Grouping
In Step 3.2 you explored how space is organised and managed in classrooms. In this Step, we’ve invited teaching expert Dr Fiona Curtis, a Lecturer at the Institute of Education, …
Course: Supporting Successful Learning in Primary School
Case study: Learning outdoors
In this Step, you’re introduced to a real life example Helen took part in at a primary school. Read through her commentary taken from her observation about a group of …
Teacher’s view: How children learn
In our second round table discussion, hear Patrick and Michelle share their own thoughts with Helen about how children learn. Please note filming took place in 2019. Patrick Pritchett is …
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
In the previous Step you reflected on your own expectations of learners, but what is expected of us as learning support staff? For a child to be successful in school …
Your expectations of learners
In the Step 2.6 you’ve experimented with what initially seemed like a simple task which may have proved to be trickier than expected, and you heard from your fellow learners …
Motor development
Motor skills are the mechanics of motor development and are about the body’s ability to control body movements. A good grasp of control of your motor skills is needed in …
Growth, development and maturity
In order for children to learn, they need to develop a foundation of skills that not only obtains information, but helps them understand what to do with the information. There …
Through their eyes
Classrooms are busy places, and everyone has their own perspective of everything that happens in the class. Each person’s view of the world is different and contains both a physical …
What is learning?
Learning is basically about committing something to memory and then being able to use that memory. Someone who has difficulties with spelling isn’t able to lay the spellings to memory …
Child’s view: My world
Children have to be physically and emotionally in the right place to learn, but that’s not to say they can’t have good and bad days, just like adults. We need …
How do values, beliefs and attitudes affect teaching methods?
People’s values, beliefs and attitudes are formed and bonded over time through the influences of family, friends, society and life experiences. So, by the time you’re an adult you can …
What type of educator?
In a paper entitled ‘Beginning teacher curriculum decision making, personal teaching metaphors, and teacher education’ (please note this paper is behind a paywall), there’s a description of the metaphors two …
Metaphors
Being a good a educator is knowing who you are and understanding yourself. This very much applies to the staff who have supporting roles within schools too, and metaphors are …
From unconscious to conscious
There’s still debate about the reliability of the Implicit Association Tests mentioned in Step 1.7, but as one of the researcher’s argues – just because there’s debate about the subject …
In conversation with Helen
In this Step, Helen Bilton was in conversation with the University of Reading’s Online Course Team. Hi Helen, thanks for taking the time to answer some of our questions today. …
These articles are from the online course:
Supporting Successful Learning in Primary School