Briefing Paper for Teacher Mentors
Of Citizenship Education
School-Based Citizenship Training
By: Peter Brett
St Martin's College, Lancaster
Produced by citizED
(a project of the Teacher Training Agency)
AUTUMN 2004
More information about the series of Briefing
Papers for Teacher Mentors can be found at
www.citized.info
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
Mentor Briefing Paper 2
School-Based Citizenship Training
INTRODUCTION
This unit will focus upon various aspects of training that you will be involved with working
alongside Citizenship beginning teachers in school. All mentors fulfil a fundamental
motivational and counselling role and also play a key role in developing trainees'
classroom management skills. The emphasis here, however, will be on mentoring to
improve Citizenship teaching and learning - and specifically upon :
· 1. Developing Citizenship Subject Knowledge;
· 2. Developing Citizenship Teaching and Learning strategies;
· 3. 'Using ICT effectively' in Citizenship and;
· 4. Tailoring Citizenship training programmes to the specific individual needs
of beginning teachers
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
1. Developing Citizenship subject knowledge
Subject knowledge matters. It is at the centre of debates surrounding Citizenship and the
requirements of initial teacher education (ITE). Teachers who know plenty about a subject
are likely be more interesting and adventurous in the ways in which they teach and more
effective. Where trainees have high levels of subject knowledge they plan and teach
confidently, knowing themselves to have mastery of a particular topic. Moreover, where
trainees are confident in their subject knowledge, they are likely to structure individual
lessons and sequences of lessons effectively and select teaching and learning methods
and activities that develop pupils' understanding and skills appropriately. In terms of the
quality of teacher explanations, trainees with suitable subject knowledge rarely slip into
error. They are sensitive, for example, in citizenship lessons to the nuances of political
interpretations and the complexity of abstract concepts and they cope well with
unexpected questions. Teachers with only a limited knowledge of a subject may avoid
teaching difficult or complex aspects of it or teach in a didactic manner which avoids pupil
participation and questioning and fails to draw upon children's experience.
You can be particularly helpful in developing 'curricular' subject knowledge through, for
example, explaining the rationale behind the school's Citizenship policy statement, its
schemes of work at key stages 3 and 4 and why decisions have been made to
emphasise certain features of curriculum content with different year groups. You possess
"knowledge that is...essentially practical but which nevertheless involves an implicit
appreciation of the complexities on which it is based" (Furlong, 1995). You can also help
beginning teachers to put flesh on the bones of the Citizenship National Curriculum. For
example, the interplay between knowledge, concepts, skills and participation within
citizenship is a difficult and complex area, which trainees are often not ready to tackle
until they feel comfortable with the knowledge they are imparting and with their classroom
management. It is an aspect of training that good mentors can develop, particularly
during the middle and latter part of later teaching practices in an attempt to avoid the oft-
observed phenomenon of the 'plateauing' beginning teacher.
So what kinds of things can you do as a mentor to
develop trainees' citizenship subject knowledge ?
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
· Engage in explicit, active and open-minded debate with trainees about
how Citizenship is defined in your school
The most recent overview of the implementation of Citizenship in English
Schools (Kerr et al. 2004) concluded that :
"Many schools remain unclear about definitions of citizenship education in terms
of what the core citizenship curriculum is and how their existing practice can
contribute to it. There is particular confusion between explicit citizenship
education, as set out in the curriculum Order, and its relationship to implicit
citizenship through the contribution of PSHE, values and school ethos"
Where do you and your school stand in relation to this statement and what are
the implications for the quality of experience that you are looking to provide for
your Citizenship trainee ?
· Set up training and research activities and devote time in weekly
seminars to subject knowledge issues
For example, ask trainees to report back to you their conclusions as to the
Key components of good citizenship subject knowledge from their reading of
literature from, for example, the DfES Citizenship CPD Citizenship education
handbook, OFSTED subject reports, the QCA, subject associations such as
the Association for Citizenship Teaching (A.C.T.) its journal Teaching
Citizenship and significant Citizenship organisations like the Citizenship
Foundation, Institute for Citizenship and Community Service Volunteers
(C.S.V.)
· In partnership with the college, encourage trainees to make their
Citizenship subject knowledge audit an active working document
If a subject knowledge 'gap' has been identified don't necessarily leave it to the
course tutor to recommend further reading if you know of good texts. For
example, mentors have recommended reading Naomi Klein's No Logo (1996)
and Robert Winder's Bloody Foreigners: The story of immigration to Britain
(2004) to beginning Citizenship teachers who wanted to improve their subject
knowledge and plan thoughtful lessons on respectively globalisation and
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Britishness.
· Try to give feedback on subject knowledge issues in lesson
observations
Inspectors of teacher training for all subjects have found that the quality of
written feedback to trainees varies considerably. It is often insufficiently
subject-specific focusing more upon classroom management and front-of-
class performance than higher-order learning issues. You might give
feedback to students on, for example, the depth of their exposition, the
quality of their questioning, or how far they stretched higher attainers. There
are a variety of other areas that lesson observations might draw attention to
including :
- insights into trainees' subject knowledge reflected in the quality of
learning materials they produce;
- whether trainees are adept in helping pupils master the language and
organising concepts of citizenship and ;
- the extent to which trainees make links with prior learning or other
curriculum areas.
