LEARNER ASSESSMENT SUBMISSION AND DECLARATION

WHEN SUBMITTING EVIDENCE FOR ASSESSMENT, EACH LEARNER MUST SIGN A

DECLARATION CONFIRMING THAT THE WORK IS THEIR OWN.

Learner name:
Salwa Khan
Issue date:
1st August 2015

Assessor name: ARSHAD ASHRAF

Submission date:
1st October 2015

Submitted on:
1st October 2015

Programme / Qualification: Education and Training Level 5

Unit Number & Title:
Unit 1 Developing Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Education & Training
Assignment Reference And Title:
Part1: Analyze the application of pedagogical principles in own area of
specialism. Evaluate the effectiveness of use of creative and innovative
approaches in your area.
Part2: Communicate with learners, learning professionals and others to meet
individual learning needs and encourage progression. Explain how you delivery
of inclusive teaching and learning has taken into account of theories, principles
and models of learning and communication.
Part 3: Explain how own practice in planning inclusive teaching and learning has
taken account of theories, principles and models of learning, communication and
assessment.
WRITE THE TITLE OF THE ASSIGNMENT THAT YOU HAVE DONE
Task ref.

Evidence submitted

Page numbers or
description

Example

Report / Essay

2000 word report / essay

Question 1: part 1

Sample from teaching

portfolio

Student work, lesson plans

Question 1: part 2

Individual research

Collective answers of
teachers

Question 1: part 3

Sample from teaching

portfolio

Question 1: Part 1

Students remarks on lessons

Additional comments to the Assessor:

Learner declaration
I certify that the work submitted for this assignment is my own. I have clearly
referenced any sources used in the work. I understand that false declaration is a
form of malpractice.

Learner signature:

Date:

ABSTRACT
In this paper I will attempt to analyze the application of pedagogical principlesas
well as evaluate the effectiveness of use of creative and innovative approaches
in my teaching. I will also attempt to communicate with learners and other
learning professionals to meet individual learning needs and encourage
progression. Finally I will discuss how my own practice in planning inclusive
teaching and learning has taken account of theories, principles, and models of
learning, communication and assessment.
INTRODUCTION
Pedagogy according to Dictionary.com is defined as " 1.
the function or work of a teacher; teaching.
2. the art or science of teaching; education; instructional methods." In simpler
language pedagogy is defined as" many different types and variations in
teaching." (What is Pedagogy?, 2015) That said there are a variety of ways that
a teacher can teach her students and many ways in which a learner can learn.
"Learning is more effective when learners are actively engaged in the process of
learning." (K.P.Mohanan)
Part 1
During the course of my teaching planning and implementing my lessons using
Gardner's MI theory has helped me greatly in keeping my students engaged and
through the use of various creative activities.
The learning of my students is made more effective by keeping them motivated
through creative and innovative approaches. In order to evaluate the
effectiveness of use of creative and innovative approaches I must first specify my
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learners. My students belong to two different age groups one group which is my
ESL group ranges from the age of 18-24. These are a group of young Saudi girls
all taught in Saudi schools with Arabic as their medium of instruction and
memorization and drill as their most often method of teaching. The second
group is aged 9-10, whose mode of instruction has been completely in English.
In both groups the need to keep the learners interested, motivated and focused
on task is great as in the first group the lack of understanding English proves to
be an obstacle while in the second the age group itself does not allow for a
didactic approach of long, winding, explanations on any subject.
Bearing in mind the importance of autonomous learning, a lot of my teaching is
project based. For this, the students are either allowed to work individually, in
pairs, or as groups. This allows for both interpersonal and intrapersonal
intelligences to foster as well as reducing the monotony of listening to a lecture.
Through research work, my learners are able to learn not only the content
needed to be researched but they gain additional knowledge while conducting
their research.
At the very beginning of the term these students first need tobe told of
importance of group work and why it is an integral part of their learning
experience. Since these students are used to rote learning and memorization
any new approach or in this case working collaboratively is not considered
'educational' and students use the time allotted to work in groups in the
classroom as time to socialize with their friends and speak in Arabic.So, first and
foremost they need to understand relevance of any activity be it working in
collaboration with a partner or with a group and how it relates to their learning.
In terms of personal development I observed my students to be lacking in
direction and purpose in life so to introduce them to the existential questions
such as 'Who am I?' and 'What is my purpose in life?' I prepared a short lesson
plan. Rather than just discuss or give a lecture on improving sense of self, I
decided to utilize a lesson plan created by another instructor, which consisted of
playing a video of a song by a famous singer ZainBikha"This is Me" and using it
to open first a discussion in groups then as a class on what they believe is
special about themselves and others and consider answers to the question of
what they could do to make a difference in their world. After the discussion the
students were asked to write a statement about themselves on a post-it and take
it and post on a wall outside of class. They were also encouraged to read the
other students' responses and reflect upon them. This activated their
interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, musical, existential and bodily kinesthetic
intelligences.
Students tend to enjoy hands-on activities particularly those which do not appear
to be from their books. So instead of asking students to complete matching
exercises in the book I photocopied the exercises, cut up the parts to be
matched. I then asked students either in pairs or in groups to physically match
the exercises. These ranged from vocabulary, word-meaning, to completing
sentences. Although it was the same information as in students' books
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presenting it in a different manner helped to maintain learner interest and

