321
The basic innovation in the Alternative Course was the school group
and in the research this group has been seen at work in the school
and in the Institute. It was seen as the forum for other parts of
the PGCE where subject method, education courses, options, school
were all represented in the work of the group. It is small enough
to provide face to face and continuing support for its members.
Since it has an existence throughout the school experience and beyond
those times when it is specifically convened in the school or Insti-
tute it can be responsive to its members needs as individuals.
Frequently in the research this aspect of the group’s life was refer-
red to and it Isperhaps the extensiveness and nature of its contact
in non-formal settings that enables the group to define its own
purposes in the more formal settings. Whilst the character of indiv-
idual groups varies within and between years a relatively continuous
element
seems to be the group’s encouragement
and support for the
interests of its individual members. The school group with its tutor
is central to areas of PGCE experience which conventionally
are
separated, for example
teaching practice and written assessment.
Discussions in the Research Group suggested that assessment tied
to specific components of the PGCE was unhelpful and students found
it difficult to make such work serve their own purposes. Once the
written assessment is anchored within the group which is already
based on teaching practice allocation and explicitly relates to all
aspects of the student’s experience, the group and its work is given
central importance in the PGCE.
This group provides a balance and a challenge to
the pre-eminence
of the subject method group which was demonstrated
in the Leicester
Research as a common fact of life in PGCE work. The natural tendency
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