Through the exploration of subject-specific pedagogies, discuss the theoretical perspectives and research that have influenced your practice. Contrast the planning, teaching and assessing of a series of lessons, and evaluate the impact on your developing philosophy of leading learning.

Impact of pedagogies on the students

Module 2: Suggested Essay Structure

Through the exploration of subject-specific pedagogies, discuss the theoretical perspectives and research that have influenced your practice. Contrast the planning, teaching and assessing of a series of lessons, and evaluate the impact on your developing philosophy of leading learning.

Introduction (4-5 paragraphs):

Clearly introduce the research focus and question?

Outline which class they have chosen to focus on and the focus of their Unit of Work (E.g., Year 9 set 2 class who are studying A Christmas Carol) with reference to the appropriate influences (exam spec, framework, NC, etc.)?

Does it briefly refer to key contextual factors which impacted on this class and why they have chosen them (E.g., school/departmental context and requirements; pupils’ prior knowledge or experience; local and national issues; etc)?

Outline their aims for this unit in terms of both their own development as a practitioner and pupil learning and progress?

Is data used to inform these aims (E.g., observation feedback, termly review, reflection, lesson evaluations, pupil assessment, pupil voice, department agenda, school agenda, etc)? Does it explore how the two sets of aims interrelate?

Outline the pedagogy (with some quotation) they have chosen to implement with this class and underpin their Unit of Work/lessons?

Articulate (with some quotation) how this links to their emerging educational philosophy and how it will influence their approach to their lessons/Unit of Work?

Literature Review (4-5):

Review specific learning theories that underpin the chosen pedagogy?
Review subject pedagogies that underpin the teaching of the identified pedagogy in their Unit of Work?
Does it include a range of academic and government/policy research?
Does it critically discuss what the research suggests about how a teacher might plan, teach, assess and evaluate this unit in order to achieve the aims they have set? Have they linked this back to why one approach might be better than another for their class?

Overview of Unit of Work and Lesson Plans (4-5):

Critically discuss the rationale behind their planning of this Unit of Work (5 hours of sequenced learning)? That is, explain how their research about the pedagogy has influenced the design of lessons and how it has influenced the choices and decisions they have made.
Be precise and specific – making dynamic use of the lesson plans in the appendices to illustrate the points and make direct links back to the research. Remember to reference here.

Methodology: (approx. 2-3 paragraphs):

Explain which reflective model will be used to collect and analyse the data, saying why?
Explain what data and evidence will be/has been collected and collated for analysis?
Does it comment on any ethical issues in relation to collecting this data? (e.g., anonymising the work)?

Analysing and Evaluating the Evidence (8 paragraphs for analysis):
Analyse what has been learnt about teaching and how this has impacted on what pupils have learnt?
Does it make dynamic use of the evidence/data from the appendices to support this? It is precise and specific and use more than one piece of data to interpret (e.g., teacher lesson evaluations and pupil work)?
Does it link back to the research to justify why it has worked or use research to solve problems which arose?

Conclusions and implications for the future (2 paragraphs):

Summarise what they have learned from this experience about theories of teaching and learning and their potential impact on future practice and pupil attainment?
Has their perspective on any of the theories / strategies they have explored changed / developed? Are there any theories that they are now keen to explore more fully? / What areas of practice would they like to develop further? What might future areas for development be? What ideas for further reading/research could they do?
Have their findings developed their emerging philosophy of teaching and learning/leading learning?

Reference List:

Use the Harvard Referencing System

 Appendices:

Appendix 1: Data that justifies their focus (lesson feedback and class data)?
Appendix 2: Five hours of lesson plans and their evaluations which show how they have used the research (separately label these 2a, 2b, 2c etc)?
Appendix 3: Lesson resources which may exemplify use of research further than the lesson plans?
Appendix 4-5: Data which shows impact of pedagogy? This must include lesson evaluations for the lesson plans and pupil work at a minimum. The lesson evaluations may be included with the lesson plans in Appendix 2 but may also include extracts from the BlueSky Journal entries.

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