Brookfield Four Lenses Analysis

Using Brookfield’s four lenses critically reflect on your practice and identify one key assumption that impacted on your teaching while on school placement. Using evidence from Brookfield’s lenses explain how this assumption led to ‘teaching innocently’ and outline how you modified your practice to address this.

1. Introduction.

Apparently, being a student teacher can sometimes make you vulnerable in the classroom. It can make you look naive and innocent in front of students and almost leaves you at their disposal if they don’t want to cooperate. I always wondered if this was the case, if the students could sense a student teacher as they filed into your class for the first time. I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to find out when I was already
Much to my expectations, the topic that I had covered, with my assumption in full flight, wasn’t mentioned in 98% of the CIQ as either beneficial or a time where they felt most distant. I can reflect on this evidence and say that the learning experience whether positive or negative was mostly disregarded. This proved that my key assumption tainted the learning process in my classroom. It was during this topic that I realized I had taken the wrong approach to teaching and I began to act more positive in the classroom. I learned that creating a positive classroom climate could help a teacher achieve an environment that is most pleasant to not only learn in but to teach in. Creating ‘a relaxed, warm and supportive ethos’ in the class and being relaxed myself made quite the difference in the classroom. (Kyriacou, Chris. Essential Teaching Skills. Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes, 1995. Print.) To prove the success of this approach the students had said that an investigation done on sound was the most effective in their feedback. This, being the topic I covered while challenging my key assumption, proved learner’s progression. Furthermore, the behavior in the class improved and I realized that students were less likely to repel any reprimands I had given them for misbehavior. The students were more comfortable in the classroom and a lot more respectful of my teaching. When I read back on the CIQ I realized just how innocent I was going into my school placement. I took evidence without proof and assumed that it would work in my classroom. Why wouldn’t it, It must have worked