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I also had to keep reinforcing with teachers that I was still there in a supportive
role and that the notes I was making while they were teaching were for me, so that I
could see where teachers still required support and in which areas. Others saw my
observations as an enabler or opportunity for me to provide support and feedback;
‘I
was worried about – that I would do it wrong…but it did feel supportive like I knew you
would be there to help it along’
(1 FGT Cathal 3).
I was conscious of you being around assessing but I don’t experience
assessment as bad, as I am assessing all the time myself. So I think assessment
to me is the medium to me in which I live and teach. So if it is not hostile, so if I
have someone to watch over me like a guardian angel of assessment, that’s what
you were, so you know again maybe next time I will go a little bit further. That
is the way it will be. It seems to me that a lot of this is unimportant I think, feel
it it’s unimportant…what is important is to start, to review what you have done,
with the children, see how you can improve it, with the children, discussion, try
again and just keep going.
(1 FGT Eamonn 3)
Eamonn’s understanding of assessment was to reflect or review on what he
taught, and try to improve it for the next lesson. He did not see reflection as a barrier but
rather something to be embraced and something which should be done as a natural part
of teaching and learning.
But the point is you were actually very helpful to me. You didn’t keep coming up
to me upfront and saying - do this. You actually sat down with me and
[explained] this is what I am trying to do. You actually made me see it clearly
and see pitfalls and see things were actually available in what I call the magic
room [PE Store] which I didn’t even know were there. So, it actually, I was
trying to see into the landscape and you lit it up at points so it was
approachable. Now in that sense I would like someone like you around all the
time
.
(1 FGT Eamonn 3)
A sentiment reported by Eamonn and echoed by a number of teachers was how
great it would be to have someone around all the time to offer support and to facilitate
discussion/ reflection. It was difficult at the beginning of the study to schedule focus
group interviews and the interviews may have been an imposition on teachers’ time.
Ultimately, however, the focus-group interviews provided teachers with opportunities to
have in-depth discussion about content, reflect on the lessons they had seen or taught
and to critically challenge the O&AA content.
At stage 2, the teachers who taught for the first time at this stage of the PDP,
similar to those who taught at stage 1 sought reassurance and
feedback that they were
teaching the content correctly
. ‘Teachers not afraid to ask ‘is that ok?’ in front of
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children’
(LO Simon 4, Eve 3).
‘Always asked [if unsure about anything] and liked
having support of having someone there to ask’
(LO Amanda 1). Teachers looked for
feedback regularly and not just on how they taught but also how they might teach, even
when they had solutions to problems they might encounter they required affirmation
that they had come to the correct solution;
The teachers are having problems, coming up with solutions, and just running
the solutions past me to check if they’re okay. And I think this is where you need
the teacher on-site to be able, or the supporter, or the PE advisor, that little
questions like this can be answered. If I had, hadn’t been able to answer him,
would he have gone in with less confidence? Um, if I hadn’t been there, would
he have abandoned the lesson? Or would he have gone on and tried it anyway
and seen what would’ve happened for his own sake?
(FN 07.10.07)
Although the teachers may have seen lessons modelled and may have been able
to adapt content to suit their or their children’s needs, they continued
to experience a
doubt in their planning and teaching and this may have been due to the fact that they
were still coming to terms with this new content and pedagogical content knowledge.
Many of the teachers were caught in a ‘professional’ dilemma. During the first
week of the PDP I felt that some of the younger teachers who would have done a
module in O&AA in college were hesitant in asking for support because they felt I
would have expected them to be able to teach it. One of these teachers tried to teach the
lessons and following the lesson came and asked for support because she didn’t
understand the lesson fully. The late career teachers were similar, and felt self-
conscious with a younger person showing them what to do, when they have been
teaching for over 20 years. Other teachers’ professionalism
showed when they kept
children for O&AA for over their allocated hour to ensure that they had taught all
aspects of a lesson while the facilitator was present, to ensure they made the most of all
the support on offer.
When asked if teachers would have taught the O&AA strand without some
encouragement they responded as follows;
‘I actually think it is because you spend so
much time talking to all the teachers and trying to help teachers out that the teachers
actually want to do it’
(2 FGT Miriam 5). Although I observed that teachers were able
to teach the O&AA strand, considering this was their first or in some cases second
attempt at
teaching the lesson content, many of the teachers did say that if I wasn’t there
to provide that push or requirement to teach the lessons they wouldn’t have done so.
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Some of the teachers may have taught the first lesson but if that hadn’t gone well then
they wouldn’t have gone any further.
Facilitators of professional development programmes should be aware of the
relationship that may exist between them and teachers. In this case, there existed a dual
relationship between the facilitator and the teachers i) five teachers had the facilitator as
a lecturer in college and found it difficult to separate the role of lecturer and teaching
practice supervisor (though the facilitator had not supervised any of the teachers on
teaching practice during their ITE) from facilitator and ii)
the remaining teachers were
aware of the role of the facilitator as a lecturer and would have described the facilitator
as an expert in the area of physical education. While many of the teachers saw this
‘expert’ role as a benefit to them, it became a barrier when observing lessons. The
facilitator felt that at times the teachers were under pressure and compared their
teaching to the modeled lessons. Facilitator encouragement and reassurance became
important elements of effective PDP facilitation.
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