Completed written lesson observations, school reports or accounts of
meetings between school-based trainers and the trainee show clearly
whether the effects of subject knowledge strengths and weaknesses on
teaching are taken seriously.
· Enable the trainees to explore the similarities, differences and
boundaries between Citizenship and PSHE
The beginning teacher of Citizenship may be gaining most of their experience
within a PHSCE department adapting its schemes of work at both key stages
3 and 4 to the statutory demands of Citizenship and where curriculum
coverage is interwoven between different subject areas and topics. PSHCE
departments will vary in the ways in which they have teased apart the
differences between PSHE and Citizenship or, for example, developed sex,
drugs and careers education in Citizenship directions. Encourage trainees to
explore how far Citizenship can complement the broader Personal and Social
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Development curriculum or whether they feel Citizenship needs to be
distinctive and establish a clear sense of identity in pupils' minds.
· Encourage trainees to speak with subject leaders and teachers from
other subject areas contributing substantially to Citizenship
Arrange for the Citizenship trainees to teach Citizenship through subjects like
Geography, R.E., History and English. Taking their lead from the existing
cross-curricular audit and how Citizenship has been incorporated in schemes
of work across the curriculum, Citizenship trainees will need to negotiate a
balance between the degree of focus upon Citizenship learning outcomes
and the 'host' or `carrier' subject's learning outcomes. If you have a PSHE
background you may be hazy about offering advice in this area. For example
in a History lesson focusing upon the significance of the Glorious Revolution
of 1688, how much emphasis should be placed upon monarchy, parliament
and 'rights' in their Seventeenth Century context and how much emphasis
upon contemporary learning and parallels ? Overall, as a mentor you will
want to explore with the trainee how cross-curricular approaches to
Citizenship can be sharpened. What is the difference between making an
explicit and substantial commitment to Citizenship education through other
subjects or a tangential or implicit contribution ? For example, what is it that
transforms an R.E. lesson on Human Rights or a Geography lesson about
Fair Trade into a Citizenship lesson ? [ The distinguishing feature may be
that they build in an active 'change action' whereby pupils use their
Citizenship knowledge and skills to persuade others or seek to make a
difference]. Subject mentors in established areas of the curriculum have
often provided valuable guidance to trainees about how to improve their
subject knowledge in relation to particular topics or issues. They can be
particularly helpful with applied subject knowledge such as providing a brief
and concise overview, good website references or interesting anecdotes and
pathways into particular topics.
· Help trainees get involved in whole school aspects of Citizenship
Can you take the opportunity of hosting Citizenship trainees as a positive
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spur to consider wider aspects of Citizenship which relate to the whole school
culture ?
For example :
-
Involve trainees in observing and supporting School Councils and Year
forums;
- Think through how the school is celebrating cultural diversity (for example,
does the history of black and Asian students figure in entrance foyers and
on wall displays ?);
- Analyse how the school is committing itself to ethical approaches to
environmental issues and principles of sustainability ? Can a committed
trainee help to kick-start the process of becoming an eco-school ?;
- Review the international/global dimension to your Citizenship curriculum.
Can the Citizenship trainee help you to find out more about school-linking ?
2. Developing Citizenship teaching and learning
Mentors have a professional responsibility to assist student-teachers to think open-
mindedly about what they are teaching and how they are teaching. Over the course of
their training, the Citizenship beginning teachers you are working with should acquire a
repertoire of varied teaching strategies and develop an increasingly sophisticated sense
of when best to adopt them. Stronger trainees will also be implementing a range of
differentiation strategies to ensure that lessons and activities are both accessible to lower
attainers and contain a sufficient degree of challenge and stretch for higher attainers.
It is good mentoring practice to undertake some joint planning and collaborative teaching
with your Citizenship beginning teacher. Most programmes encourage this early in their
courses as trainees are inducted gently into teaching. However, it is also a good idea to
return to this approach later in the year as a focused strategy to improve specific aspects
of teaching which have emerged as 'areas for development' for trainees. There are all
sorts of variations in the ways in which you can work jointly with the trainee. For example
:
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· Using the same set of resources on a topic such as age-related legislation you might
both plan lessons individually and then come together to explore the similarities and
differences in your approaches
· To help trainees clarify the distinction between Citizenship and PSHE learning
outcomes you might ask the trainee to focus on the topics of - say - bullying or drugs
from the school's PSHE scheme of work and then devise lessons which take these
topics clearly into the domain of Citizenship.
· The trainee can plan a lesson on, for example, media bias which you teach and then
subsequently analyse jointly where and how the lesson might have been improved.
· You plan a lesson, clearly explaining its rationale and what happens at key transition
points which the trainee teaches and you then evaluate together.
