INSET

INSET CASE STUDY-Junior School

My task was to enable the staff to plan and deliver a whole school “Technology Week”.
An initial meeting was arranged with the head and the technology co-ordinator to establish what my role in the partnership would be.

We planned inputs to introduce myself and my skills to the staff and ascertain how they felt i could assist them in planning the Technology week.

It became clear that the staff wished to provide a structure within which the pupils could develop their personal skills such as inventing, working with others, testing and evaluating. It became my role to develop a series of practical activities that the staff would feel confident in presenting to the pupils.

To enable the skill and confidence levels of the staff to be boosted I ran a series of practical workshops for all teaching staff and support assistants and developed groups of pupil mentors.

The Technology week was implemented without my input, thus encouraging sustainability.

My role was to visit on one day to record the activities and take part in the evaluation with the staff and pupils.


Staff developing one of many activities for Technology week

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUTONOMOUS LEARNING SKILLS IN PUPILS< AND MY ROLE AS FACILITATOR Reflecting on my role of managing a project to develop Autonomous learning in a Secondary School With each project, we have set the pupils the task of taking the next step of making more decisions over the direction of their learning. Although the overall direction of the project is planned, as facilitator, much of the progression is achieved by my experience, my interaction with the students, and evaluation of mistakes and confusion that can occur. I feel it is useful to attempt to quantify the actions that I have been taking in order to develop the autonomous learning characteristics of pupils. The role of the facilitator. If students are left to their own devices without a structure within which to work and deadlines to work to, then generally progress will be slow. We have tried this with an unstructured after school club with some difficult results. I make the observations from experience in several schools that autonomous learning does not take place without a commitment on the part of the school, and the provision of a structure which will allow pupils the opportunity to make choices and have their ideas valued. Often, the classroom is not seen as a place where all students can be autonomous, as there is an organizational structure that makes this difficult. There may also the fact that staff do not wish to move control in the direction of the students. I have found it necessary provide a series of small steps that can be taken towards achieving some level of autonomy, and will attempt to outline some of these that could be carried out across the curriculum. To evaluate the outcomes, a case study of a small group of pupils could be carried out in different subject areas culminating with an evaluation in a creative activity end task. It is my experience that-- The facilitator needs -to analyse the steps/skills that are needed to solve a problem -to identify and organise a hierarchy of skills that pupils need to practice to internalize autonomous problem solving skills. -to develop externally structured activities for pupils to learn and internalize autonomous learning skills. -to form a relationship with the pupils. -to set tasks/challenges which enable pupils to make choices and achieve goals. Developing Autonomous learning skills. When students are faced with an unstructured or open ended task/problem/opportunity, I have observed that pupils exhibit two types of behaviour. -reactive—the majority of pupils will become confused and will react in an unstructured “headless chicken” way where time will be spent on unnecessary diversions. It becomes so clear that they lack the ability to prioritise. -reflective---some pupils demonstrate the ability to take a step back and evaluate what is important. This ability to prioritise and then to create an action plan seems essential to problem solving activities. The good facilitator will naturally provide a structure for his clients to achieve their goals and by nature will be an autonomous learner himself. What is less natural is to analyse how we can give students the opportunity to develop these skills. I will explore what autonomous learning skills we need to practice in pupil activities. These could include -prioritising -making choices -drawing up an action plan -listening to others -compromising -valuing the opinion of others -taking risks -learning from mistakes -setting goals -drawing up an action plan -valuing learning through the process rather than outcome. Now, we could devise short activities across the curriculum where students could practice these skills and evaluate by case study and final creative activity as described earlier. In a primary schools, this is more easily achievable but in a secondary school, the time and goodwill of a group of staff is needed to promote autonomous learning skills on a multi disciplinary basis. This is work in progress