Critically Evaluate the Pedagogical Approaches Evidenced in the Light of Your Understanding of Theories of Learning and the Requirements of the National Curriculum

Selecting a scheme of work (SOW) and lesson plans consisting of at least three lessons in your specialist subject critically evaluate the pedagogical approaches evidenced in the light of your understanding of theories of learning and the requirements of the National Curriculum and/or National Strategies and/or 14-19 curriculum for your subject.

“A scheme of work is a plan that defines work to be done in the classroom” (British Council, 2011). It is a “working document” (Atherton, 2011) mapping out the structure and content of a course or short project. It clearly identifies how resources such as books, time and equipment, class activities and assessment strategies will be used to ensure the learning aims and objectives of the course are met successfully. A SOW should also include times and dates. “The SOW is an interpretation of a specification or syllabus and can be used as a guide throughout the course to monitor progress against the original plan” (Wikipedia, 2010).
The SOW to be evaluated reflects learning from the Edexcel GCSE in Health and
Social Care (HSC) and three lesson plans have been selected which relate to weeks 9, 10 and 11 of the SOW. This SOW is being used for Year 9 students who have begun studies towards GCSE HSC one year early to help give them extra time to focus on the course and prepare them fully for the GCSE course. In this respect students have three years to complete a (normally) two year course however the units of the course are still followed per se but there is considerable room for repeating topics at a later date and practice exam questions with the notion by school that this will give students the best opportunity to be successful in this subject. This is the first year this approach has been used and it is felt that this extra time may increase student’s ability within the subject and therefore increase their motivation to achieving their full potential. Maslow (1943) in his theory of motivation or “hierarchy of needs” refers to this process of developing to achieve individual potential and this highlights this strategy as a humanistic approach.

The core principle of vocational courses is learning both the factual content but also specifically about working in HSC environments. With this in mind it is important that students are able see how their learning may be applied in employment but also to develop their own ideas about how they might use their knowledge to progress into further education or employment. This is highlighted by Bloom (1956) who believed that education should focus on mastering subjects and promoting higher cognition, rather than a utilitarian approach to simply transferring facts. The SOW states that the lesson (week 9) should “relate factors to examples in students’ own life and surrounding family” and this helps support the idea that what the student does is more important than what the teacher does and that to develop effective pedagogy teachers need to establish what children have in common, and determine what modifications are necessary to meet individual needs (Moon & Mayes, 1996). Moon & Mayes (1996) also state that “what children learn in the classroom will depend to a large extent on what they already know”.

The SOW includes general advice on the subjects to be taught within Unit 1. For week 9 the lesson content is described as relating religion, culture and ethnicity to the physical, intellectual, emotional and social contexts used plentifully when teaching HSC and it recommends a specific task for homework of researching one religion, culture or ethnicity. However this task was commenced within the lesson time to ensure students could be given guidance on producing either flyers or power point presentation electronically. Adapting the details of the SOW in this way shows how a plan can be deviated from in response to the learners’ needs or when a learning need becomes apparent as good teaching should be flexible and responsive (Heightmen, 2009). Including this within the lesson ensured that students were also developing these skills and cross curricular learning was taking place. Teenagers undergo many physical, physiological and psychological changes which impact the way they function. To help accommodate this teaching should be varied and engage all pupils. Previous observation of this class had shown that using information and communication technology (ICT) and developing these skills was highly motivational when used as a tool for learning and producing their own resources. This motivation to learn is highlighted by Bruner’s (1960) theory that interest in the subject matter is the best stimulus for learning. In addition to this Bennett & Leask (2009) state that there is an expectation teachers will contribute to the development of pupils’ ICT skills to address objectives within their specialised area.

For this task students were also grouped into two’s or three’s for two reasons. Firstly to ensure each group had access to a computer as there were not enough in the classroom for individual work but also it gave students the ability to discuss ideas between themselves hence requiring social interaction, a principle mirrored by the work of Vygotsky (1978) who argued that learning is a social and cultural process.

For week 10 and 11 the tasks to be undertaken to ensure students are able to meet their objectives is not determined. To heighten the effectiveness of the SOW this information could have been included as previously stated the SOW should include details of class activities and how resources should be used.

The SOW also highlights where cross curricular links can be made however although the link may be clear in week 9, it is not always clear where and how the links are made. Also the lesson plans have highlighted links which can be made with other subjects which are not evidenced in the SOW.

The SOW states learning objectives for each week which can help focus students learning and facilitate effective teaching however these are always phrased “to understand” which implies more of a broad aim about the topic. Lumby & Foskett (2005) state that an effective model of teaching is one which provides clearly defined objectives. The objectives should be statements of what the teacher is setting out to teach but expressed as if the students were going to learn it. http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/objectives.htm
However the objectives have been enhanced through the lesson plans where they are much more specific about teacher’s expectations of students, for example, “identify different gender expectations” and “”give examples of how income affects physical health”. To enhance the SOW and provide clearer guidance to teachers more specific objectives could be included.