· You 'model' key aspects of lessons which a trainee is concerned about (such as giving
instructions, setting up groupwork or managing a whole class discussion) which the
trainee then seeks to put into practice in their own teaching. (There are dangers here
though in promoting imitative practice and it goes without saying that trainees need to
be given the freedom to develop their own teaching styles which may differ from
yours. They should be encouraged to observe how different colleagues teach
effectively deploying different styles).
· You team teach a lesson, agreeing handover points in your planning before the lesson
and then both reflect critically on the lesson afterwards.
· You set up a focused observation exercise where you feed back to the trainee only on
specific features of their teaching and not the whole lesson - for example, you might
focus solely on questioning, exposition and explanation or how trainees planned for
and introduced a controversial issue. If the trainee is working with more than one class
from a particular year group they may then have the opportunity to revise their
approach and do things differently in a subsequent lesson.
These approaches have elements in common - they require reflection upon practice, the
opportunity to talk in detail about trainee's teaching and a time commitment from the
mentor. Skill learning generally requires 'learning by doing'. The acquisition or
improvement of any skill usually requires repeated attempts with feedback, or as it has
been termed, reflective experimental practice. This requires your beginning Citizenship
teacher to arrive at action plans which specify what to do and when; these will include
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knowledge, awareness and recognition of relevant events and individual pupil needs as
well as action instructions. Sooner or later it also requires attempts to put the action into
practice, with feedback and awareness informing revision of strategy and re-planning
(using assessment for formative purposes !).
As Citizenship trainees' lesson planning extends beyond the basic a number of more
subject-specific issues may emerge, including the following :
· What does a good Citizenship lesson 'starter' look like ?
It captures attention and keys into a significant local, national or international
contemporary event or issue with the potential to build learning through opening up
debate, further research and action. What is important is that it means something to
young people and gives rise to conflicting opinions among them. Trigger photographs,
short video clips, internet websites or newspaper headlines are all good. For beginning
teachers, however, these kind of advanced organisers can sometimes assume a life of
their own. Ask the trainee how the 'starter' links to subsequent activities and ensure that
the 'starter' is indeed a starter and not a distraction from the main course !
· What kind of prior knowledge and experience of Citizenship from KS2 can
trainees count upon when planning lessons for Y7 classes ?
Realistically this area is likely to be under-developed at the present stage of development
of Citizenship. Smooth progression from primary to secondary education and building
upon previous achievements is notoriously difficult even for established subject areas.
The Year 7 achievement 'dip' has been well-documented. Yet there is much excellent
Citizenship practice in Primary schools in relation to, for example, participation in school
councils and whole class debate in 'circle time'. Although the Citizenship/PSHE
framework is non-statutory at KS1 and KS2 a few LEAs have begun to pilot end of KS2
Citizenship achievement portfolios. You might encourage your trainee to explore the
nature of pupils' Citizenship activities when they visit a feeder Primary school and
consider what would be appropriate transition activities to ensure that the Citizenship
programme in Year 7 does not assume that pupils have no prior experience in this area
(See Paper 3 for development in this area).
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
· What constitutes a good Citizenship enquiry question ?
Recent evidence from other subjects indicates that having a good enquiry question to
both stimulate interest and frame pupils' learning is a key aspect of good teaching (For
example, the work of Michael Riley for History and David Leat for Geography). Key
questions can help to give lessons both a sense of purpose and structure. If the enquiry
question is right and is then supported by activities which build up learning, this can give
lessons pace and direction. It is easier to identify with the pupils what has been learned
(and whether the question has been clearly addressed) in the plenary session at the end
of the lesson. For one Citizenship lesson you might ask the trainee to digest the literature
on key questions and then suggest five possible questions for the same series of lessons.
Can you agree on which the 'best' enquiry question might be ?!
· How can trainees embed Citizenship concepts in attractive, engaging and
progressive ways into lessons ?
You might ask your trainee to plan two lessons - one for Year 7 and one for Year 9 which
focus at different levels of complexity on issues, for example, which
exemplify : fairness and justice; freedom and order; equality and diversity; power and
authority; or conflict and co-operation.
· How can you help trainees to move from planning individual lessons to
planning sequences of lessons ?
Many PGCE courses ask trainees to develop Schemes of Work for Citizenship topics
which develop over five or six lessons as an assessed piece of work. Medium term
planning is certainly a key skill for beginning teachers to start to engage with. There are
opportunities to use the hosting of a Citizenship trainee to feed into curriculum
development at your school. The trainee has the time to aim for an 'ideal' of practice
which is sometimes harder for you to achieve in the busy life of a full-time classroom
teacher. The trainee knows that they need to articulate clear learning outcomes; enable
pupils to demonstrate Citizenship knowledge, skills and participation; design lessons and
activities that will engage pupils' interest; deploy a variety of resources; incorporate active
learning strategies; include opportunities to develop literacy and ICT skills and cater for
differing pupil attainment levels. There are a large number of balls to juggle here for the
beginning teacher. Trainees will be looking to you for guidance so where might you look
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for support ? Two models worth looking at are the 'Get Global!' example of a model of
'sequencing' Citizenship lessons (Price, 2003) and the GCSE Citizenship Studies
coursework structure. The first of these offers six steps to structuring Citizenship
investigations - Get asking questions !; Get an issue !; Get more information !; Get
planning !; Get active !; and 'Get thinking about it ! Activities are suggested which
facilitate each of these steps. The GCSE Citizenship Studies coursework incorporates
planning, research, activity and evaluation components. Both of these approaches have
the virtue of offering structure and coherence.