progression and were appealing to the kinesthetic learners.
An activity for improving spelling which was greatly enjoyed by kinesthetic
learners was posting sentences outside the classroom and then working in pairs.
One student was to go outside read and come back to say the same sentence to
her partner. First pair that completed the sentences correctly won the
competition.
To involve students more in their learning experience and scaffold their learning
another technique used was after explaining the grammar or vocabulary of a
certain unit the students were asked in groups to brainstorm
definitions/descriptions/sentences of given words or grammar. They were then
asked to create their own 'worksheet' and exchange their 'worksheets' with
another group to complete. This promoted their critical thinking skills,
encouraged autonomous learning and working collaboratively allowed for new
information to be built and prior information to be revised.
Realia helps greatly in enabling students to remember vocabulary, however, to
explain certain vocabulary on countryside, rather than use realia or pictures I
took my students for a garden walk. Their assessment was made in the form of
informing their classmates on all objects seen and sequence of events while
walking in the garden as well as a shortquiz in which they were asked to write
words for each picture shown.
Students are generally weak and demotivatedin writingparagraphs for any given
topic. To overcome this obstacle the students brainstormed a given topic as
aclass and wrote one example together on the board. They were then given a
handout of similar writing exercise with word bank and pictures to complete
individually. Another variation used for writing was doing the writing activity on
colored paper on walls in groups. For example, students first wrote three points
of pros and cons of travelling by a specific form of transportation(car, bus,
airplane). Then using those points they were asked to construct sentences to
write a paragraph. As a form of assessment students were asked to correct
another group's work. Simply use of different materials, moving around in the
classroom was effective in breaking an otherwise monotonous lesson.
Another example for improving personal development as well as developing their
critical thinking and organizational skills was trying to work together as a class
and as a team since most students preferred to stay within the safe circle of a
few friends and not work together as a class. To promote teamwork and
cooperation amongst my students they planned, practiced and organized for
Sports Day event. They practiced the different races and a class cheer together
as a team. Since physical education is not a part of their school curriculum
students were extremely excited in participating in this event.
Videos from the internet help to motivate learners in a variety of ways. For
example, to reinforce vocabulary learnt on a unit for advertisement, learners
were shown a video of nike shoes advertisement. They were then shown the
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video again and asked to use their vocabulary words to describe the
advertisement. Another example of using videos is while explaining genres and
using adjectives to describe different movies learners were shown video clips of
different movies (eg. IRobot for science fiction, Ta ash ba Ta ash , a local program
for comedy)and later asked to retell and explain the events seen using relevant
vocabulary. To reinforce a grammar lesson, learners asked to search for a video
on youtube and play and explain to class about the grammar.
For an activity for adjectives students were given a scenario of a hit and run
driver. (Road accidents being quite common in Saudi Arabia) Students were
asked to draw and describe the perpetrator (some decided to draw the cars as
well) using vocabulary learnt on adjectives. This also enabled new learning as
certain adjectives were added to their present list(eg. Long, curly, hair).
For a unit on food, students were asked to prepare a menu card for their own
restaurant, quoting their food served with the prices. They were also asked to do
presentations on presenting a cooked meal from home informing the class about
both the method(using ordinal numbers and transitional language) and the
ingredients.
Students are generally not very keen on participating in role plays. For future
use, I plan to have one lesson on constructing puppets and having students
utilizing them occasionally to bring a variation to role-plays done from their text
books.
Part 2)
Teaching and learning is promoted not only by creative and innovative
approaches but also by effective communication.
One important aspect I learned to encourage progression is to make sure
Learning outcomes are very clear. For example, in one specific term, when
students first started the term they were expected to study from Total English
Book and learning and progression was assessed by its unit and progress tests.
They were able to do reasonably well in their unit tests as most of it was written
test, their speaking was not assessed in the test and it was a form of testing that
the students were used to doing. Teachers were instructed to teach grammar
inductively through activities rather than making grammar an exact focus of
teaching. However, the students were later informed they would be tested
withina two month time period on KET exam a British Exam of which they had no
previous knowledge or preparation and which consisted of Reading and Writing,
Listening and Speaking Parts. This test was extremely difficult as all the nine
parts included in the exam were very difficult for their level of understanding. Its
primary focus was on grammar whereas previously the students had been
focusing on basic conversation skills and functional language required for
vocational students.
Practicing each part of the test separately helped some students however the
majority of the class thought it too challenging. Some of them realized they could
5

