WACUTS Reflections Jaimi Fittall 1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students 1.

.2 Understand how students learn

I believe these two concepts are interrelated, as are many of the dimensions of the AITSL standards. My mentors classes range from year 8 through to year 11, encompassing a variety of stages of cognitive, physical, moral and emotional development. Pedagogical strategies which may effective when teaching a 12/13 year old may not necessarily be suited to teaching 15/16 year olds. Additionally there is huge variation amongst students within the same class which must be accounted for. To point, being aware of the physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of the students is crucial in understanding how they learn. The first week was dedicated to becoming familiar with the classes and the individual needs of each student in those classes. On Monday morning, I observed the procedures that occur at the beginning of a school year year group meetings followed by form. I then observed four classes Years 8s, 9s, 10s & 11s. For each class, there was a different approach to getting to know the students. With the year 8s, they were required to fill out a questionnaire that asked them about both their academic and personal interests. The year 9s also completed a similar sheet. I found that this seemed to be an effective diagnostic tool as it allows teachers to get information I regards to the students academic strengths, weaknesses & preferred learning style directly from the students themselves before the content was delivered in later lessons. The first year 10 lesson took a slightly different approach, presumably as the teacher was more familiar with the students in this class, and if not, they had a history in the school which could be traced. Instead, the teacher tried (and succeeded) in making the subject matter (Geography), relevant to the students, particularly as they hadnt studied it in the previous year. Also, as they had not studied it since year 8, the lesson was aimed at establishing what knowledge the students had retained from year 8 and reviewing basic Geography concepts, such as vocabulary. The year 11 class was different again, due to numerous reasons including again the teachers familiarity the students. The main aim of this lesson was to provide students with the administrative details of the course, as well as make the course content appealing to the students. In continuation, the rest of the week was used to continue developing a relationship with the students as well as delivering content. Many of the class activities have been designed to continue establishing the prior knowledge of the students and to gauge which pedagogical strategies are most effective for each students. The teachers utilised the time in which they go around the classroom and monitor the students progress to establish a rapport with the students as well as serving the previous mentioned diagnostic functions. Additionally, in several of the classes, there were students who had developmental disorders and therefore needed additional support. There were EAs attached to some of these classes, who played a vital role in providing background regarding these students and how they learnt.