Teachers Talking to Teachers in Swansea

25 July 2008

Teachers from across Swansea have been working over the last year to research new teaching ideas to share with fellow professionals in the region.

Swansea LEA and the Swansea Metropolitan University ran a dissemination event, funded jointly with the General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW), to allow primary and junior teachers from across the region to share best practice teaching methods and to explore new teaching ideas.

Throughout the year the teachers participating in ‘Leading the Learning’ have each taken on a research project as part of their GTCW funded Continued Professional Development (CPD) activities. Each teacher was set the task of identifying a teaching problem within their own class and then had to devise, and trial a solution to that problem.

The dissemination conference saw each of the teachers present to the rest of the group their idea, research and solution. A wide variety of ideas were discussed including the benefits of teaching computer keyboard skills, the use of TASC (Thinking Actively in a Social Context) methodology to improve problem solving skills and helping develop emotional intelligence to try and solve peer conflict and group working problems.

Victoria Thomas has been teaching for five years and identified the problem of speaking and listening amongst her Early Years class at Pennard Primary. She felt that the children were not listening to each other and when they did speak they did not always ask questions relevant to the conversation.

Victoria’s solution to the problem was the introduction of a ‘hot seat’ which children would sit on and adopt the persona of a story book character. The other children would then ask them questions and the child on the hot seat would try and answer the questions in character.

The regular use of the hot seat saw children develop their self confidence and self esteem when speaking in front of others, develop the ability to listen and empathise with the character, and also to take turns when speaking.

Victoria was put forward by her school to participate on the course and said, “Having the opportunity to meet other teachers has been great. Hearing other teachers ideas and experiences has been really helpful and I feel really motivated by the experience.”

Dr. Sue Lyle, head of continual professional development at Swansea Metropolitan University, School of Education, who organised the CPD dissemination event said, “This is one of the best dissemination schemes in Wales and is proven by the quality of research and ideas that have been presented by the teachers. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to work with such a creative group of practitioners.”

Hayden Llewellyn, deputy chief executive for the GTCW said, “This event is an excellent example of the benefits that can be gained from individual CPD funding. Instead of having isolated pockets of good practice, these events can help extend knowledge and experience to benefit the wider population of teaching professionals throughout Wales and ensure as many teachers as possible benefit from individual training. There are a number of
benefits associated with sharing best practice, and disseminating the outcomes of professional development activities ensures the profession continues to benefit and that standards in the classroom are raised.”