Assignment providing a critical exploration of a curriculum development initiative. How this has been implemented in the school and how it has impacted my practice?
This assignment is a critical exploration of a new literacy initiative called ‘Big Writing Adventures’ (BWA). In this assignment I will discuss why the school I was on placement at chose to adopt this initiative, how it was implemented in the school and how the change was managed at a whole school level. I also aim to evaluate how it impacted on my future practice within the classroom as a newly qualified teacher, while also critically evaluating the extent to which the curriculum arrangements in place allow for the personalised needs of two of the children in my class to be met. …show more content…
This was vital to the successful implementation of BWA as Brundett and Duncan (2011) suggest that curriculum innovation will be more successful if the teachers and school leaders see the potential benefit for pupils and if all school personnel are committed to and believe in its underlying values. Pendlebury et al (1990) support this view as they believe having a vision is what propels and directs change and provides its justification. The vision in School A was to improve achievement in writing. This was a view the majority of the staff shared, therefore making resistance minimal. This is an unusual reaction, as during times of change resistance is natural and expected (Newton, Tarrant. 2002) Plant (1987) proposes that some reasons for resistance to change and unwillingness to engage in new behaviour includes: fear of the unknown, lack of information, fear of failure, fear of looking stupid and reluctance to experiment. He also states “Levels of resistance will be higher if the levels of involvement and information is low…Extra special effort needs to be made to pump communications especially hard during change efforts.” This research shows that for resistance to be kept at a minimum, communication has to be good. This could be a possible explanation for the lack of resistance in School …show more content…
The staff then had a teaching session from an educational consultant from Oxford Owl (creator of BWA) who delivered a training day. Weekly gave opportunity for discussions about any problems they had. These meetings also allowed the teachers to share advice with each other and give feedback on how it was going and what they thought. This level of communication is recommended by Newton and Tarrant (2002) who claim teachers need to be involved in the planning stages of the change so they have the opportunity to react, understand the need for the change and adapt appropriately. Brundett and Duncan (2011) recommend that change should be constantly reviewed, modified and adapted to changing circumstances and requirements. Good communication allowed the staff to get the information they needed thereby reducing the fear they may have had otherwise. This, in turn, minimised
This assignment is a critical exploration of a new literacy initiative called ‘Big Writing Adventures’ (BWA). In this assignment I will discuss why the school I was on placement at chose to adopt this initiative, how it was implemented in the school and how the change was managed at a whole school level. I also aim to evaluate how it impacted on my future practice within the classroom as a newly qualified teacher, while also critically evaluating the extent to which the curriculum arrangements in place allow for the personalised needs of two of the children in my class to be met. …show more content…
This was vital to the successful implementation of BWA as Brundett and Duncan (2011) suggest that curriculum innovation will be more successful if the teachers and school leaders see the potential benefit for pupils and if all school personnel are committed to and believe in its underlying values. Pendlebury et al (1990) support this view as they believe having a vision is what propels and directs change and provides its justification. The vision in School A was to improve achievement in writing. This was a view the majority of the staff shared, therefore making resistance minimal. This is an unusual reaction, as during times of change resistance is natural and expected (Newton, Tarrant. 2002) Plant (1987) proposes that some reasons for resistance to change and unwillingness to engage in new behaviour includes: fear of the unknown, lack of information, fear of failure, fear of looking stupid and reluctance to experiment. He also states “Levels of resistance will be higher if the levels of involvement and information is low…Extra special effort needs to be made to pump communications especially hard during change efforts.” This research shows that for resistance to be kept at a minimum, communication has to be good. This could be a possible explanation for the lack of resistance in School …show more content…
The staff then had a teaching session from an educational consultant from Oxford Owl (creator of BWA) who delivered a training day. Weekly gave opportunity for discussions about any problems they had. These meetings also allowed the teachers to share advice with each other and give feedback on how it was going and what they thought. This level of communication is recommended by Newton and Tarrant (2002) who claim teachers need to be involved in the planning stages of the change so they have the opportunity to react, understand the need for the change and adapt appropriately. Brundett and Duncan (2011) recommend that change should be constantly reviewed, modified and adapted to changing circumstances and requirements. Good communication allowed the staff to get the information they needed thereby reducing the fear they may have had otherwise. This, in turn, minimised