EDFX110 Visit 3 Friday 27th March 2009
Yr 4 class
School context
From my observations and visits to date, I see that the culture of the school has most of its energy
focused on the curriculum and outcomes.
Most teachers appeared to be concerned with getting through all the activities set out in the
curriculum. The children were constantly reminded of the work they had to be doing and the work
that was yet to be done.
Teachers & their work
I spoke to the teacher and asked her how she saw teaching and her role in it. She replied that
teaching was a very challenging yet satisfying job because there was a lot of preparation and work
involved but being able to help children, pass on knowledge gave her a good feeling at the end of
the day. She believed her role was one of a nurturing one like seeing the children as plants that
needed to cared and looked after in order for it to grow. What she considers most important is the
learning and the developmental needs of the child as she believes that by focusing on the needs of
the child in terms of learning and development would empower them to do anything and succeed.
I really admired this teacher as the class was just boys (it is a co-ed school but in this year level there
was not enough girls). Despite boys being very mischievous, she managed to embrace this
characteristic evident in most boys allowing them to be themselves yet teaching them the necessity
of order and discipline. She would be firm at times and yet speaking to them as though she was one
of their friends. I think that the teacher’s ability to come to their level enabled her to be trusted by
the boys and allow her to order them and teach them.
Who is in?
What the child experiences in a classroom are related to the types of attention they receive.
The type of attention children receive from the teacher differs from child to child.
There are a variety of ways teachers interact with students during lesson:
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Asking questions
Praising
Reminding to pay attention
Reprimanding
Not waiting for child to answer question
Observing the patterns of teacher and student interaction during the day
From my visit in the school, I saw that not all children receive equal attention from the teacher.
It appeared that all children in this classroom were treated quite fairly, there were no students who
received more favourable attention over the other.
All the children did not participate equally as some children were more confident and vocal than
others. To overcome this I noticed that the teacher would request certain children to respond to a
question even though there would already be students willing to answer the question.
The nature of the children’s participation was not the same. Some children participated to get
attention from the teacher and his peers. Some children genuinely wanted to give an answer. Some
children did not even participate at all and were clearly distracted.
What might explain the differences in the students’ participation could be their self-esteem,
confidence level; whether they are encouraged or given the opportunity to voice their opinion or
participate in conversations at home; whether they feel their contribution would be accepted or
validated.
Question for the week: How is a balance struck between:
1. The curriculum & outcomes;
2. Teaching & classroom mgt;
3. Learning & the developmental needs of the child?
Understanding and knowledge of children’s lifeworlds is vital to better direct your attention and
resources as a teacher whose goal is to empower children with the necessary tools and skills to play
a part in designing their lifeworlds in the future. To assist in this area, a combination of using the
curriculum and classroom management would be necessary. The curriculum would provide activities
that would be a vehicle to build a child’s skills and classroom management would be required to
create a suitable and appropriate environment to encourage the children to reach high performance
and gain motivation in completing the activities. The ability to communicate the importance of
discipline would enable students to start thinking and concentrating on their task. I believe
communicating to children the goal we, as teachers, are trying to achieve in them would enable
them to take responsibility of their learning.