Citizenship-specific teaching skills
So what other kinds of Citizenship teaching skills are likely to require a particular focus in
your work with beginning Citizenship teachers. Five areas perhaps stand out as being
especially useful to spend time exploring in your discussions and school-based training
sessions :
i) How groupwork and active learning is organised in Citizenship lessons
ii) How discussion, debating and presentation skills can be developed
iii) How pupils develop research skills
iv) How the trainee addresses the teaching of controversial issues
v) How you might structure extended writing in a Citizenship context
i) How groupwork and active learning is organised in Citizenship lessons
Creating a classroom climate that promotes effective groupwork - with opportunities for all
to contribute and to have their contribution heard - is not always easy. Wherever possible
in Citizenship classrooms, young people should have a say in deciding what the rules
are. Youngsters are much more likely to take seriously rules they have had a hand in
making and for which they can see a point. A Manchester school introduced this activity
with key stage 4 students :
"In a lesson, teachers sometimes get you to work in pairs or groups. How
should these pairings and groupings be decided upon ? If there is a
spokesperson, should it be decided in the pair or group, or should the
teacher choose".
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
The process of organising groupwork and negotiating and reviewing ground rules thus
contributed to Citizenship learning. It is certainly worth lingering upon the detail of
organising groupwork with trainees such as seating arrangements, how pupils are to be
grouped and how individual roles and responsibilities are to be decided within groups.
Beginning teachers sometimes assume early in their time at school that groupwork will
operate smoothly without planning and management. Drama and role play can also be
highly effective 'active' ways of exploring contemporary and topical Citizenship issues. If
your trainee is reticent about deploying role play, think about how you might develop their
confidence in this area - for example, through observing drama specialists working with
pupils that the trainee is also teaching or through structured opportunities to use
'hotseating' techniques.
ii) How discussion, debating and presentation skills can be developed
The ability to discuss Citizenship issues is a democratic skill in its own right. It enables
young people to make public their opinions on issues that affect themselves and society,
to take up positions and argue their views with others. The key to effective discussion
work is having something interesting to discuss ! Citizenship discussions often revolve
around competing ideas about what is good for society - what is in the public or
community interest at local, national and international levels. The Citizenship CPD
Handbook contains a range of good questions to stimulate discussions including :
- Do you think x is fair ?
- What would be best for society ?
- Who should decide ?
- Who in society should pay for this ?
- Does x have a right to do this (and where does that right come from ?)
- What would you say to persuade someone ?
The skills of discussion and debate can be usefully disaggregated. Students at Whalley
Range High School for Girls, Manchester, for example, prepared in very structured ways
for a debate relating to asylum seekers. After considering issues relating to the content
and manner of effective argument the students engaged in a carousel discussion to
practice and hone their arguments. Classes were divided into two equal groups and
formed two circles inside the other, facing a partner. Students took it in turns to put their
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point of view to the person facing them. The teacher moved the outer circle on one space
so that each student had the opportunity to practice expressing their viewpoint three or
four times. Students then worked in teams in preparation for a mini-debate noting some
of the main opposing arguments. They sought to structure their arguments - what was the
most important point to get across ? Second ? Third ? Arguments were trialled again in a
mini- debate with a group from an opposing team. As a final team preparation activity
there was a joint planning meeting with another group arguing the same case. Strengths
and areas for fine-tuning were identified. Finally, two volunteers from each team
participated in the main debate. Unpackaging the different elements of good debate in
this way proved to be very powerful - and additionally deepened understanding of a
complex citizenship issue. You might try setting up a Citizenship trainee to do something
similar and then debrief on the effectiveness of the approach
iii)
How pupils develop research skills
Similarly, in terms of research skills, it is important not only to provide opportunities for
young people to research citizenship issues for themselves, but also to help them learn
how to do this. Learning how to access relevant information and present it to a public
audience is important for a number of reasons. For example :
- It enables young people to investigate issues for themselves
- It helps young people learn how information shapes public opinion
- It is an aid to campaigning and lobbying
Pupils can be encouraged to use different research methods, such as questionnaires and
interviews and to access different sources of written information from libraries, the
internet and media sources. It is important that pupils are encouraged to reflect critically
on the provenance of the information that they are accessing. You might encourage your
trainee to explore this aspect of learning explicitly through devising an activity where
pupils detect bias in the way in which information is presented to the general public, for
example by political parties, the media, campaigning groups or private companies.
