Focus Group Reflection

Each classroom is has its own unique characteristics containing contrasting strengths and weaknesses that classroom unique from another. Every teacher in their classroom has the best intentions of helping everyone within their classroom in whatever manner you can. Yet the reality is that with various constraints for teachers, such as time and assessment pressures it can be very difficult to attend to each student needs within a classroom. Identifying a focus group of learners in your classroom can help to use time efficiently to focus on a key aspect of learning. What then becomes burdensome is identifying which group of students to prioritise as being a focus group. Through identifying a focus group a teacher will endeavour to equip as best

However there are several other forms of evidence that can be gained about students learning to inform teaching practise (Mullen, Bellamy, Bledsoe, & Francois, 2007) An example of this is through observation of students in different learning environments and also talking to other teachers about the work they are doing. At the start of my intensive placement I had a meeting with my mentor teacher about what information I was going to be teaching. Throughout the meeting we discussed and my mentor teacher showed me evidence of what the students had been learning in different topics throughout the year. This helped to inform my practise because it meant that the topics that I was going to be teaching in my intensive were not going to be repetitive. To aid this information, other evidence I gathered was through simply talking to the students about what they had learnt and what they found interesting also to help inform me about what I was going to teach in the intensive. In terms of the characters of the students I talked to my mentor teacher about what the procedures are for discipline. One specific example was I witnessed the de-escalation of negative behaviour in class. How this informed my practise was that by witnessing how the teacher reacts to these situations, when I am presented in a similar situation I can work within what my mentor teacher has already established. This was an example of Wanaga because I was collaborating with my teacher and the routines and patters and this benefits student learning because it does not disrupt it too much. (University of Canterbury College of Education,