Developing Advanced Primary Teaching Skills

Do you believe that continuous improvement in teaching is essential? Do you wish to enhance your understanding of how children learn? Are you eager to become a well-informed professional? From the author of the hugely respected Foundations of Primary Teaching, this advanced textbook explores the essential elements of teaching and learning and the process of becoming a caring and competent teacher. It introduces a wide range of education issues, challenges and requirements with the intention of promoting advanced classroom practice, both for individuals and within teams. The book offers insights, ideas, hints and thought-provoking education topics for individual reflection and team discussion. With a focus on understanding the teaching and learning processes and the factors that impact upon providing a high quality education for every pupil, this book discusses in detail key learning skills, dilemmas and challenges for primary teachers and themes in continuing professional development. It covers issues in teaching and learning including: The nature/nurture debate Motivation Emotional and moral development Raising boys’ achievement levels Gender and teachers Accelerated learning Reflective practice. Including action points, hints and challenges, this book will be of interest to trainee teachers, postgraduates, experienced qualified teachers, deputy head teachers and head teachers who wish to be more consistently effective and make a positive impact on the lives of children in their primary classroom.

Table of Contents:
Introduction  Prelude  Change in Education  Excellence in teaching  Effective communication  Meaningful connection with pupils  Closely monitoring pupil progress  Skilful pedagogy  SECTION ONE. Key Learning Skills… 1. Understanding key concepts  2. Learning across subject boundaries  3. Developing social skills  4. Working collaboratively  5. Criteria for sorting and classifying  6. Planning and sequencing  7. Recognising cause and effect  8. Adapting to different circumstances  9. Speaking confidently  10. Being imaginative and creative  11. Making valid judgements  12. Developing an enquiring mind  SECTION TWO. Teaching and Learning Issues…  Part A. Child Development and Education  1. The nature-nurture debate  2. The impact of pre-school education  3. Motivation and pupil background  4. Developing parental involvement  5. Adults as effective role models  6. Emotional development 7. Emotional intelligence, children and learning  8. Children’s happiness  9. Children’s moral development  10. Alternative forms of education  Part B. Pupil learning 1. Learning and concept mapping  2. Cognition and Bloom’s Taxonomy  3. Motivation and Maslow’s Hierarchy  4. Pupil learning styles  5. Learning through auditory means  6. Questions and higher level thinking  7. Pupil ability and capability  8. Gifted and talented pupils and accelerated learning  9. Memory and learning difficulties  10. Television as a learning tool  Part C. Classroom practice  21. Ability grouping  22. Alternative education and Steiner-Waldorf  23. Maintaining discipline  24. The use of rewards and incentives  25. Pupil time on task  26. Boys and girls in school  27. Raising boys’ achievement  28. Use of formative assessment  29. The value of speaking and listening  30. Learning to read  Part D. The teacher  31. Teachers as educational agents  32. Gender, teachers and teaching  33. The consequences of labelling children  34. Implementation of the ECM agenda  35. Attitudes towards computers  36. Reflective and self-reflexive practice  37. Shaping professional development  38. Persevering as a teacher  39. Being observed teaching  40. Coping with setbacks as a teacher  SECTION THREE. Professional Themes  Education purpose and policy  1. The purpose of education  2. Education policy decisions  Children  Understanding children  4. Pupil attendance in school  5. Developing a child’s sense of belonging  6. Developing positive attitudes in children  7. Adult responses to children  8. Pupils’ moral perspectives during primary school  9. Labelling children with special educational needs  Child development  10. Child development and learning  11. Forms of intelligence  12. Forms of knowledge  13. Combining knowledge, skills and understanding  14. Working atmosphere and learning climate  15. The impact of an objectives-driven agenda  16. Personalised and individualised learning  17. Competitiveness between pupils  18. Benefits and disadvantages of homework  19. Parental involvement in learning  Teachers and teaching  20. Attributes of good teachers  21. Teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning  22. Observing children at work  23. Questions asked by teachers  24. New teachers’ rite of passage  25. Accountability and autonomy in teaching  26. Differentiating for learning  27. Effective public speaking  28. Fostering creativity in teaching and learning  29. Reflective practice and teaching  30. Teaching methods and cooperative learning  31. Teachers’ duty of care  32. Professional learning communities  33. Achieving peace of mind as a teacher  Discipline and behaviour  34. Pupil compliance  35. Dealing with indiscipline  36. Coping with restless pupils  37. Managing disruptive behaviour  Curriculum Practice  38. Negotiated meaning for effective learning  39. Effective learning environments  40. Targets for learning  41. Encouraging children to write  42. The educational value of play and drama  43. Organising large space lessons  44. Transition from primary to secondary school  SECTION FOUR. Challenges for Teachers…  1: Maintaining a calm working environment  2: Protecting your own wellbeing  3: Fitting it all in  4: Starting with a new class  5: Achieving a balanced teaching approach  6: Teaching mixed-ability, multi-age classes  POSTSCRIPT. Letter to a newly qualified teacher

About the Author :
Denis Hayes is an education writer and speaker. He was Professor of Primary Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Plymouth after spending seventeen years teaching across primary, middle and secondary schools. He has authored Foundations of Primary Teaching, The Guided Reader to Teaching and Learning and Encyclopedia of Primary Education, all published by Routledge.

Review :
'This has been a most useful and inspiring book. As a classroom teacher, I have found it to be superb for refreshing my thought about teaching, challenging me and developing my practice'. Peter Sainsbury, Deputy Head, Winterbourne Earls Primary C of E School