iv)
How the trainee addresses the teaching of controversial issues
The QCA and the Crick Report both provide useful guidance on the teaching of
controversial and sensitive issues which will not be repeated here. Section 407 of the
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1996 Education Act requires that where political or controversial issues are brought to
pupils' attention, they are offered a balanced presentation of opposing views. Beginning
Citizenship teachers are usually keen to engage young people in talking about
controversial issues - the pitfalls that they may fall prey to are over-confidence, lack of
preparation of various viewpoints and unconscious bias. Where you know that a trainee is
planning a lesson covering potentially controversial territory such as war and peace, race
or gay rights it is important to discuss lesson plans beforehand and check them against
advice on avoiding bias in teaching. Moreover, some lesson content may seem less
controversial, such as Fair Trade or the role of multi-national companies in the global
economy but nevertheless incorporate the potential for unwitting anti-capitalist, anti-
American bias.
In dealing with controversial issues in structured and sensitive ways, trainees might find it
useful to consider the following checklist of questions :
· What are the main features and ramifications of the issue ?
· How, where and by whom can/were these matters resolved ?
· What other options were there ?
· Which groups are involved in the issue ?
· What are the interests and values of these groups ?
· How can/should people be persuaded to act or change their views ?
· How convinced are we about the accuracy of the information ?
· How can we influence the outcome how does it affect us ?
v)
How you might structure extended writing in a Citizenship context
Written work is one of the aspects of Citizenship education that has often been subject to
criticism in OFSTED inspection reports. This does not mean that all work in Citizenship
needs to lead to written outcomes - oral presentations, displays, drama and powerpoint
presentations are all good too - but students do need to be given opportunities to
organise their ideas and arguments and practice extended writing in Citizenship contexts.
The links between Citizenship and literacy need to be made more explicit. This sounds
rather dry and removed from the exciting realm of active citizenship but it needn't be.
Literacy - to put it crudely - is a 'doing' skill. Crucially, literacy empowers. It secures young
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people access to information bases and grants them a measure of independence.
Without it there are dangers of at least partial disenfranchisement. Pupils will be more
effective in 'making a difference' if they learn how to structure a persuasive press release,
public letter or newspaper article.
Extended writing is difficult for many pupils because they have to do so many
things at once ! They have to:
· Remember what they want to say and select the right material to keep their answer
relevant to the question.
· Sort their ideas into a structure which give them meaning : This is difficult where
abstract concepts - such as democracy, freedom and rights - are being used.
· Distinguish between the general and the particular : They need to balance 'big points'
- often the first sentence of a paragraph - with 'particular' material e.g. details and
examples which support the 'big points'
· Know the right words to link their ideas together (sentence starters and connectives)
If your Citizenship trainee is building towards a fairly extensive piece of written work it
might be useful to encourage him/her to talk with English or History colleagues as a
professional development exercise about how they structure extended writing in their
subject contexts. This could include incorporating 'writing frames' - in other words
paragraph headings which give accounts a 'skeleton' framework or 'scaffold'.
(You might encourage them to consult Christine Counsell, Analytical and Discursive
Writing at Key Stage 3 (Historical Association, 1997) where these kinds of ideas are
developed in more detail). They will have been briefed about the literacy strategy in
college sessions - encourage them to digest some of the literature on literacy across the
curriculum and consider the implications for Citizenship teaching and learning..
3. Links between Citizenship and ICT
All beginning teachers need to demonstrate by the end of their initial teacher education
that they can "use ICT effectively" in their teaching. Citizenship and ICT are potentially
powerful partners although what an 'effective' marriage of the two might look like is at an
early stage of development and subject to further change as the technology moves
forwards. Already the ICT whiteboard is changing teaching and learning strategies quite
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dramatically in those schools where the technology has become embedded and teachers
have the training and confidence to explore its potential. As a mentor you will want to
encourage trainees to deploy their own ICT skills as a significant tool within an array of
other teaching strategies; use ICT to enhance Citizenship learning; and reinforce and
extend pupils' ICT skills.
At both Key Stages 3 and 4, ICT can be seen as analogous to cement in the
'construction' of Citizenship. On the one hand, the role of ICT is important because of the
move towards an information society and the need to prepare young people for this, on
the other hand ICT offers methods to support and promote active citizenship, participation
and advocacy. The Citizenship skill area of enquiry and communication includes using
ICT-based sources to analyse political, spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues. The
part played by the internet in providing information and affecting opinion is a key
requirement of Citizenship teaching in secondary schools.
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What does good practice in marrying
Citizenship and ICT look like ?
· It facilitates in depth exploration of contemporary social and political issues
with a focus upon critical understanding of the role and significance of the
media in different contexts. Web sites, live webcasting, videoconferencing
and online discussion groups provide access to a vast body of otherwise
inaccessible information, including up-to-the-minute bulletins, together with
opportunities for interrogating and cross-checking sources. There are a
variety of opportunities to consider issues of bias, reliability and provenance.
