Liam Anderson, Head of Design & Technology at Trinity School, Newbury
This blogpost follows on from a recent (December 2021) initial teacher training (ITT) Mentor TeachMeet with the University of Reading, sharing school-based best practice from across Berkshire with mentoring secondary student teachers. This is part one of two blog posts on scaffolding and modelling great teaching in design and technology when mentoring student teachers in schools.
I have been a school-based design and technology mentor for student teachers with the University of Reading since January 2018. It has been through experience of mentoring, university mentor training, wider reading, and support networks in the D&T community, that has enabled me to become a more effective and reflective mentor. In this blog post, I will share some of what I have learnt, focusing on supporting D&T student teachers in their development during their initial teacher training year and beyond, with the hope of providing new mentors with advice and ideas for mentoring D&T student teachers in schools.
Something that always excites me about having a D&T student teacher on a placement, is that none are ever the same; some come with a wealth of experience in the design, fashion or manufacturing industries, others straight from a degree. Their experiences, knowledge and skills acquired prior to commencing training are always rich and refreshing in what they bring to the school/department/classroom, and their perspective about D&T. One thing for sure, in most cases, student teachers are new to the classroom and teaching, perhaps having not been in schools since the end of their own secondary schooling. Some student teachers may have prior experience in school settings, such as having previously been a teaching assistant or had other roles in schools, giving them some school-based experience. This can be positive that student teachers have this experience of school settings, but can also perhaps in some cases be a hindrance with preconceived ideas about teaching and a fixed mind-set on this.
Yet, it is highly unlikely that student teachers, despite their prior experience, have the D&T knowledge and skills necessary to teach the subject effectively, from the beginning of their training. The breadth of knowledge and skills covered in D&T means that even student teachers who have a wealth of industry experience or knowledge and skills from related degrees, often find themselves having to further expand their subject knowledge to be versatile teachers of D&T. This development of subject knowledge is just one part of the learning alongside pedagogical knowledge of the subject too. What we teach and how we teach it in D&T needs to be carefully considered by a student teacher and it is likely to be very different from a student teacher’s own D&T experiences and perhaps industry/specialist background (Hardy, 2021). So, there is lots for a new D&T student teacher to learn – the vast body of subject knowledge itself, as well as specific teaching and learning approaches for D&T enabling understanding of how students learn in the subject and more generally, both essential to develop knowledge and understanding of teaching in D&T (McLain, 2019).
Glaser (1996, in Moore, 2019) writes about the support required for teachers at different stages in their development:
Stage 1: externally supported
highly coached, deliberate practice and short feedback cycles.
At this stage, the D&T teacher would be highly reliant on mentoring/coaching from a more experienced D&T teacher with regular and precise feedback on areas for development. This is particularly important in supporting student teachers to develop their knowledge and skills base across all aspects of the subject, particularly with the need for a wider knowledge base across key stages 3 and 4 to be able to confidently deliver all aspects of the National Curriculum/exam specifications. Likely to see this during most part of a D&T student teacher’s initial teacher training year.
Stage 2: transitional
decrease in scaffolding.
Here, we would expect a D&T teacher to be becoming more confident and established in the most part, but continues to develop teaching practice with ongoing CPD and support from more experienced D&T colleagues. Perhaps, more what we would see from a D&T student teacher nearing the end of their initial teacher training year/moving into becoming an early-career teacher (ECT). Over time, D&T teachers become more confident and autonomous with curriculum delivery across a range of material areas, with developing subject knowledge, skill, and pedagogy.
Stage 3: self-regulatory
own their development, able to critique and reflect.
By this stage, a teacher would have developed some substantial experience, perhaps over several years as a D&T teacher. A teacher at this stage, might be more focused on their own development needs and see professional development as a long-term continuous process (Anderson, 2021). This is particularly important with the matter of D&T subject knowledge and technological development, ensuring that D&T teachers continually update and develop their subject knowledge and skills for the classroom on an ongoing basis.
Taking the above into account, D&T student teachers that we are mentoring are certain to be between the stages of ‘novice’ and ‘advanced beginner’ (perhaps not with their specialist D&T subject knowledge, but certainly with the D&T pedagogical knowledge and ability to effectively implement this in the classroom) during their training year. Student teachers will require lots of external support from more experienced teachers through coaching and deliberate practice (teaching in the classroom), with regular and precise feedback, enabling sustained progress and development as a confident and effective classroom teacher of D&T. This will take time and perhaps even beyond a student teacher’s initial teacher training year, depending on the speed of their development. Student teachers are highly likely to continue needing high external support from experienced D&T teachers right until the end of their training year. The complexities of teaching in the classroom with lesson structure and design, pedagogy, assessment, knowledge of pupils, health and safety, equipment in practical lessons etc is all multi-faceted and whilst some student teachers may develop more quickly, the extent to how effectively student teachers can deliver great D&T teaching in the classroom will be highly variable. Therefore, student teachers will require ongoing high levels of support and feedback throughout the whole of the initial teacher training year.
We are familiar with using the ideas of scaffolding and modelling with the pupils we teach in our classrooms and understand these as important pedagogical components in learning and progress with pupils, but perhaps overlook this approach to providing precise and effective developmental support to the D&T student teaches we are mentoring or coaching in our classrooms. In the part two of this blog post, I will explore this in more detail, looking at how we can model and scaffold D&T pedagogical knowledge in for student teachers to deliver effective and great teaching of D&T in the classroom.
This is part one of two blog posts. In the second blog post on this, I will discuss how mentors can practically support D&T student teachers’ development in their initial teacher training year through clear scaffolding and modelling of great teaching in D&T.
References
Glaser, R. (1996). Changing the agency for learning: Acquiring expert performance. In Ericsson, K.A. (Ed), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games. London: Psychology Press.
Hardy, A. (2021). Design and technology in the secondary school. In A. Hardy (Ed.), Learning to Teach Design and Technology in the Secondary School (4th Edition). Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN: 9780367336813.
McLain, M. (2019). Helping new D&T teachers to analyse and develop knowledge, skills and understanding in design and technology. In S. Lawson & S. Wood-Griffiths (Eds.), Mentoring Design and Technology Teachers in the Secondary School (1st Edition). Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN: 9781138541108.
Moore, R. (2019). Novices to experts – 10 things every teacher educator should know. Teach First [online blog] 3 November 2019. Available at: https://www.teachfirst.org.uk/blog/novices-experts-10-things-every-teacher-educator-should-know [Accessed 15/03/2022].
Anderson, L. (2021). Your professional development. In A. Hardy (Ed.), Learning to Teach Design and Technology in the Secondary School (4th Edition). Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN: 9780367336813.
