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she said that with the help and guidance of her peers she saw the school as “my foundation of learning.” Thus, her first source of learning was learning from experienced teachers. This means that her learning happened collaboratively. Her colleagues shared their knowledge with her so that she was able to learn how to function as a teacher.
While Radha tried to draw on her personal knowledge, such as her experience as a learner and how her teachers taught her, she still felt a huge gap in her knowledge, especially since the changes in education since her days in school. She therefore found:
My HoD had to sit me down and say, “Ok, this is what a lesson plan looks like. This is what a lesson plan is structured to do or help you with. This is what an assessment standard is.”
Radha’s need to know this knowledge highlights the importance of teachers’ pedagogic knowledge in relation to teachers’ competence in the classroom. In this case her learning was planned (intentional) as her HoD set up a meeting to brief her on what she needed to know.
Radha points out that while she learnt everything she now knows about teaching on site from her HoD and peers, her PGCE course at university also extended her knowledge in preparing her to be an effective and efficient teacher. She wrote in journal entry 1, “While doing my PGCE and talking to my lecturers and other friends who were doing the course, some of whom were already experienced teachers, I learnt a lot.” An example of what she learnt that was useful to her was “how to be in control of my class.” While this learning happened at university it was as a result of informal discussions she had with her peers.
They shared their challenges and experiences and offered each other advice on how to deal with particular situations. This group formed a community of student teachers with varying degrees of experience. The advice that she got from them was that in order to maintain good classroom management “I was not to be friends with the learners” (Journal entry 1).
Further, whatever she learnt in this community reinforced what she learnt from her peers at school. Teachers’ learning in this way is an example of collaboration in an unplanned
(incidental) way.
Being a novice, and having not had any training, also left Radha with a dire need to learn content knowledge. Again she pointed out in journal entry 1 that her colleagues were her
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first source of learning. She wrote in journal entry 2, “my colleagues helped me to
understand certain terms or poems. I learnt while talking to my friends during the break time – how to do this or that.” Thus she admits that over the months “I learnt how to
communicate with my peers and HoD for direction.”
Radha has found that her interaction with teachers in various ways has actually contributed immensely to the development of her knowledge reservoir as a teacher. This indicates that she is comfortable learning in a social environment. In journal entry 2 she shares this realisation:
I’ve learnt while standing and just conversing with my peers or while sitting at the table with my friends in the staffroom. I also learnt while talking to other teachers from other schools. It’s strange that we actually learn all the time in some of the weirdest places.
In journal entry 1 she said she, “even learnt while chatting to teachers at the mall!” It is evident that Radha’s learning has been largely social as she has been learning from and with others.
While learning on site her PGCE course helped to both reinforce and fill the gaps that still remained in her development. Learning in this way also offered Radha the opportunity to practice what the course taught her and take back to her lecturers, information about what worked and what didn’t for her. Commenting on how the course bridged the gap in her knowledge, she wrote in journal entry 3:
I’ve actually learnt how to use different assessment strategies. I did not know there were various types, but my lecturer helped me to understand various strategies and how to use it.
In this example we can see how Radha’s formal and informal learning are working in tandem towards her development as a teacher.
Although Radha has found herself in “the deep en” she feels that the support system she finds at the school has helped her gain confidence in herself. In journal entry 3 she wrote,
“My peers have DEFINITELY played a big role in boosting my confidence.” In journal entry 5
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she wrote, “This year has been awesome! I’ve had great help and motivation by so many in the English department…. they have been my support group. They have taught me so
much!!!” Radha’s experience reflects the need for teachers to feel supported by each other.
It also highlights how learning can boost one’s confidence. She wrote in journal entry 5,
“They have built my confidence and made me believe in myself as an educator.” From the enthusiastic way that she responded it is evident that she has gained a sense of self worth as a teacher by others believing in her.