· Information is not engaged with 'passively'
ie Children have to select, question, evaluate, and/or transform the material
they are engaging with. Children learn in Citizenship through doing - that
means sifting, selecting, discussing, evaluating, interpreting, questioning,
transforming and juxtaposing (a common reservation expressed by
teachers about the use of the internet is that the information students select
for downloading and printing is hardly read, let alone digested, considered
and analysed. Put another way, the material makes the journey from web
page via the printer to the pupil's book or file having only minimal contact
with the person's brain).
· Youngsters make critical, creative and/or active choices about how they
present their ideas. High level use is made of ICT - not only the word
processor and cut and paste dimensions. ICT is a brilliant tool for presenting
arguments via 'virtual displays' or powerpoint presentations e.g. to
assemblies, community groups or younger children
· Opportunities to 'make a difference' and persuade others are built into
classroom activities and projects. Projects contain interactive dimensions.
There are countless discussions, debates and genuine public consultative
exercises on the internet - for example, see those organised by the Hansard
Society and the Children and Young Peoples' Unit within the Yvote project. It
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could be an element of developing skills of enquiry and communication that
all pupils are required by the school to enter at least one online forum and
print out evidence of their contribution. E-mail, chat rooms and online debates
let children test and discuss ideas outside their immediate circle and to
become familiar with the rules (implicit as well as formal) of democratic
debate. Very often peer pressure serves to temper the initial dogmatism or
crudeness of contributions to discussion. Online discussion exposes young
people to information and ideas they might not otherwise have encountered.
· The sessions prompt plenty of focused pupil talk - there is a dynamic inter-
relationship between time sitting in front of PCs and small group or whole
class debate. ICT activities can provide a good focus for discussions in small
groups which then can feed back into whole class discussions. In fact
research suggests that teaching children how to talk together and establishing
class ground rules for talk is one of the most effective ways of supporting
learning around computers.
· Opportunities are provided to take advantage of the 'Communication' function
of ICT. This can assist young people in the participation element of
Citizenship - e.g. campaigning, linking with other schools, organisations and
pressure groups. Online discussions offer young people a sense of not simply
hearing about or spectating upon civic affairs, but becoming involved as
thoughtful participants.
What can you as a Citizenship mentor do to help beginning teachers think about what it
means to "use ICT effectively" in their teaching ? Your main role is to guide, encourage
and enthuse. If you can `model' practice, so much the better ! More practically, even
before the trainee arrives at the school, if you are aware of where, within your schemes of
work, there might be opportunities to use ICT in Citizenship lessons you can help by
booking the computer rooms - access is a key issue for trainees wishing to work with
whole classes using ICT resources.
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You can also point them in the direction of sources of authority - Becta have sponsored a
variety of projects and newsletters piloting ideas, resources and projects linking
Citizenship and ICT. There is an on-line CPD programme developing the links between
Citizenship and ICT produced by INDIGO for the KS3 Strategy. Teachers' resources can
also be found in the relevant sections of the Hansard Society site
(www.hansardsociety.org.uk); the Citizenship Foundation (www.citfou.org.uk), the
Institute for Citizenship Studies (www.citizen.org.uk), and Citizen 21
(www.citizen21.org.uk). The United Nations web site (www.un.org) is particularly strong
on issues of global citizenship; more background on this can be found at the excellent
One World Online site (oneworldonline.com). There are also web sites which specialise in
certain aspects of citizenship education. Amnesty International provides education packs
for teachers (www.amnesty.org.uk); the Media Channel (www.mediachannel.org) has
links to a vast collection of background resources relating to the media; Global Express
specialises in development education (www.dep.org.uk/globalexpress); the Greenpeace
site (www.greenpeace.org) includes ideas for lessons relating to the environment and
sustainability (although bias is clearly an issue here).
4. Creating individualised training programmes
There are certain things that you and colleagues will see as fundamental to your work
with any beginning teacher who undertakes a placement in your school and certain core
professional values into which you will want to induct all new members of the teaching
profession. You will probably wish to underline the importance of personal qualities, value
systems and good communication skills when working with young people (such as a
sense of humour, enthusiasm, patience, making complex issues accessible, and fairness
when adjudicating disputes). Citizenship teachers more than most are open to pupil
charges of double standards if they do not demonstrate a willingness to put into practice
principles enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child. Translated into
classroom practice this means treating pupils with courtesy and respect and the use of
plenty of praise. Similarly, most beginning Citizenship teachers will be looking to cultivate
in pupils an ability and readiness to identify and challenge those attitudes and practices in
society (and sometimes schools ) that undermine equality and social justice.
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
Yet although there are common elements to your work with all beginning teachers, the
learner Citizenship teachers that you will be working with have arrived on teacher
education courses from a diverse range of degree backgrounds and life experiences.
