Primary Education & Post Plowden Legacy :: essays research papers

Primary Education & Post Plowden Legacy Subject: Primary Education & Post Plowden Legacy INTRODUCTION The task assigned was to read all six chapters provided, select one and produce a critique on the subject matter. The chapter selected was number six which analysed pupils' and 'work'. Firstly I wish to briefly summarise the entire chapter, highlighting the areas which I considered to be the most important, these areas will then be examined in depth and their merits or shortcomings discussed. Firstly a summary of the chapter is needed to put into context the areas that will be discussed later. The whole chapter can be split into two main areas of discourse:- relationships and 'work' and negotiation. As there has been little research into pupils' approaches to schoolwork, the author's chief concern is that of the pupils perceptions of , and approaches to, schoolwork, and the first point s/he makes is that there are differences between teachers' and pupils' ideas of what constitutes worthwhile work. The author sets out to define 'the meaning of work' and in doing so draws our attention to differences between 'pleasurable work' and 'labour'. Workmanship, it is argued, has been replaced by unskilled labour and people now work as a means to an end seeking enjoyment through other avenues such as hobbies and recreation. Teaching methods and school ethos' in general are seen as outmoded and alien to the cultural and social influences on pupils. Therefore, there is greater responsibility on the teacher to make work seem more utilitarian and attractive. Research revealed that many pupils felt that work was pointless and invalid unless it was undertaken in preparation for forthcoming exams. However, work that may be deemed pointless or onerous by both sets of pupils (exam and non- exam) could be given validity by the teaching strategy employed. Pupils seemed to be more concerned with the status of the work and their personal relationship with the teacher, therefore the pupil reaction to any given task depended heavily on these two criteria. It is identified that pupil-teacher relationships are extremely important and they contain many concealed aspects which will be discussed in Part 1. A prevalent feature of pupil-teacher relationships is the negotiation that takes place and teachers will offer incentives to pupils in order to encourage the process of work. It is interesting to look at the way in which teachers can utilise their experience and maturity to manipulate or cajole pupils into performing a given task, and this will be examined in Part 2. PART 1 - RELATIONSHIPS & WORK The first key issue in this chapter that I wish to examine is that of pupil