25/07/08

PUPILS PRESENT TO TEACHERS

A teachers’ learning conference has involved school pupils for the first time to demonstrate effective classroom and teaching practice.

The partnership event between the General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW) and Cardiff LEA - called ‘Teachers Talking About Teaching’ - involved more than 80 teachers from across Cardiff in sharing practice gained from their professional development activity and focused on the challenges and opportunities the new curriculum in Wales presents.

The youngsters from St Teilos School in Cardiff were involved in one of the workshop events which demonstrated ways in which the teaching of science could be made more exciting and relevant. Other pupils from Ysgol Plasmawr presented to all delegates on their work acting as mentors and how this has supported their own development.

Attending the conference, Jacquie Turnbull, deputy chair of the General Teaching Council for Wales, said: “The involvement of students in demonstrating how they have benefited from teachers engaging in CPD activity really brought home the importance of professional development and the need for expanding the opportunities available to teachers. Dissemination events like these help to share the best practice and new ideas being developed with a much wider audience. The conference also enabled established teachers to question their own classroom techniques and to reflect on their own practice.’

Organiser of the event, Edward Jones, senior school improvement adviser with Cardiff Advisory Service for Education commented, “The conference has again provided an excellent opportunity for practitioners, drawn from across the city to engage in a shared dialogue around learning. I know the delegates really appreciated the workshops and presentations made by colleagues providing rich opportunities to co-reflect as professionals. The partnership with GTCW has proved fruitful and we really appreciate their continuing support in allowing us as an LEA to disseminate and share innovative practice, it is great to see teachers articulating and sharing the excellent practice that goes on in Cardiff.”

Teachers from schools in the capital spoke on a range of topics as well as discussing issues in workshops.

The workshops allowed the opportunity for teachers to speak from personal experience in their school contexts. These were naturally well received by the teachers with one commenting, “Always good to hear what is going on in other schools, I think the conference is a really important event.”

The afternoon workshops included a session on ‘building learning power’ – how to create more independent learners and creative ideas to engage young scientists.

Feedback from the event was extremely positive with teachers commenting that they intended to apply for CPD funding to explore similar research and development opportunities.