Ideally, a school-based training programme for beginning teachers should be tailored to
meet varied individual needs. This tends to happen automatically if beginning teachers
are undertaking Graduate Teacher Schemes or Flexible Modular routes into teaching but
also needs to be part of the mindset for managing trainees undertaking traditional PGCE
courses. The objective of 'personalised learning' has been a buzzphrase much in
evidence recently as an ideal for all pupils (although there has sometimes been a
haziness about what ministers actually mean when they deploy the phrase !). In the
context of I.T.E. the aim of personalised learning is to offer a training experience that is
flexible and responsive to the needs of individual beginning teachers. Most P.G.C.E.
programmes are sufficiently flexible in course design, to allow mentors to use their
expertise to adapt an appropriate range of training experiences. It is important that
Citizenship courses give beginning teachers genuine choices as they develop their
subject specialism. It is also important that you treat the trainee as a co-professional and
engage in dialogue with them.
Try to encourage your Citizenship trainee to take responsibility for managing their own
learning. Standard 1.7 is a significant pointer to beginning teachers' thinking about
teaching and learning as they review their progress. This states that trainees should be
able to :
"improve their own teaching, by evaluating it, learning from the effective practice of others
and from evidence. They are motivated and able to take increasing responsibility for their
own professional development."
In other words, as you and the trainee discuss how you might tailor their Citizenship
teaching and training experiences, you can encourage them to be pro-active about
negotiating their own individualised training programme rather than expecting to receive
standardised instructions 'off the shelf' !
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
As a mentor there are a number of key variables that you can seek to alter in negotiation
with your Citizenship trainee depending upon their background and the progress that they
are making :
- The emphasis of their teaching timetable (As a discrete subject? As part of a P.H.S.C.E
programme? Through other subjects?)
- the focus of their work in non-contact time
- the focus of your weekly seminar/school-based training sessions
- their observation programme with opportunities to experience a range of different skills
and styles
- their weekly and medium-term targets and agreed areas for development (in other
words their priorities !)
- the nature of feedback that you and the trainee receive from other relevant
colleagues. For example, you might ask colleagues who are also involved in
supporting the Citizenship beginning teacher to give you brief oral weekly
progress reports and ideally short written monthly updates to feed into a broader
profile of evidence of achievement. [For more detail on managing the trainees'
overall experience see Mentor Briefing Paper 3]
Inevitably, training needs will vary depending upon the point the beginning teacher has
reached in their training. You are unlikely to have to create the needs assessment
documentation yourself - there will probably be partnership documentation to refer to in
relation to, for example, trainees' subject knowledge needs and other training priorities
will emerge from assessment documentation once the trainee has begun to undertake
significant amounts of teaching. Indeed the assessment of trainees' teaching is primarily
designed to support individual target-setting, perhaps on a weekly basis but certainly at
key staging posts over the course of a training year. The grid below offers a checklist of
possible individualised training strategies at different points in the year for a 'typical'
trainee based upon one training partnership's school placement model. Encourage
trainees to 'activate' and reflect upon the various areas of focus suggested to them.
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
Location/
Chronology Focus of individualised training
Activating
Research
School A:
· In consultation agree an appropriate
Teaching
preliminary timetable and observation
Induction
schedule. Find out about approaches to
Phase
Citizenship across different departments.
How do the knowledge strands of different
October to mid
subject areas overlap with Citizenship ?
November
· Tailor primary school visit and pupil trail
activity to trainee needs.
· Identify subject knowledge gaps e.g. if the
student has a Politics or Sociology degree
which lacks a global or environmental
dimension, an observation programme which
takes in some Geography lessons would be
good. Suggest ways in which trainees can
build up subject knowledge.
Application
Phase
· As the trainee undertakes their first
independent teaching, identify some lessons
where they have subject knowledge
Mid -November
strengths to build initial confidence. Discuss
to December
with trainees the topics that they will teach
and priorities for research for these lessons
· Vary the pace at which you build up the
quantity of individual teaching depending
upon the trainees' success and confidence
· Negotiate some collaborative teaching and
marking/assessment in an area of
Citizenship
· If the trainee lacks confidence in some early
elements of teaching, such as the
organisation of groupwork or the
management of whole class debates,
organise some focused observation so that
these teaching skills can be modelled by
yourself or relevant colleagues.
· Encourage the trainee to evaluate their
teaching in some depth and to keep a record
of your discussions in the weekly mentoring
sessions
Consolidation
· Encourage trainees to select their own QTT
Phase
'Standard of the Week' to analyse in their
reflective training log and then develop in
January
discussions during your weekly training
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
session. Agree weekly targets and actions
that link to the Standards and have clear,
focused actions to help develop skills
· Encourage trainees to build differentiation
more explicitly into their teaching through
providing 'access' for SEN and lower
attaining pupils and 'challenge' for 'gifted and
talented' pupils.
· Identify where trainees are at in explicitly
developing literacy skills through their
Citizenship teaching (e.g. oracy; extended
writing)
· Discuss what might constitute the most
useful form of post-16 experience over a
sequence of lessons - Sociology,
Government and Politics, European Studies
or General Studies AS/A Level or Leisure
and Tourism at Advanced GNVQ Level could
all be possibilities depending upon the
trainees' subject knowledge, the school's
post-16 curriculum and the goodwill of
colleagues
School B:
· Identify the key personal development
Development
targets for your trainee arising from their first
Phase
school placement and tailor the timetable
and weekly mentor meetings accordingly. It
March to May
is good for trainees to be able to continue
undertaking focused observation as a
strategy to develop areas of the trainees'
teaching identified from their first school
placement. Look to follow-up and review the
targets set for the trainees on a regular
basis.
