Learning to Teach in the Primary Classroom

Anne Proctor · Margaret Entwistle · Brenda Judge · Sandy McKenzie-Murdoch

Aug 2005 · Routledge

About this ebook

This text is specially designed to support student teachers in the school based element of their course. It provides accessible guidance, backed by numerous classroom examples, on the essential knowledge and skills needed to teach effectively. The chapters cover:

* Classroom organisation
* Planning for children's learning
* Teaching strategies
* Assessment, recording and reporting
* Self-appraisal

Each section contains information in concise and practical form. For students wishing to explore subjects in more depth, supplementary material at the end of the chapters includes analysis of curriculum and policy documents, case studies, suggestions for further reading and activities to try out in the classroom. Throughout, novice teachers are encouraged to think about how the basic skills fit together in their professional development and determine the sort of teacher that they will eventually be.

About the author

Anne Proctor is Principal Lecturer at Edge Hill College of Higher Education, with responsibility for the management of programmes for people preparing to teach in the Upper Primary age phase. Her particular interest is understanding the most effective ways of defining the roles of teachers and tutors in the professional preparation of student teachers. She recently completed a PhD in which she explored cooperation between teachers and tutors in the supervision of student teachers in school. The outcomes of the series of studies have been applied to the development of courses in teacher education/training and the development of mentor training programmes for teacher mentors., Margaret Entwistle trained for secondary teaching and spent fifteen years in primary classrooms. She is now a tutor in the School of Teacher Education at Edge Hill College of Higher Education. Her present interests lie in exploring ways in which student teachers develop and learn and she has recently been involved with a Profile of Professional Development to help student teachers monitor their own professional development., Brenda Judge has been headteacher of a large inner-city primary school for eight years and a primary teacher member of the Manchester Education Committee for three years. She is the initiator and co-author of 40,000Minority and Primary Majority, two booklets which prompted the establishment of primary headteacher groups across England and Wales and highlighted the inequalities of provision for primary-aged children., Sandy McKenzie-Murdoch began her career as a primary school teacher where she became acutely aware of the challenge of meeting individual needs. This led her to pursue an interest in the psychology of learning and the study of teaching which has been the major focus of her career ever since. At present, she works with student-teachers and teachers both as a teacher trainer and as an educational psychologist.