Rebecca Cartwright, midway through her PGCE progamme in primary education with EXCEED Academy Trust, shares her experience of using critical incident analysis to develop her provision for more able learners, with additional input from NACE Associate Dr Jonathan Doherty.

As part of my School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) provided through an apprenticeship route into teaching, I’ve had access to schools and experts involved in the EXCEED Academy Trust in Bradford. Schools regard inclusion as a high priority and it is a recurring feature in training days and embedded into all aspects of the SCITT curriculum. 

Through my experiences on the course and in the classroom, I’ve become particularly intrigued by inclusion and what it looks like for more able learners. I’ve seen more able learning promoted through higher-order questioning, adaptive teaching and teaching for creativity. This has been an area I’ve reflected upon during my own teaching practice, where I wondered about effective strategies, the superficiality of some techniques employed, and how they could be made more effective without increasing workload.

The PGCE programme, in conjunction with Leeds Trinity University and EXCEED Academy Trust, encourages student teachers to critically examine research and other evidence and reflect on their own professional practice in relation to a specific learning need faced by pupils in school. Master’s Level study in the PGCE programme comprises two assignments each contributing 30 credits; these are professionally focused and are taught by blog co-author Dr Jonathan Doherty. The assignments build upon the strong thread of reflection in teaching, drawing together observations in schools and understanding from taught sessions at the university and in-school CPD. 

Inclusion remains high on education policy agendas. Inclusive education is based on the belief that all members of society have the right to participate in and have access to education on an equal basis. Inclusion is a fundamental right for all learners – not just those who are deemed ‘vulnerable’ or those having special education needs. The module and first assignment, ‘Supporting Individual Needs’, is intended to develop thinking around this theme and challenge values to enable effective inclusive teaching that are culturally and individually responsive so that all children can succeed.

This assignment uses reflection and critical incident theory to support meeting a specific need for a child. Becoming an effective teacher involves considerably more than accumulating skills and strategies. It involves critical reflection. The more teachers explore, the more they discover (Larrivee, 2000). 

What is critical incident analysis, and why use it?

Critical incident analysis (CIA) is an approach to understanding and dealing with challenges in everyday professional practice. The term ‘critical incident’ refers to an event or situation which marks a significant turning point or change for someone. Incidents that teachers deal with in everyday teaching become critical through reflection and then analysis. An incident becomes a critical incident as a result of 1) reflecting about it; 2) thinking critically about it; and then 3) applying an analysis framework to it. Critical reflection has several benefits for teachers: it informs future practice and informs appropriate action in similar future situations. 

How does it work in practice?

A number of models exist to support critical reflection, but I used McAteer et al. (2010) to explore an incident with a more able pupil that occurred in my classroom. The incident related to a more able Year 2 pupil working at greater depth and a far higher level than his peers. The lesson was teaching to include emotions in diary writing in English. He displayed classic signs of a high ability learner by finishing set work easily and then appearing to disengage in the lesson. Individual follow-up activities for him did not engage him either and his behaviour began to quickly deteriorate. He started chatting and I observed a snowball effect, disrupting other children.

In my analysis of this short classroom episode and applying the CIA framework, my immediate thoughts were of frustration that I had not met the boy’s individual needs. Later, through deeper reflection, conversations with my teacher and class-based mentor and my knowledge of more able learning, I was able to explore other perspectives with regard to the incident and consider ways to provide appropriate challenge for this boy in future. 

This included looking again at teacher assessment frameworks for writing, to understand in more detail what targets and requirements were needed for greater depth learners; annotating planning with a next step for any child who had met the success criteria of the lesson, which I, or any support staff could access to further their learning. I investigated teaching for creativity and methods such as teaching children that it is acceptable to make mistakes, working backwards and looking at gaps in knowledge. I reflected on the importance of taking time to identify the pupil’s learning on his writing journey and looking at greater depth and potentially higher year frameworks to support his learning. 

NACE’s guidance on cognitive load theory (available to members here) affirmed some of my assumptions and suggested that more able learners may not need to spend as much time on retrieval practices. I will now allocate more time to providing opportunities for independent learning activities which are rich in cognitive challenge. Reading research has made me consider the impact of providing more able children with advanced content and making it accessible in different ways, enabling better engagement. 

The experience has taught me much about teaching and extended my knowledge of more able learners. Going forward I will be better informed to identify where children are on their individual learning journeys and so quickly gauge next steps. The experience has also made me realise where I myself am on my own learning journey. I am not the finished article but have many positive aspects of my practice which I need to continually reflect upon. There are many sources to draw on for information and specific reflection that will allow other aspects of my teaching to fall into place. By being proactive in learning, such honest critical reflection will support me to gauge the needs of the children to further their journeys.

References

• Larrivee, B. (2000) Transforming Teaching Practice: Becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, 1:3, pp. 293-307
• McAteer, M., Hallett F. & Murtagh, L. (2010) Achieving your Masters in Teaching and Learning. Exeter: Learning Matters.