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The Open University

Primary education: listening and observing

The Open University via OpenLearn

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Overview

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Would you like to volunteer or find work in your local primary school? Are you thinking about becoming a teaching assistant, or becoming a teacher in the future? In this free course, Primary education: listening and observing, you will have the chance to look inside primary schools, and watch and listen to children and teaching staff. You’ll also find out what head teachers look for in people who want to work or volunteer in a primary school.This course is for anyone who wants to upgrade their knowledge of the primary school sector and ethical practices in education settings. The course is especially appropriate for primary school support staff (full or part time, paid or volunteer) and graduates preparing for teacher training.The course presents a set of practice-focused readings and observational videos. You will learn about small-scale research in the primary school and observe children’s play and classroom learning, and listen to interviews with school staff and children. You will also explore cyber-bullying and the primary school curriculum.TranscriptIf you wish to undertake any practical activities within schools you may do so with Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) clearance in a school setting and with appropriate supervision and external assessment.Enrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation which also displays your Open University badge.The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start of course survey. Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our optional end of course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others. This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation.  

Syllabus

  • Introduction and guidance
  • Introduction and guidance
  • What is a badged course?
  • How to get a badge
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session1Session 1: Observing and listening to primary school children
  • Introduction
  • 1 Why observe in the primary school?
  • 2 Meet a primary school headteacher
  • 3 Listen to an early childhood educator and observe children
  • 4 Observation and listening case studies
  • 4.1 Observing and listening: case study 1
  • 4.2 Observing and listening: case study 2
  • 5 Child protection and safeguarding
  • 5.1 Definitions of safeguarding
  • 5.2 Safeguarding and school life
  • 5.3 Vetting volunteers and staff in primary schools
  • 6 Ethical practices in education settings
  • 7 Interviews and conversations
  • 7.1 Interview schedules
  • 7.2 Case study: a teacher interviews parents and children
  • 8 This session’s quiz
  • 9 Summary of Session 1
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session2Session 2: Observing in the playground
  • Introduction
  • 1 The importance of the playground
  • 2 What do children think about the school playgrounds and playtime?
  • 2.1 Reading: football pitches and Barbie dolls
  • 2.1.1 Social play
  • 2.1.2 Physical activity play
  • 2.1.3 Risk
  • 2.1.4 Gender
  • 2.1.5 What do children’s comments and drawings tell us?
  • 3 Playtime supervisors
  • 4 Playground design principles
  • 5 This session’s quiz
  • 6 Summary of Session 2
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session3Session 3: Observing learning
  • Introduction
  • 1 Observing play, observing learning
  • 1.1 A teacher on observing children
  • 2 Dispositions for learning
  • 2.1 Observing dispositions for learning
  • 3 Systematic observation
  • 4 Observing teaching and learning
  • 5 This session’s quiz
  • 6 Summary of Session 3
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session4Session 4: Learning at home
  • Introduction
  • 1 Primary school children and homework
  • 1.1 What do children think about homework?
  • 1.2 Homework: beneficial or boring?
  • 2 Creative homework
  • 3 Home–school communication
  • 3.1 Homework case study
  • 4 Homework around the world
  • 4.1 Parents’ hopes
  • 5 This session’s quiz
  • 6 Summary of Session 4
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session5Session 5: Connected children
  • Introduction
  • 1 Technology in children’s lives
  • 2 Technology affects how children learn
  • 3 Schools in the digital age
  • 4 Children and the internet
  • 4.1 Risks and opportunities
  • 4.2 E-safety in school
  • 5 Play and learning online
  • 6 Games in education
  • 7 Digital literacy and twenty-first-century skills
  • 7.1 The impact of technologies on children’s reading and writing
  • 7.2 Children using multimedia in school
  • 8 This session’s quiz
  • 9 Summary of Session 5
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session6Session 6: Computing in schools
  • Introduction
  • 1 What do we mean by computing?
  • 1.1 Computing and the school curriculum
  • 1.2 Computing programmes of study for children
  • 2 Why is computing important?
  • 2.1 Why learn about computing?
  • 2.2 Children and coding
  • 2.3 Children and computational thinking
  • 3 Programming
  • 3.1 ‘Unplugged’ computing in schools
  • 3.2 Try out unplugged computing
  • 4 Learning through exploring and making
  • 4.1 Navigation and algorithms
  • 4.2 Tinkering and making things
  • 5 This session’s quiz
  • 6 Summary of Session 6
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session7Session 7: Creative support for children’s learning
  • Introduction
  • 1 Cross-curricular projects
  • 1.1 One theme, many subjects
  • 1.2 Cross-curricular case study
  • 2 Planning and assessing cross-curricular projects
  • 3 Creative support for children’s learning
  • 4 Creative support in action
  • 5 This session’s quiz
  • 6 Summary of Session 7
  • References
  • Acknowledgements
  • Session8Session 8: Adults and lifelong learning in the primary school
  • Introduction
  • 1 A headteacher talks about lifelong learning
  • 2 Workplace learning
  • 3 Learning Lives
  • 3.1 A Learning Lives case study
  • 4 Learning lives in the primary school
  • 5 Children and adults learning together
  • 6 Sketch your learning life story
  • 7 This session’s quiz
  • 8 Summary of Session 8
  • Where next?
  • Tell us what you think
  • References
  • Acknowledgements

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3.8 rating at OpenLearn based on 26 ratings

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