Primary Education & Post Plowden Legacy :: essays research papers

Primary Education & Post Plowden LegacySubject Primary Education & Post Plowden LegacyINTRODUCTIONThe task assigned was to enunciate all six chapters provided, select one and producea critique on the subject matter. The chapter selected was number six whichanalysed pupils and take shape. Firstly I wish to concisely summarise the entirechapter, highlighting the areas which I considered to be the most important,these areas will then be examined in depth and their merits or shortcomingsdiscussed.Firstly a stocky of the chapter is needed to put into context the areas thatwill be discussed later. The whole chapter can be split into two main areas ofdiscourse- relationships and work and negotiation.As there has been petite research into pupils approaches to schoolwork, theauthors chief concern is that of the pupils perceptions of , and approaches to,schoolwork, and the first point s/he makes is that there are differencesbetween teachers and pupils ideas of what constitutes worthwhile work. Theauthor sets out to define the inwardness of work and in doing so draws ourattention to differences between pleasurable work and labour. Workmanship,it is argued, has been replaced by unskilled labour and people now work as ameans to an end seeking enjoyment through other avenues such as hobbies andrecreation.Teaching methods and school ethos in general are seen as outmoded and alien tothe cultural and affectionate influences on pupils. Therefore, there is greaterresponsibility on the teacher to make work seem more utilitarian and attractive.Research revealed that m whatever pupils felt that work was pointless and invalidunless it was undertaken in preparation for forthcoming exams. However, workthat may be deemed pointless or onerous by both sets of pupils (exam and non-exam) could be give validity by the teaching strategy employed. Pupils seemedto be more concerned with the status of the work and their personal relationshipwith the teacher, therefore the pupil reaction to any given task dependedheavily on these two criteria. It is identified that pupil-teacherrelationships are extremely important and they contain many concealed aspectswhich will be discussed in Part 1.A prevalent feature of pupil-teacher relationships is the negotiation that takesplace and teachers will offer incentives to pupils in order to encourage theprocess of work. It is interesting to look at the way in which teachers canutilise their experience and maturity to manipulate or cajole pupils intoperforming a given task, and this will be examined in Part 2.PART 1 - RELATIONSHIPS & WORKThe first key issue in this chapter that I wish to examine is that of pupil