Week 7 (07/03/16) – Personal and Professional
Following an extremely busy few days touring Budapest
last weekend, we have had a relatively uneventful week in comparison. We took advantage
of the extra time on our hands and immersed ourselves in some home baking; I
never thought that I would have appreciated a simple taster from home, in the
form of Waffleberry pie, as much as I did! This was accompanied by a few
Danish treats during the past week as well; we relaxed with coffee and
chocolate cake in Vesterbro on Saturday and tried a new café for brunch before
church on Sunday; I will definitely be back here for some more blueberry
pancakes before returning home to Northern Ireland!
 |
| Home of the blueberry pancakes |
 |
| Home of the coffee and chocolate cake |
Aside from eating pancakes and deserts, we attended
university this week as normal and our class on Thursday, during which we usually
study different aspects of the Nordic Model of education, entailed discussions
and debates about what we as students believed to be the core values in education that should be communicated
to children throughout their time at school. In groups, we were asked to
discuss and choose five core values and then present our reasoning to the rest
of the class. The four of us were in a group together which meant that we had the
opportunity to reflect on our curriculum and education system in Northern
Ireland and extract what we believed to be the most important values from this
prior to comparing them with those selected by students from other countries.
The General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (2011) believe that
competence is developed through reflection on practice and advocate the
importance of the reflective and activist teacher in whom reflective practice
is internalised as part of his/her professional identity. The Education and Training Inspectorate (2005,
p. 1) also emphasise the significance of reflection and self-evaluation, noting
that. “As an individual teacher…you have a major part to play in promoting the improvement of the learning of your
pupils.” Hence, I found it interesting to present the values that we had selected,
based on our own experiences of teaching, to reflect upon these and then to
consider alternative values presented by other students. It was useful to contemplate
how these alternative values could be incorporated into our schools at home in
order to better meet the needs of our children and ensure that they are provided
with the best possible outcomes in preparation for life beyond their education.
Last Wednesday saw a spectacular display of
Stranmillis University College at UCC Zahle as our whole class were involved in
organising the International Café as the culmination of the events of
International Week. Each country was given a table and, being the usual ‘keen
beans’ that we are, we relished the opportunity to showcase our home country
and university. We spoke to various lecturers from countries such as Ireland,
England, Belgium and Spain as well as students from Denmark who are hoping to
study at Stranmillis in the future; it was very interesting to hear about their
different perspectives and compare their institutions to our own. I have to say
that it also made me extremely thankful for the unique place that Stranmillis
is and the warm, community feel that so evidently exists amongst the staff and
students there. I will definitely appreciate it a lot more when I return in
September!
But, for now, farvel!
Reference List
Education and Training Inspectorate (2005) The Reflective Teacher, Bangor, DENI.
General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (2011) Teaching: the Reflective Profession, Belfast,
General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland.
No comments:
Post a Comment