All three lesson plans begin with a ‘Brains in Gear’ (BIG) task as specified by this school. This task has the ability to help students think about what they already know about a particular topic but also helps settle after the disruption of transition between classes. This gives the lesson a focused beginning and provides time to attend to the register and other housekeeping issues in order for the lesson to run smoothly. http://www.ehow.com/list_6571730_teacher-starter-activities.html 1999-2012 Demand Media, Inc

Following the BIG task learning objectives were displayed so that students were able to understand the aims of the lesson. Lessons which cater for varying techniques, ideas and strategies can enable the teacher and learner to play with knowledge and develop solid foundations upon which they can build (Kidd & Czerniawski, 2010). The lesson objectives are set on a predetermined layout although there was the ability to adapt this where needed. In order to accommodate diversity in academic ability within the class objectives were set in a ‘should’ and ‘could’ be able to way. This is aimed at providing objectives that everyone can achieve but also being able to further expand the knowledge of the more able and gifted and talented (G&T) students. To ensure the needs of the more able students and those with special needs were met it would have been useful to identify these individuals within the lesson plan. Differentiating work to enable pupils to work alongside each other on tasks that are challenging but achievable for each student should be the goal of each lesson (Capel & Gervis, 2009). Lesson plans for weeks 10 and 11 both state that target questioning will be used in order to ensure students are questioned to their level of ability but also stretched to thinking for themselves. Examples of target questions and could have been given both in the SOW and within the lesson plans to give better detail of the differentiation required within the class. To achieve this it would be worth considering Bloom’s taxonomy as a useful guide to thinking about higher ordering questioning. “By ensuring that Bloom’s higher level thinking is included in all lessons, more appropriate learning is likely to result (Bartlett & Leask, 2009).

Rogers (1951) theory states that a person cannot teach another person directly only facilitate another 's learning. Rogers (1951) states that each person reacts and responds according to their perception and experience. The belief is that what the student does is more important than what the teacher does. The SOW and lesson plans must take this diversity and individualism into account as Kyriacou (1995) states that “Effective teaching is primarily concerned with setting up a learning activity for each pupil that is successful in bringing about the type of learning the teacher intends” This must take into account what the student is doing and how they will achieve the learning objectives from this.

Starters
Main tasks

Plenaries
Curriculum

which in Unit 1 states that students will gain an understanding of: social, cultural and emotional factors such as family, friends, educational experiences, employment/unemployment, community involvement, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, culture and relationship formation including marriage and divorce c economic factors such as income, wealth, employment status, occupation, social class, poverty and material possessions d physical environment factors such as pollution, noise, housing conditions and rural/urban lifestyles e psychological factors such as stress, relationships within the family, friends and partners f how these factors are related to the formation of, and possible change in, an individual’s self-concept g how genetic and environmental factors can affect an individual’s pattern of growth and development.
Topic 1.3 Effects of relationships on personal growth and development
Students will gain an understanding of: a the different types of relationships: i family relationships such as marriage, divorce, parenthood, sibling relationships and blended families ii friendships iii intimate, personal and sexual relationships iv working relationships b the importance of the effect these relationships have, across the six life stages, on an individual’s growth and development

Read more: Schemes of Work http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/schemes_of_work.htm#ixzz1iR8JPGU0
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

Read more: Schemes of Work http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/schemes_of_work.htm#ixzz1iR80KgOI
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives
Unfortunately the Scheme of Work has been devalued by its bureaucratisation and the belief of many teachers that it exists only to satisfy—in this obsessional climate of morbid distrust of professional discretion, and of pulling up plants to see if their roots are growing—managers ' and inspectors ' craving for "evidence" of adequate practice. It needs to be rescued from this fate.
, to be annotated and scrawled all over. It is the most useful evaluation tool you can have, because given that most of us repeat courses year on year, reference to last year 's well-worn Scheme (and the year before 's) is the best guide to how to change things for this year (particularly if you are conscientious enough to enter in the findings from your evaluation exercises). http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/schemes_of_work.htm Edexcel GCSE in Health and Social
Care (Double Award) (2HS02)

References

Wikipedia 25 December 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_of_work 25 December 2010.
British Council 2011 http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/scheme-work The teaching english website
Atherton J S (2011) Teaching and Learning; Schemes of Work [On-line: UK] retrieved 3 January 2012 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/schemes_of_work.htm
Maslow A H. (1943) A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review 50(4); 370-96.

Bloom (1956) cited in Atherton J S (2011) Learning and Teaching; Bloom 's taxonomy from <http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm> Accessed 27 October 2011

Bennett & Leask (2009) from Capel

Bartlett & Leask (2009)

Heightmen (2009) in Capel

Capel & Gervis in Capel

Bruner 1960) Bruner, J. (1960). The Process of Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Harley, 1995

Vygotsky L. S. (1978) cited in Kidd W. & Czerniawski G. (2010) Successful Teaching 14-19 Theory, Practice and Reflection. Sage. London.

References: Maslow A H. (1943) A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review 50(4); 370-96. Bloom (1956) cited in Atherton J S (2011) Learning and Teaching; Bloom 's taxonomy from &lt;http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm&gt; Accessed 27 October 2011 Bennett &amp; Leask (2009) from Capel Bartlett &amp; Leask (2009) Heightmen (2009) in Capel Capel &amp; Gervis in Capel Bruner 1960) Bruner, J Harley, 1995 Vygotsky L