Observation Tasks [antikvár]

You are about to embark on your teaching practice, where you will meet the day-to-day reality of life in the classroom. Observation of other teachers is an excellent way of helping oneself to become more aware of options and possibilities. This workbook has been designed to aid you in your observation of your mentor and of yourself. The most significant theories and basic principles underlying teaching were presented to you during your campus course. Theory alone, however, will never produce competent teachers, just as experience alone is insufficient as a basis for development. Theory and practice will have to go hand in hand for you to be able to develop a critically reflective approach to teaching that can be used with any teaching method. This material is therefore intended to serve as a link between the more theoretically based campus course and the hands-on experience of everyday teaching. Before you start your observations, please read this workbook thoroughly so that you have an idea of the rangé of sheets you can choose from. Observation Tasks does not present tasks in the order you are supposed to do them. You do not have to follow the order of the material, but please note that page 15 and page 24 have been designed to be applicable to a series of lessons. You should start working on these tasks after the first couple of lessons of your observation period. Your mentor does not necessarily wish to know beforehand which particular points you want to focus on, as that might influence his or her teaching. At the same time, it is a good idea for you to find out about the focus of the lesson you will be observing as this will help you in your choice of an appropriate observation point. (e.g. You will not want to concentrate on the teacher's questions in a lesson predominantly devoted to writing.) You could, of course, invent your own observation task and you are welcome to do so! In the first two or three lessons that you observe, feel free to write down your generál impressions without using these sheets at all. This will help you to orientate yourself within the school and give you more time to prepare for the more focused observation to follow.