Learning to Teach in the Primary School

How can you become an effective primary school teacher? What do you need to be able to do? What do you need to know?

Flexible, effective and creative primary school teachers require subject knowledge, an understanding of their pupils and how they learn, a range of strategies for managing behaviour and organising environments for learning, and the ability to respond to dynamic classroom situations.

This second edition of Learning to Teach in the Primary School, fully updated since the introduction of the QTS standards, provides valuable support to trainee teachers during both the taught component and the school placement element of their initial teacher education course. It provides an accessible and engaging introduction to teaching and learning that every student teacher needs to acquire in order to gain Qualified Teacher Status, as well as the underlying theory.

Written by experts in primary school teaching, this edition is divided into 37 units each covering essential concepts and skills, including:

• approaching planning
• understanding early years practice NEW
• assessment for learning
• e-learning NEW
• inclusive approaches
• personalised learning and pupil voice NEW
• research and further qualifications NEW
• responding to ethnic diversity and gender differences
• teaching modern foreign languages NEW
• the professional standards of teaching
• working with others.

Each unit offers a range of learning activities for trainee teachers in the form of tasks. Masters Level challenges – new to this edition – and annotated lists of further reading are provided for those who want to explore topics in more detail.

This comprehensive textbook is essential reading for all students training to be primary school teachers, including those on undergraduate teacher training courses (BEd, BA with QTS, BSc with QTS), postgraduate teacher training courses (PGCE, SCITT), and employment-based teacher training courses (GTP, RTP, Teach First), plus those studying Education Studies.