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1. Identify a particular
area which you would like to concentrate on:
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This should not be a huge area
such as “Formative
Assessment” |
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Instead it should a narrower
area such as “sharing criteria in peer assessment” |
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Any item in the L&T Toolkit can
be used if it seems to offer potential for improving the learning
and teaching process. However, instead of tackling a
whole paper, instead you might identify just one bullet point within
a paper |
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Whatever you choose should be
something you really want to do and feel could be beneficial to your
work |
2. Decide on a strategy for developing the topic you have
chosen:
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You should consult your school
management team about your project. They may be able to
offer support. They may wish to exploit your project to
benefit the school as a whole |
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Discuss strategies with a
colleague - either in your own school or in another |
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A colleague may work with you in
your own room, for example doing an audit of certain elements of a
lesson (eg if “Questioning” was your topic a colleague could do some
of the following: count “wait time”; categorise questions according
to type; analysing the numbers of pupils offering answers etc) |
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Plan the strategy with criteria
for identifying success |
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You will need to focus on a
particular group of pupils and will need to decide on a suitable
time-scale |
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The strategy you adopt should be
one which you could repeat on future occasions and which could be
repeated by other teachers who might read your report on the project |
3. Judge the
effectiveness of the strategy you adopted:
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Part way through the project, take time to reflect with colleagues
on how it is going. This may well influence how the
project develops subsequently |
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When your project is complete, a short report will be written.
The purpose of this will be to show other teachers how the project
went and what lessons can be learned from it |
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You may work with a colleague to discuss how things went. This is
particularly effective if your colleague(s) have been actively
involved in the project. |
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A strategy may be successful in various ways: it might improve the
atmosphere in the classroom; it might result in greater pupil (or
parent) involvement; it might produce improved academic achievement
etc |
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There is a lot of literature about carrying out action research in
the classroom, but it is perfectly possible to carry out an AifL
project without immersing yourself in this |
4. The basic philosophy is that teachers have an opportunity to look
at research evidence on effective learning and teaching and try out
strategies which they believe may help them in their work with pupils.
5. Paperwork for your project should be kept to a minimum. Focus on
what is useful to yourself and on what could be useful to
colleagues.
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