SWitch Dissemination Conference - Workshop Sessions

"It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it!"

a celebration of the
SWitch Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training

Thursday 29 April 2010
(10.00 am - 4.00 pm)
at
Taunton Rugby Club, Hyde Park, Taunton, TA2 8BU

WORKSHOP SESSIONS 


Delegates will be able to attend three of these workshops throughout the day.


Session (1)  :  11.45 am - 12.45 pm


1(a)   "Mirror, mirror on the wall …"  Supporting Reflective Practice through Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Led by:  Jim Crawley & Caroline Harvey (Bath Spa University), David Finch (National Star College) & Dave Butter (Avon & Somerset Police Learning & Development Department)

This workshop will provide a practical opportunity to share the results of the SWitch Reflective Practice Project, which has:

•   collected and created a set of resources to support teachers in the Lifelong Learning sector in developing Reflective Practice
•   produced a flexible CPD programme and associated teacher notes / support materials to make the most of the resources

Participants will be given a chance to see, try out and review the resource/CPD programme which includes paper-based, online and multimedia resources.

Topics covered by the resource/CPD programme include:
 
•   what is reflective practice?
•   what are the benefits of reflective practice?
•   reflecting on learning
•   ways to reflect including writing, speaking and visualising
•   reflecting on … practical teaching; teaching observations; tutorials; CPD

The session will be active and you will be able to take away a selection of resources to use.


1(b)   Mentoring in Understanding & Managing Challenging Behaviour

Led by:  Theresa Owens & Trevor Philpott (Life Change UK)

During 2009, Life Change UK delivered four courses entitled "Mentoring in Understanding & Managing Challenging Behaviour".  The courses were designed to help experienced teachers and trainers to mentor and support less experienced colleagues in the management of challenging behaviour.

Participants claim to have benefited both personally and professionally.  Most suggested that it should be made available more widely, particularly for those undertaking ITT.

This interactive workshop will explore how Mentoring can be a powerful tool for personal and professional development as well as an effective way to encourage others to progress and grow in confidence and self-esteem when working with challenging behaviour, by:

•   exploring the benefits of mentoring
•   identifying the competencies of a good mentor
•   discussing the differences between mentoring and coaching, and
•   discussing the benefits for introducing a mentoring programme to support those working with challenging behaviour


1(c)   Models of Good Practice in Recruitment, Initial Assessment, Induction & On-going Support for ITE Trainees:  Findings from a project in the Learning and Skills Sector

Led by:  Dr Richard Waller & John Homewood (University of the West of England, Bristol)

This session presents results from the combined SWitch 0703/0710 projects, the final report of which (Waller et al 2009) was submitted last summer.  The collaborative project was led by a team at the University of the West of England (UWE), and also involved City of Bristol College staff.

The workshop will begin with a presentation outlining the background to the research, and an explanation of the methods employed to gather the data.  It will then offer exemplar findings from the four constituent aspects of the project, recruitment procedures, initial assessment, induction, and on-going support, and invite participants to consider the extent to which these findings are context specific, or potentially transferable to other Learning & Skills ITE settings.

The session will conclude with a discussion of the notion of ‘best practice’, and the extent to which it is sometimes too context specific to be readily transferred elsewhere.


1(d)   Breadth Practice in Initial Teacher Education

Led by:  Debra Johnson (Petroc - formerly North Devon College)

"Breadth of practice" is the term used to describe the opportunities that trainee teachers have to observe, teach and assess at different levels to different types of learners in different age groups and in different employment contexts.  It also indicates the expectation that trainees gain experience of non-teaching roles such as supporting individual learners and of the varied contexts in which their subject specialism is taught in the Lifelong Learning Sector.

This workshop will explore ways by which providers can make the most of opportunities to extend trainees experience of teaching and learning in other contexts.


Session (2)  :  1.30 pm - 2.30 pm


2(a)   Can You Really Cope with Equality & Diversity?

Led by:  Penny Powdrill & Barbara Betts (Royal Forest of Dean College)

This is an interactive workshop.  It will provide participants with a taste of the materials and activities that have been devised to help embed behaviour management strategies associated with equality and diversity, into Initial Teacher Training.  The resources are designed to extend the teaching methods repertoire of new teachers.

The session will start by agreeing ground rules and will continue with a carousel of activities which include using:

•   games
•   case studies
•   sorting exercises
•   hot seating
•   puppets

Factsheets will also be available on The Human Rights Act and Equality and Diversity legislation.


