Learning Journal

This last week has been disconcertingly busy - although the workload has been eased considerably by the splendid nature of half term. As I have not been expected in college, I've been able to dedicate myself to study.
First came Unit 5 of the teaching portfolio. This assignment seems to be part of the course for many reasons. First, it involves the student going out there and asking questions, getting involved, and 'embedding' themselves in their college like a war reporter with pressing news from the front line to get back to CNN. Second, it asks us to consider the way the college promotes itself to the students, and the institutional beliefs of the management that lie behind the classrooms and the courses - therefore looking at the college from viewpoints that aren't that of the teacher. Third, it forces us to slog through a mind-numbingly buzzworded OFSTED report as an introduction into the utterly meaningless language that surrounds government policies on education.
I can understand why it is part of the course, and appreciate the lessons it is meant to teach me. It was still pretty annoying, though. The 1,500 words took a lot of arduous stopping and starting, and re-reading pages of strategic aims.
After completing that I immediately started work on the microteaching. As the topic of Mass Psychology and PR are not exactly normally on the curriculum for A-Level, I've had to plan the lesson from scratch, pulling in the information and figuring out how best to present it. However, I really wanted to do this, because I can imagine the use of this sort of information in the future, if I ever have to teach any Mass Psychology. I believe that knowledge of how democracy is supposed to be controlled by the management of information and perception should be an important part of any psychology course, as it is something that effects us all. Also, I am considering how PR made it acceptable for women to smoke, and I find it a very amusing story. This is the sort of facet of psychology that has bearing on everyone's everyday life, especially politically, and Paulo Freire's work showed that it is this connection to the student's political world that is immediately effective in inspiring interest and motivation to learn.
It is entertaining to plan all the slides I want to use. There will be pictures and everything.
The only downside this week, other than having to get up early to start on assignments, has been the ePortfolio meeting. I found the endorsement of 'use this technology and you'll have one over on the other STE groups' somewhat unpleasant, as I don't particularly feel honoured to be part of the experiment, or deserving of the chance over anybody else to be able to impress future employers with an online portfolio. Part of this is an academic ('postmodern') understanding of the arguments against the unquestioned and unproblematised proliferation of technology, based on the Frankfurt School, Lyotard, and Nikolas Rose. I think that the ePortfolio system will be useful for many people - such as those who have aptitude and opportunity to use it easily, a group in which I must include myself - but also have negative effects. Most obviously, it will exclude those who feel alienated by the technology. But it has been theorised that it can alienate people in other ways, most especially from meaning itself. In my experience of networked computing, it often both relativises intellectual positions into unrelated perspectives and makes the individual's own perspective into a matter of absolute 'fact', albeit a subjective and unquestionable fact. "This is my opinion, and nothing can stop me from holding it." Is there a difference between how things are read on paper and on screen? I certainly cannot bring my attention to bear on the computer screen in the same way. How will relations between the mentor and the students be changed by this technology? There will be all sorts of changes, and all sorts of different effects and problems due to this new technology. The question is, will it be in any appreciable way better than the traditional paper portfolio? That's the sort of question I think should be asked first.
My reading has still been Kelly. I have enjoyed his critique of the aims and objectives movement, and of mastery learning. The problem this raises for me is to how to change the focus in the AS and A2 classes I will be teaching from learning-the-curriculum-to-pass-assessment to the development of the student - of their view of psychology, of their learning, and of knowledge itself. I know all too well how much more though degree-level Psychology requires, and I believe college should have a role in the development towards this standard.

