B) La concurrencia competencial en el orden cultural y en el urbanístico
1. ACTIVIDAD ADMINISTRATIVA DE POLICÍA Y CONTROL PREVIO
Bella described one of her earliest teaching placements where she was formally observed by her mentor for 40 minutes of an hour’s lesson. The mentor left the class early to write up her notes, meaning that Bella was able to receive feedback in the 15 minute break immediately following the observation. Bella did not describe anything particularly different about how she prepared for the observation except that her lesson plan had “a lot more information” compared to her normal “note form” style. She added that she “would write out things that I would want to remember to say” and which children she wanted to work with individually. This was explained as mainly to help her remember what to do, but was also intended to show the observer what her aim was for the lesson “so that if I had anything missing or anything I could do better she could tell me”.
Bella initially described feeling nervous due to being watched, but soon felt comfortable so that “I sort of just got into being a teacher and helping all of the children and sort of forgot she was there after like 20 minutes”. She later “relaxed completely” when the mentor left to write up her notes, with only slight feelings of apprehension about receiving feedback afterwards. Bella’s own evaluation, and her feedback, indicated that this was a broadly successful lesson, with only a fairly minor criticism made. Bella described the feedback as mainly chronological, with her mentor taking the lesson plan in order “talking through everything that I did, saying it was a good idea or like when I went on too long with the
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Bella’s mentor then asked for her thoughts on how the lesson went, which was notable since this question is usually asked at the start of the meeting. She responded with “quite well” before discussing a problem she had with behaviour management. Despite already knowing that the mentor thought this was a good lesson, Bella’s response showed what she called the importance of being humble and self-critical to show “reflective skills”. Bella’s mentor seemed to respond positively to this self-evaluation, highlighting the problems with behaviour other teachers had in the school and lending her some books which gave behaviour management ideas. Bella read these books and tried some of the strategies in later classes which were not observed, finding some successful strategies. The feedback session ended with a brief discussion of targets, phrased as suggestions, which Bella was very open towards.
When discussing feedback she gave to her pupils, Bella described the school’s policy of “What Went Well” and “Even Better If”. Pupils would have to write their initials next to their teacher’s written feedback “to see that they had read it and if they had any questions they could come see us about it and then they would implement it to their next piece of work”. Bella described this as a big improvement on the feedback she received as a pupil at school, which was just “you should be doing this, blah, blah”. Bella described the feedback she received as broadly similar to how she gave feedback to her pupils, that whenever discussion did not follow a chronological order it would instead start with positives and then progress to suggestions for improvement (usually following the pattern of whichever form was being used).
The separation of positives from points for improvement was described as following the forms used in different contexts (either school or university), although Bella also noted during the
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repertory grid discussion that some forms were “talked through” whereas others had comments “just on the sheet and you don’t talk about it or go through it”. She also noted that some forms were completed in notes whilst others were “all very formal” depending on the purpose, which was a very similar description to how Bella described her lesson planning for an observed lesson compared with her everyday planning. The informal observations were ungraded and also generally described as more open to discussion about scheduling, so she also had an input on what would be a good time.
In common with other students, Bella described a preference for feedback given over a longer period. She also noted that this tended to give her more feedback in general as well as giving it more frequently, in contrast with “one off” observations or assessments. Frequent feedback was also more likely to be verbal, and the tutors open to Bella seeking clarification later, although there was an example of verbal feedback given as a one-off which was more informal and simply gave suggestions for improvement.
The level of discussion was described as highly varied, but in each case Bella described being given ways to improve. Verbal feedback was typically more likely to include discussion, and tutors who knew Bella over a longer period were seen as more likely to engage in discussion, providing feedback that was more “tailored to us”. As well as these tutors being more open to discussion in the moment of giving feedback, Bella also felt that they were more open to her seeking them out for further discussion later (although she had not actually sought further discussion, she felt reassured by the knowledge that she could).
Tutors knowing her seemed to be a recurring theme as Bella’s repertory grid was developed, summarised in the table below, including that feedback from tutors who had known her longer was “easier to listen to” and more likely to be followed up on by both her and her
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tutors. As well as being more open to accepting their comments, these tutors would also take the time to “talk through with you” so that written comments were easier to interpret, helping Bella to better understand “just what they want from you” compared with just reading the written comments. Her description of written feedback was interesting here, as she described the “more detailed” format used in university as more difficult to understand, so ‘detailed’ was described negatively, as too complex.
