a sense of wonder in learning. Allen and Ainley (2007) argue that this process is killing the sense of wonder in children, and that, pull down for primary school children, education, the process of going to school, has become little more than a daily grind, rather than a joyous process the children are riant to undertake because they enjoy the process and because the process can bring them knowledge and enjoyment.ConclusionThis essay has discussed the question, What do you consider to be an effective primary teacher?. With reference to recent research, government initiatives and your own experience, the essay has explored this question, based on my own edu cational principles and the ways in which these will underpin your professional practice in the future. The essay began by reviewing the Government policies and initiatives that are relevant to the research question, discussing, in particular, the documentExcellence and Enjoyment A Strategy for Primary Schools(DfES, 2003) and the subsequent Primary Strategy framework for primary education. The essay then moved on to discuss the aims of these policies and initiatives and the implications these have had for schools and teachers. The assessment framework was then discussed, and how this impacts on teacher effectiveness was also noted. The essay then moved on to looking at the qualities of effective teachers, and effective teaching in a primary setting, and reason out that some of the facets of Government policies and initiatives such as continual assessments run counter to my ethos of effective teaching and actually serve as little other than distractions from pure teaching time, t hrough all the administration such assessments bring and the amount of time this takes away from lesson planning, for example.The main conclusion to the essay is that effective teaching at the primary level should serve to instill a sense of the wonder of learning and should open childrens minds to the possibilities that learning, and the learning process, encompasses. I converge with Allen and Ainley (2007) that the current disregard towards assessments, more assessments and yet more assessments is not healthy for children, because it causes stress and can initiate a sense of failure in children who do not achieve high scores on these assessments and also because managing these assessments takes time away from teaching, through all the administration that the tests generate. The argument that these tests do little than to confirm that the education policies the Government is espousing are correct seems valid, and it is, as has been seen, in any case questionable that the standards suggested by the Government, in the Primary Strategy are actually leading to rises in standards (see Tymms, 2004).That the overall stated ethos of the new Primary Strategy framework is that an excellent education is an education that is tailored to childrens specific needs, allowing them to engage with the educational process and giving them the start they need to be able to succeed in the context of secondary education (DfCSF, 2008) is thus a good basis to begin, as an effective teacher, but, in order to avoid boredom in the education process, and psychological problems, due to the huge amount of testing and assessment primary children are subject to, effective teaching not only needs to teach the Curriculum and prepare children for the battery of tests and assessments they will be subjected to, but also needs to foster the empowerment of children, through developing a sense of the wonder of learning and empowering the children to direct their own learning, within the context of t he Curriculum, so that children feel they are capable of learning and are capable of achieving the standards they set themselves.Effective teachers are thus not only bound by the dictates of Government policy and teaching research which suggestshowteachers should teach, but they are, in my opinion, also bound by a responsibility to children, to instill in children a sense of the wonder of learning. In my opinion, and something I will endeavour to achieve in my teaching practice, this sense of wonder can be best achieved through empowering children to realise their potential and to realise they can achieve their goals, through fostering a love of learning. These qualities not only make for an effective teacher but also an inspiring teacher, who will excite their pupils to want to learn.ReferencesAAIA (2007). Assessing childrens attainments in the foundation stage guidance produced by the AAIA. getable fromhttp//www.aaia.org.uk/PDF/FAQs%20-%20assessing%20childrens%20attainment%20in% 20the%20foundation%20stage.pdfAccessed on 29thFebruary 2008.Alexander, R. (2004). Still no pedagogy? Principle, reality and compliance in primary education.Cambridge J. of Education34(1), pp.7-33.Allen, M Ainley P (2007).Education make you fick, innit?Tufnell Press, Reading.Brown, M.et al.(1998). Is the National Numeracy strategy research-based?Brit. J. Educ. 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