Week 8: Professional (02/04/12 - 08/04/12)

Energy posters

Although I am thoroughly enjoying my placement at the International School of Poznan, I can already see that there is a big difference between the how lessons are taught here compared to back home. The biggest area that is noticeable is the way lessons are planned here in Poland. In Ireland, there is a strong emphasis on individual lesson plans, thematic units and schemes of work. These are planned on weekly, monthly and term bases, depending on the area being taught. In Poland however, it seems to be a lot more relaxed. The teachers will have meetings to discuss what topics will be taught, however, these meetings seem to lack structure on how the pupils will develop throughout the topic. In my grade 4 class, the teachers follow one main area which currently is ‘Energy.’

Grade 4 'Energy project'

 They focus the majority of their time on working on this, and often at the expense of others subjects. This means that when the other subjects are taught, they tend to be rushed and often with no differentiation shown. For example, when a maths lesson is being taught, it is read from a textbook and the pupils are often told the answers to fill in. This differs greatly from the experience I have had in teaching maths on placement in Ireland. The Northern Ireland curriculum tells us that;

“Throughout the primary school, children should engage in a wide range of purposeful activities which should involve them in different modes of mathematical learning, including playing, exploring and investigating, doing and observing, talking and listening, asking questions, reflecting, drafting, reading and recording.” (NI Curriculum, 2007)

I have been told that once the pupils move to Grade 5 next year, the teaching will be totally different. This is because once they reach this age (p7) they are expected to be more independent. I was interested in seeing this, so I asked to be placed with a grade 5 class for a day. Even though they are only one year older than my grade 4 class, I was amazed to see the difference between the two.

Grade 5 'Space display'

Within the grade 5 class, there is an understanding between the teacher and pupil that allows the pupils to choose what they want to learn. When I was in the class, the teacher had spent a large part of the morning photocopying sheets and preparing resources for an English lesson about Space. However, when she was preparing to teach it, the pupils said they didn’t want to. Instead of continuing with the lesson, the teacher put it to a vote, and the majority of the children voted against doing an English lesson. I was amazed that the pupils could wield this type of power in the classroom; however I was impressed by what happen next. The teacher gave the pupils time to discuss what they wanted to learn instead, and they had to produce reasons why the lesson they wanted to learn would benefit them. The pupils were making valid reasons and connecting their ideas to different areas of learning.

I immediately began to wonder if this type of teaching would work in any of the classes I have had placement with and what the lecturers in Stranmillis would make of it.

I will be back with my Grade 4 class next week and teaching several lessons, so I will hopefully be able to implement some of my strategies and see how the class will react to being taught in a different manner.

Reference:

www.nicurriculum.org