Bella’s strong preference for being “talked through” feedback did not, however, mean that verbal feedback was preferred to written. Rather, she described a strong preference for formal feedback “with a grade so you can see where to aim for the next one as well”. Being talked through was therefore more about availability or accessibility, “so if I don’t understand a part of it they can rephrase it or explain it and it’s a lot easier than if its written down and I don’t get it I have to hunt someone down to explain it”.
Bella also expressed a preference for more experienced tutors, whilst also describing some advantages of a relatively inexperienced tutor whose feedback “still had some good ideas”. In particular, she valued feedback from tutors with teaching experience who gave feedback on her teaching (rather than assignments) because “I am going to be a teacher so it feels better having feedback on actually teaching than writing about teaching”. This seemed to summarise many of her preferences for feedback as following a pragmatic approach, which may help to explain some seemingly contradictory preferences. For example, she had no preference for prose or bullet point written feedback, noting that it was more important that the feedback be tailored to the individual and “not too complex”. Similarly, she liked the idea that tutors who gave her feedback over time would monitor her progress. She described short-term self-checking, such as writing reminders to herself at the top of lesson plans, but
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seemed to trust her long-term development to her tutors. Despite describing not learning much from some one-off feedback, Bella had no criticisms – all the feedback had been prompt and useful.
Emergent pole
1 2 3 4 5
Contrasting pole
Filled out uni sheets
Used in-school forms Talked through written FB
Didn’tFormal
InformalWith grade
No gradeWatched you teach
FB on assignments Throughout time, overall more FB(x7)
One offPositives first, how to improve
separately (x3)
Chronological order of comments
More overall
Less feedbackMulti-stage
Couldn’t follow upWritten (x4)
VerbalStructured on timeline, what went
well, improvement suggestions
Verbally asked ‘have you considered’
Discussion
Told what to improveKnew me longer
Didn’t know me, feedback not as tailoredTalked it through
Just got the sheet170 of 283 Bella’s percentile ranks for the nine variables were:
1. Learning-focused feedback 84.26 2. Students’ self-confidence 32.95 3. Consistent hard work was important 95.92 4. A need to fit into a school culture 16.80 5. An experience dominated by the tutor 25.77 6. A need to perform in assessments 08.32 7. Feedback focused on the students’ overall best interests 97.31 8. Strategic use of feedback 43.07 9. Feedback as measured in satisfaction surveys 74.39
Table 16 Component percentile ranks for Bella
Some of these rankings indicate that Bella had quite extreme ratings, for example she had a very low perception that placement was about performance and a very high perception that the feedback had her best interests at heart. Bella also ranks highly for feeling that consistent hard work is important. As could be predicted from the correlation between components discussed in the previous chapter, Bella ranked low on reporting a Feedback dominated by tutor experience and high on learning being the main intention of feedback.
Overall, Bella’s survey responses suggest a rejection of strategic approaches towards assessment, encouraged by the feeling that her tutors have her best interests at heart. Bella seems to feel relatively little pressure to fit into a school’s culture or adapt to her tutor’s preferences. Her interview expressed a strong desire for understandable feedback which she could put into practice, and that her tutor would take an interest in her long-term development. The strong belief in consistent hard work did not really come through in the interview, and it seemed instead that Bella expected her tutor to do most of the work in
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making her feedback useful and understandable but she would work hard on implementing advice. This may be explained by her strong focus on the professional, rather than academic, aspect of her course, that very specific feedback from a wide range of professionals and wider reading could slowly accumulate into teaching skills. Bella was therefore not strategically aligned towards her assessments, but towards her professional goals. This is neatly summarised in her criticism of university tutors’ feedback being of limited use, saying that she wanted feedback on teaching and not on “writing about teaching”.
Taken together, Bella’s interview and survey responses seem to indicate a strong sense of professional identity, where she trusts the value of her learning experiences and so has very little incentive to take strategic approaches. She sees herself as benefitting from a wide range of experience, so it is important that the feedback she receives comes from a wide range of credible sources who know her well and make their feedback understandable to her. She feels that she is doing pretty well in this system and is gradually learning what it is to be a teacher, so feedback needs to be gradually integrated into her normal ways of working.