2(b)   Making the Most of Mentoring

Led by:  David Finch (National Star College) & Sharon Bowden (Foxes Academy)

A practical workshop exploring an interactive learning resource developed by National Star College and Foxes Academy through a SWitch funded project in 2009.

Participants will be guided through podcasts, videos and downloadable resources designed to support mentors in guiding trainee teachers through their programmes.  The resource works for both mentors and trainees as it explores the aspirations and expectations of a mentoring role from both perspectives.  The resource includes guidance through reflective practice, lesson observation, lesson planning, tutorials and feedback.

Participants will be asked to complete two exercises using the resource during the workshop.

CD's containing the resource will be available for each attendee to take away with them.


2(c)   The ICE Project  -  Teaching for Innovation, Creativity & Enterprise

Led by:  Sheila Burley, Warren Evans & Slafka Scragg (ICE House Project)

ICE House is a project supported through Peninsula CETT that is focussed upon how innovation, creativity and enterprising behaviour can become naturally embedded in teaching and learning.

Key to ICE House thinking is how we can best provide opportunities for learners to work with authentic creative problem solving whereby ‘what we know’ is constantly applied to ‘what we do’ and the key learning and understanding takes place through engagement with the process.

This workshop is an interactive opportunity based on the concepts of:

•   mindset shifts for learning and achievement
•   creative Problem solving and problem based learning
•   personal skills and attributes - active planning, development and participation opportunities with a focus upon
        -   resilience and persistence
        -   curiosity
        -   risk taking
        -   dealing with failure
        -   uncertainty
•   assessment - noticing and recording impacts upon thoughts, emotions and behaviours


Session (3)  :  2.35 pm - 3.35 pm


3(a)   The Evaluation Toolkit

Lead by:  Jo Pye (Marchmont SLIM)

Over the past two years researchers at Marchmont SLIM, Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter, have designed, analysed and reported on satisfaction levels of initial teacher trainees on courses at SWitch partners and sectors.  Marchmont SLIM has now been asked by the SWitch CETT Partnership to develop an innovative Self-Evaluation Toolkit.  The Toolkit builds on the validated survey approach to strengthen organisational self-assessment by SWitch partner providers of Initial Teacher Training (ITT), and reflect perceptions of course quality by individual trainees.

The Toolkit supports SWitch partner providers by:

•   offering a generic, customisable approach, for ITT providers across sectors to tailor the Toolkit to their own context
•   building capacity for performance measurement as required for self-assessment by Ofsted and the Learing & Skills Improvement Service (LSIS)
•   supporting transfer of qualifications between sectors
•   incorporating guidelines for analysis of the results; and
•   a ‘traffic light system’ to guide interpretation

This session will present and demonstrate the Toolkit and provide opportunities for interactive feedback by participants.


3(b)   Diversifying the Workforce

Led by:  Dr Richard Waller, Dan Woods & John Homewood (University of the West of England, Bristol)

This workshop presents findings from the on-going SWitch 0904 project, led by the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) and in collaboration with the Western Training Partnership Network (WTPN).

The project itself looked at Human Resource (HR) strategies employed in both the private Work Based Learning Sector and Further Education Colleges to engage people from under-represented communities in teaching or vocational training.

The session will present data from the project including a profile of the workforce amongst the participating organisations and a number of case studies illustrating the impact of directed recruitment and engagement strategies upon individual employees.  Workshop participants will consider the effectiveness of the approaches adopted and the degree to which they may be effective in other settings.  The session will conclude with a discussion of the lessons for the wider sector in attempting to diversify its workforce.


3(c)   Embedding Sustainability in Teacher Education

Led by:  Denise Summers (University of Plymouth) & Johanna Wright (Somerset College)

Denise and Johanna have spent the last three years embedding sustainability into the Cert Ed/PGCE/DTLLS and PTLLS programmes, with other members of Somerset College's Teacher Training Team.  They have taken a co-operative inquiry, action research approach which has enabled them to support each other in developing their knowledge, values, skills and confidence to do this.  They have planned sessions and created resources to introduce their students to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in order for them to research it in relation to their own subject specialisms.  This has enabled them to develop lesson plans and resources to introduce it to their own students in the Lifelong Learning Sector.  They have now embedded ESD within the whole programme and are disseminating their work both regionally and nationally.

This workshop will give you a flavour of what Denise and Johanna have done and how you could develop ESD within your own practice.