![]()
Pearson Education Ltd/Phovoir. Imagestate
PART 1
Influences on Teaching and Learning
As teachers, the most important aspect of our role is our day-to-day contact with learners in classrooms. However, this contact does not take place in some kind of bubble, but is affected by a whole range of influences: those that both we and our pupils bring with us from our own daily lives and backgrounds, and also those relating to social, political, local, national and even international influences. On top of this, each of our pupils is experiencing their own growth and development differently, and trying to make sense of who they are as individuals. Many of these significant developments take place between the ages of 7 and 14, including the transition between primary and secondary education. Making sense of our classrooms, and the learning that takes place within them, means making sense of some of these influences as well.
The chapters in this part consider some of these influences.
![]()
CHAPTER 1
Contexts of Learning
In this chapter you will:
ā¢ Reflect on your own beliefs about the aims and purposes of education
ā¢ Begin to consider the social and political influences which affect teaching and learning
ā¢ Begin to consider the ways in which schools develop a distinctive ethos
ā¢ Begin to identify the ways in which different learning contexts can impact on individual learners
ā¢ Apply this understanding to pupilsā experiences of transition between phases of education
Pearson Education Ltd/Phovoir. Imagestate
Introduction
However much we might sometimes wish it to be the case, life in the classroom cannot be isolated from a range of other influences. The policies and practices of the school, its local community, and educational policies in the local authority as well as national policies all impact on teaching and learning every day (see Figure 1.1). The contexts of learning directly affect the ways the classroom operates as the context for learning.
Figure 1.1 Influences on teaching and learning
This chapter examines some of these influences as a start in considering the ways in which different learning contexts can impact on individual learners. We will focus mainly on three areas:
ā¢ national policies for education, and some of the influences that affect how policy is developed;
ā¢ school ethos and how this can affect the experience of individual learners;
ā¢ transition between primary and secondary education, as this is a significant event in the educational lives of pupils within the 7ā14 age range, and how well this process is managed can have a significant effect on their future educational achievement.
What is education for?
We start by considering some ābig questionsā: what do you think is the purpose of education? and why have you chosen to teach? While this book will not provide a definitive answer to the first question, and only you can provide an answer to the second, we think it is important for teachers to keep asking these questions in order to remind themselves why they want to teach and what kind of teacher they want to be.
Why did you decide you wanted to teach?
Some of the answers to this question that our prospective student teachers give at interview are as follows:
ā¢ I want to make a difference to childrenās lives.
ā¢ I am really interested in my subject and I want to share this, and encourage my pupils to feel the same.
ā¢ I think teachers have an important responsibility in shaping the future.
ā¢ I am really interested in children.
ā¢ Your own answerā¦ā¦ā¦?
Individuals will give different priorities to these ideas, but we would like to suggest that all these responses are important if you are going to be an effective teacher. What underpins all these answers is an enthusiasm based in your personal interests and values, but also the idea that having an education matters, and that education is an intrinsically good thing.
So what is the main purpose of education? Where do the key ideas about why education is important come from, and how do they shape education policy?
Although educational practices may appear different in different parts of the world, one of the fundamental aims of education in any society, formal or informal, is to equip learners to function effectively within a particular cultural context. This is a significant aspect of socialisation and is inextricably linked to the values and beliefs operating within a particular culture, although these links are not always explicitly stated. These values and beliefs are promoted through the content of the curriculum and its organisation, and also through the ways in which teaching and learning take place in the classroom.
THINKING IT THROUGH: FORMS OF EDUCATION
EXAMPLE 1
The film Cave of the Yellow Dog tells the story of a young girl living a nomadic existence in Mongolia. The film was shot on location, using a genuine Mongolian family as the main characters, not professional actors. In one sequence, the girl watches her mother making cheese and dried sausage for sale in a market and in another she rides out with her father to see the herds. These episodes are examples of her education as a member of her tribe.
EXAMPLE 2
Foremost is a belief in education, at home and at school, as a route to the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, physical and mental development, and thus the well-being, of the individual. Education is also a route to equality of opportunity for all, a healthy and just democracy, a productive economy, and sustainable development. Education should reflect the enduring values that contribute to these ends. These include valuing ourselves, our families and other relationships, the wider groups to which we belong, the diversity in our society and the environment in which we live. Education should also reaffirm our commitment to the virtues of truth, justice, honesty, trust and a sense of duty.
At the same time, education must enable us to respond positively to the opportunities and challenges of the rapidly changing world in which we live and work. In particular, we need to be prepared to engage as individuals, parents, workers and citizens with economic, social and cultural change, including the continued globalisation of the economy and society, with new work and leisure patterns and with the rapid expansion of communication technologies.
Thinking it through
Are these two examples fundamentally different? Both are underpinned by beliefs about what is important for members of a particular society to learn.
The second example is taken from the statement of values and purposes in the National Curriculum for England. It contains a number of statements which it assumes are widely shared within our own society.
ā¢ Using a highlighter pen, or underlining, indicate examples of these key themes from this statement: personal, social, and economic values or purposes.
(If you donāt want to mark this book download this from www.qcda.org.uk and follow links to āNational Curriculumā. The values statement is available in both Key Stage 1 and 2 and Key Stage 3 and 4 areas.)
ā¢ Do you agree with all these purposes for education? What do you consider to be the most important aims and purposes of education?
You might like to compare this statement with that of the revised Scottish National Curriculum: Curriculum for Excellence (www.curriculumforexcellencescotland.gov.uk). What similarities and differences can you identify?
Influences on the curriculum
All countries with national education systems have some form of statement outlining the values or principles on which their system is based. The curriculum of any country is not value-neutral, but reflects that countryās culture and beliefs as expressed in public policy (Figure 1.2). International comparisons of primary education systems indicate that there are apparent similarities between countries in terms of the names given to subjects within the curriculum, but the names used do not indicate the content of the subject curriculum, nor the pedagogical approaches which are commonly used to teach these subject areas (Hall and Ćzerk, 2008).
In recent years there have been changes to curriculum content in many countries, including the UK, that reflect changing social and political priorities (Shuayb and OāDonell, 2008). Many Western countries, including those within the UK, are now placing a greater emphasis on thinking skills or ālearning how to learnā. This is to respond to a need for people with more flexible learning skills in order to respond to changing technologies as these economies move away from industrial production towards the so-called āknowledge economyā. As a result of increasing diversity in the populations of many Western countries there is also an increasing emphasis on citizenship or civics education, although this is currently non-statutory in English primary schools. 2020 Vision: The Report of the Teaching and Learning Review Group (DfES, 2006) indicates ways in which the curriculum may need to be developed further in order to provide children currently entering education with the skills and understanding they are likely to need as adults in the rest of the twenty-first century.
Figure 1.2 Influences on teaching and learning
āWe donāt do that hereā
Angela is a black pupil in a secondary school in a small seaside town in southern England with a largely white population. Her family emigrated from East Africa several years ago and she has apparently settled well into the English system and is seen as a high achiever. However, when she asked her head of History why the school did not celebrate Black History Month (held every October; see www.black-history-month.co.uk), she was disturbed to be told āWe donāt do that here ā there isnāt any need.ā
Angela campaigned among her classmates, all of whom are white, and wrote letters to the head of year and the head teacher arguing for the importance of pupils in all schools being aware of black history issues. As a result she was invited to talk to the whole school,...
