How we teach you

Through the year you will develop professionalism and learn how to acquire the knowledge, skills and understanding to become an effective teacher by taking responsibility for your own learning.

The University of Reading, in partnership with local Primary Schools, developed the Primary programme. It takes into account:

• background research on professional learning and theories of best practice teaching
• the needs of the trainee teacher
• the practicalities of teaching in school
• the need for reflection on learning.

From this starting point, The Partnership has negotiated and agreed:

• the complementary roles to be taken by staff in the University and the Partner Schools
• the structure of the year
• the content of the major programme elements
• a process enabling trainees to reflect on performance
• the nature of the assessment system

The current version of the programme is the result of long-standing collaborative working between the University of Reading and local Partnership Schools. We are confident that your programme is soundly based in research, and is sensitive to the practical opportunities and constraints that exist in schools. It is also designed to help you to develop the understanding and the skills that schools look for when appointing Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs).

Content

In the University, time is spent studying both the theory and the practice of whole school issues and teaching the primary curriculum. Staff from partnership schools and other practitioners, such as ASTs and advisors, support University tutors.

In schools, time is spent working alongside mentor teachers, gradually moving towards responsibility for small groups and whole classes for increasing lengths of time. School-based tasks are set for each Phase.

Individual needs: Throughout the whole programme trainees are supported in taking responsibility for their own learning and to reflect on their own development.

The University of Reading PGCE Model is a reflective model. This means that we do not give you prescriptions or spoon-feed you recipes of How to Teach.

• We show you what research has found out about pupils learning, teachers teaching and how teachers learn to teach.
• We ask you to observe teachers and pupils in action in real situations and then, most importantly of all,
• We ask you to reflect on what you have perceived.

We do this so that you can feed the best bits into your own teaching and try out what suits you best. You then reflect on your own performance (taking feedback from your tutors and colleagues into account) and consider what you might do to improve it. Through this process of reflection you learn how to learn, you learn how to improvise and, above all, you learn how to take responsibility for your own learning and development.