· Assuming the trainee has made good
progress in their first placement school
encourage them to think more deeply about
pupils' learning - for example, the trainee
might undertake some small-scale action
research into how different thinking and
learning styles can be accommodated in
classroom teaching.
· Audit trainees' understanding and experience
of assessing Citizenship. Involve them in the
Year 9 reporting process and ensure that
they gain experience of assessing
Citizenship at KS4.
· Push stronger trainees to make explicit use
assessment data in their lesson planning
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
(e.g. NFER scores, CATs; SEN records; NC
Levels achieved in previous assessments).
The trainee can then be encouraged to
consider the extent to which information
gathering and consequent lesson preparation
has led to an improvement in pupils' learning
· Look at the extent to which trainees have
been able to incorporate ICT or drama/role-
play into their teaching
· Challenge trainees to improve aspects of
reflection on their teaching that are
evidenced in their teaching files (for example
the depth of evaluation of the success of
individual lessons or the quality of their whole
class questioning)
· Re-visit the trainees subject knowledge audit
- how can the trainee continue to augment
their Citizenship subject knowledge in the
context of your school ?
· Is the trainee interested in organising a
Citizenship event such as a mock election or
suspended timetable Citizenship event ?
· If the school does not enter pupils for the
GCSE short course in Citizenship Studies,
negotiate appropriate GCSE experience
elsewhere (for example, in R.E., History or
Media Studies, depending upon the trainees
degree background and preference)
· Again, if possible, think about organising an
appropriate sequence of post-16 teaching
depending upon the trainee's needs and
expertise
Enrichment
Phase June
· Can the Citizenship beginning teacher
become involved in developing a whole
school Citizenship project such as student
forums, peer mentoring or a community
project ? Ideally the trainee will be
demonstrating deeper and more
sophisticated thinking about the scope of
pupils' involvement in Citizenship activities.
· Negotiate a curriculum development project
that meets the needs of both the trainee and
the school/ Encourage the trainee to focus
on a specific feature of a college assignment
that best fits their learning needs at this
stage
· A particularly strong student might be
encouraged to develop a draft policy
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
statement for Citizenship's contribution to a
cross-curricular initiative (e.g. The KS3
strategy; personalised learning; Emotional
literacy; Thinking Skills)
· Encourage the trainee (with pupils) to create
a display of their Citizenship project work
Summation
Phase
· Talk through the key elements of the Career
Entry Development Profile - what elements of
the trainees' role as a Citizenship teacher are
priorities in terms of CPD in their first year of
teaching ? (e.g. subject co-ordination, ICT,
differentiation; additional GCSE or post-16
experience and support)
Conclusion
The suggested training activities suggested above are by no means exhaustive (although
they may seem on the face of it to be exhausting !). Being a Citizenship mentor can be
immensely rewarding but it is likely to be one role amongst many that you are juggling. It
is worth finishing this section by acknowledging the scale of the task facing Citizenship
mentors. In their overview Understanding Teacher Education (1997) Calderhead and
Sharrock concluded :
"In many respects, the initial training of teachers, given the current time and resource
constraints in the UK, may be viewed as an almost impossible task [!]. Teacher educators
have constantly to juggle external expectations together with their own, sometimes
contrary, understanding of how one might most appropriately educate and train teachers.
It is a task full of compromises, in which the problems are only partially understood, and
where different interest groups express competing needs".
Elsewhere they also noted that beginning teachers understanding of subject matter and
of children's learning often remained at a superficial level during initial teacher education.
One explanation of this was that :
"learning about subject matter and the teaching and learning strategies associated with it,
and being able to implement these in the classroom, is an extremely demanding task,
requiring the assimilation of a vast amount of knowledge, and that such a task is only
likely to be achieved over a lengthy period of time."
Mentor Briefing Paper School-Based Citizenship Training
These thoughts are probably particularly apposite in relation to the nascent subject area
of Citizenship. Teacher educators are involved in a long-term developmental process of
action research involving active dialogue with schools and mentors. The success of
Citizenship in the future will depend upon the creation and nurturing of local and regional
'communities of practice'. Initial teacher education can be a useful nexus for the kinds of
debates and interaction between higher education, schools and mentors that can help to
move Citizenship forwards.
Bibliography
Arthur J, Davison J
& Moss J (1997) Subject Mentoring in the Secondary School
Calderhead J and
Sharrock S (1997) Understanding Teacher Education
Counsell C, (1997) Analytical and Discursive Writing at Key Stage 3
Furlong J &
Maynard T (1995) Mentoring Student Teachers : The Growth of Professional
Knowledge
Stephens P (1996) Essential Mentoring Skills
McIntyre D, Hagger H
& Wilkin M (eds.) (1993) Mentoring : Perspectives on School-Based Teacher
Education
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