not pass the test, were demotivated and absences in class became frequent.
Those that did come to class were less confident and less interested in the
lessons than before. In order to improve this situation teachers were later
informed by the college that students that are not able to pass the KET exam will
be given another chance to provided they observe punctuality and regular
attendance. This brought up the attendance percentage as well as helped to
build up more interest in class.
Learning outcomes need to be clear from the outset. For example, in writing if
they are expected towrite a paragraph these learners need to have specific
information of what is expected from them in their paragraph, what the criteria
for assessment will be.Generally in preparatory year programs the learners are
required to write a paragraph on a given topic from the book. For their KET exam
they are required to write either an email, a short note or notices. There are
three specific questions that they are required to answer. As long as the learner
answers the three questions correctly in terms of context they will be awarded
their marks and any small grammatical errors will not lead to marks deduction.
Rather than trying to write paragraphs on topics of "My Best Friend" or "My
House," as they had been used to previously and trying to formulate answers
with perfect grammatical structures the learners were able to focus on the
requirements for the KET Exam and the context of their writing.
Nearly all learners in my class did not have email addresses, rather they all used
the WatsApp application on their phones. So another method of improving
communication with students was usingwatsapp for feedback from students
about any part of lesson that they needed more understanding in or reminding
them about due date for presentations.
Also, usage of watsap promotes openness in communication with students. For
example, if a particular student felt uncomfortable when I asked her in front of
other students to focus on her work rather than talking in her group, she later
sent me a message that she did not like to be admonished in front of other
students and I kept a mental note of that. I was only keeping note of
absenteeism and punctuality in written form, in the future I will keep a written
note of such student behavior and add it to my personal reflections for lessons.
Upon communication with other professionals I learned that most behavior issues
occur due to lack of discipline and educational focus. To overcome this factor the
teacher needs to make the class more enjoyable.
According to another educator one of her students had a tendency for tardiness
and verbal warning were proving ineffective. Besides the college policy of
considering the student absent after a certain number of tardy, the instructor
allowed the student to make up the missed time by having her write as an
assignment the reasons for being late as well as what could be done to resolve
those issues. Eventually, this helped in promoting punctuality as that student
enjoy any kind of writing assignments.

A factor which I have overlooked and intend to rectify in future lessons is

communicating more with parents. Various researches have provided evidence
for the effects of parent involvement on learners when parents support and
encourage the development and learning of children. (Eccles& Harold, 1993;
Illinois State Board of Education, 1993 cited in (G. Olsen, 2010)). "the most
accurate predictor of a student's achievement in school is not income or social
status but the extent to which that student's family is able to become involved in
their children's education at school and in the community (Henderson and
Berla,p.160,cited in (G. Olsen, 2010)
Part 3
Self-reflection is necessary for improvement, not just for educators but also for
students. I didnt make a fixed plan for self-reflection of students which is
important for their progression. I now plan on including a certain amount of
time either during the day or the week in which the students are required to
write the answer to the following questions: two things I learned today, two
things I liked today and two things I didnt like. The learning is usually related to
their lesson and the like dislike can be anything from friends and food(anything
in their social life as well as including the lesson.) Variations to this would be
writing in complete sentences or just phrases plus writing less than or more than
two sentences or phrases.
Before the next reflection time I have to make sure their reflection is given a
constructive feedback by me. This not only assists in students recalling and
summarizing their learningbut also helps me in gaining insight into my students'
interests and learning needs and preparing assessments that will promote their
learning.
Besides the KET and PET exams which are the summative assessments the
formative assessment is in the form of oral feedback from students during class,
handouts, quizzes, spelling dictations, projects, presentations and art work. With
reference to their ILP's since a lot of students do not enjoy presenting to the
whole class at the beginning of the term they are allowed to give their
presentations to their teacher alone. However, with the progression of the term
and with help of activities such as "morning meetings" and growth in language
abilities the shy students are able to overcome their shyness and most are able
to give their presentations to the class.
One practice I intend to follow in future to keep my students more involved in
their learning and assessments is instead of merely giving students the criteria
in assessing them for speaking presentations and any projects that they are
assigned to involve them more and allow student to brainstorm and choose the
criteria for judging their work.
When assessing students through questions and answers I tried to ask a lot of
questions, however, many times my students were not able to answer them
regardless of the fact that we had discussed it in class in a previous lesson or just
a little time prior to the present class. Upon reflection I learned that their
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understanding of English was limited and for them to provide me with an answer
they usually thought of it in L1, translated it, then formulated the response. I
tried to limit my questions first and then either let them discuss the answer in
pairs or at least provide them with a minute to formulate their answer and then
allow them to answer. This technique helped in assessing my students more
accurately.
What is Pedagogy? (2015, jun 16). Retrieved jun 16, 2015, from Boundless.com:
ttps://www.boundless.com/education/textbooks/boundless-educationtextbook/curriculum-and-instructional-design-3/instructional-design14/what-is-pedagogy-48-12978/
G. Olsen, M. F. (2010, July 20). The Benefits of Parent Involvement: What
Research Has to Say. Retrieved Jun 18, 2015, from Education.com:
http://www.education.com/reference/article/benefits-parent-involvementresearch/
K.P.Mohanan. (n.d.). Learning Outcomes, Pedagogical. Retrieved jun 15, 2015,
from PBL in Perspective:
http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/publications/pbl/outcomes.htm