The past week has been another process of easing into a new situation. As for the course itself, I feel as if little has changed regarding the aims of the student group as a whole. We're still all contemplating a situation composed of many unknowns, and trying to deal with it in whatever ways we can. The time for becoming comfortable with all the arrangements is essentially scheduled for a later date. Although the initial fears have passed, and some questions have been answered, now everyone is beginning to plan for the immediate tasks ahead.
The microteaching is the first hurdle being contemplated en masse. I find it concerning that it worries people so much, considering it seems to me a much easier test of our faculties than actually standing in front of a class and assuming the role of teacher. I've already got a very solid idea of what I want to do, and am toying with how I can use the resources on offer to represent some of my knowledge on the subject on a way that will edify the group, and how to structure these ideas within the lesson planner. Actually, it seems that I find the microteaching rather easy. Perhaps it is because I am used to helping my younger siblings with homework, or teaching them about a problem with which they are struggling. If this turns out to be legitimate teaching practice, all those evenings will have been doubly useful. 'Cashback'.
The placement has been a wonderful experience. My mentor is unashamedly pleasant and ready to spring into action with whatever I need. Already I have all the literature about the Psychology A-Level course at the college, and know what the students are to be taught. Some observations have been written up, and considering my academic background I found that I was practised at the skills needed to complete them. The atmosphere is very laid back, with informal dressing and a first-name basis with the students - who are remarkably pleasant and intelligent. I already respect them, and find it imperative that they are able to pass the course and get the grades they deserve - as well as perhaps have time to learn something as they negotiate the rapid watercourse of assessment. It perturbs me how much of a gap there is between AS and A2, and I am thinking of how to help get the AS students ready to tackle the demands of the A2 curriculum before the placement ends. One technique that is in place is that of short ‘mastery tests’, where class time is used to let the students ponder exam-level questions about what they have learnt, which helps them link what they know (and how to express it) to the questions they will be asked. The only problem I have had was that I ended up missing observing an evening class because of last-minute domestic problems. I'll endeavour to not let this happen again when I start to teach, and make sure to get in very early if I want to cover any evening classes again!
My current reading is Kelly. He is angry with the National Curriculum and still writing about Curriculum Studies after retirement. That is excellent. I feel that an education under strict government control is unable to do anything but represent that government's ideals, dressed up within the rhetoric of 'standards' and 'choice', and it should be challenged at every turn. Any attempt to define knowledge - how it should be taught, what is important about it - reworks its raw metal into manacles, rather than leaving it for its learners to make their own devices from.

I think writing this learning journal every Wednesday evening would be most practical. It is when I'm best able to use the computer, for a variety of reasons, and it means I can reflect on the entire week in one go before the next Reflective Practice session.
My initial evaluations of the course have been favourable. Perhaps out of an insatiable desire to 'network', friendliness is endemic, and it is easy to meet people and enjoy their company. Everyone seems utterly committed to teaching in some form or other, which has made me feel a little black-sheepish, as my interest is not in teaching itself but the study of education. Therefore, my interests being 'post-conventional' and operating as a 'divergent' learner, I'll tend towards starting debates and questioning practice and theory. So the hardest thing to do, for me, will be to stay quiet and let things progress smoothly. The case in point - and it represents both my learning high and my learning low - would have to be the curriculum session, where I held up teaching for ten minutes when I was asked a question about humanism and proceeded to recount a brief essay on the subject. I just feel as if I have an opportunity to question and criticise those areas I know about so that nothing is taken for granted.
My placement was a surprise, as I had expected to be placed in Telford, but apparently the prospective mentors took exception at the lack of reciprocal financial benefit. City of Wolverhampton College is near the University's main campus, where I did my psychology degree, so I'm comfortable with commuting there and eating there and borrowing comedy DVDs from the library. It's also located near where I grew up, so I can feel as if I am 'giving back to the community', although this might require inventing a sense of community for the area first. At a Telford college, I would have been stuck in the middle of the town of infinite roundabouts, with only a local Somerfields to console me with its two-for-one offers on washing up gloves. (Do you see? Gloves come in pairs! It is a clever joke!)
The induction day at the college was rather 'glossy'. Although the buffet was appreciated, no-one seemed to appreciate the financial management language used to describe the 'business' of 'efficiently and effectively' teaching 'consumers' for whom one must make sure there can be a measurable 'attainment of excellence'. As for organisation, the College seemed to have been told nothing about the course itself, asking us for the details; in return, there were no details for us about our timetables. Instead we had to phone up dept. managers who weren't in their offices and leave pleading messages. The level of uncertainty that we are still subject to at this stage in the course is almost unbearable.
As for self-directed learning, I've been poring through Biggs' and Moore's Process of Learning, which is relevant to the studies I'd like to continue after this course. I'm a great reader of textbooks, so I've been reserving 'em jealously. Also I've been reading through the various assessments outlined in the module guides, underlining bits, and noting down the dates. With a short course like this there's precious little slack, so one has to get up to speed quickly.