ABSTRACT
In this unit, we examine how you can capitalise upon the opportunities afforded by your placements in schools as you train to be a teacher. Through day-to-day experience of working with children on school placements, you will gain understanding of how theory and scholarly research are integral to effective teaching. We discuss the importance of being a reflective practitioner who takes responsibility for their learning, and we examine how the dispositions you present, and the relationships you develop on placement, are key factors to the successful outcome of your course. As the quotation from Chris above suggests, school placements provide crucial, yet sometimes challenging, learning experiences in your professional development. We offer vignettes of recent PGCE trainees reflecting on various significant aspects of their school placements and, in the last section of the unit, we return to Chris’s reflections on how, with the help of scaffolded school experience throughout the training year, he was able to develop the competencies required of a qualified teacher.
