Getting the practical teaching element right: A guide for literacy, numeracy and ESOL teacher educators



A guide for literacy, numeracy and ESOL teacher educators

‘I need to know, in observing a trainee teach that, for example, one of the action
points they agreed at their last observation was to focus on the clarity of their
instruction giving, so that I can be sure to reflect on progress with this as well
as focus on additional areas.'

All of which adds to the case for keeping the team as small as is practicable,
though with a minimum of two.

Observations of trainees’ teaching range from weekly (or more frequently in
some examples of the training group model) to perhaps once a term for models
using placements or trainees’ own teaching. NRDC research shows that not only
was it better to have as many observation occasions as possible, to increase the
number of essential feedback loops, with as much time as possible for feedback.
The timing of feedback was integral - though potentially very personal: not ‘too
soon’ or ‘too late’. Once again, teacher educators echoed this point:

‘There are different schools of thought on this, there are people who think it
should be done the next day so the individual has time to sleep on it, but I
prefer doing it when it's fresh; I think you lose something otherwise and if it's
been an uncomfortable experience, 24 hours is long enough to start distancing
yourself from some of the bits that don't feel right. Memory shifts things
around and loses things that you don't want to hang onto.'

Reflective logs

Reflective logs provide the space for learners to tease out their thoughts,
anxieties, theories and analyses of their developing classroom experience in
writing, usually by choosing their own jumping off points, such as the arrival of a
new form of learner assessment, something that happened that day in a class
they observed, an example of excellent peer practice and why it worked or
perhaps an article they read which echoed their experience. Reflective logs allow
trainees to write their own narratives transforming the difficulties of teaching,
and of the uncertain nature of literacy, numeracy and ESOL teaching, into
something which can be more readily understood.

Trainees speaking to NRDC researchers were very positive about the use of
reflective logs, both as a near therapeutic tool and as an excellent means of
creating links between theory and practice, between course input, classroom
observations, classroom teaching and their own reading. This is true even of

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