Beginning Teaching, Beginning Learning

Book excerpt: Reviews of the first edition: "Janet Moyles's carefully and imaginatively edited book will be of great interest to a wide educational community... This is more than a handbook for students and their tutors - it is a manifest of the dedicated and closely focused professionalism of the University of Leicester team, and I am sure that it will still be being read in ten years time by all concerned with primary education." - Mentoring and Tutoring * How can new primary teachers not only survive but enjoy their chosen career? * What can newly qualified and student teachers do to recognize and address the many complexities of primary teaching? * What are the issues which continually challenge both new and experienced teachers? The second edition of this successful text sets out to explore some of the wider issues surrounding work with children in the 3-11 years age range and considers how these are woven into the broad framework of teaching and teachers' own learning. Cameos and examples of classroom practice help to illustrate the aspects of teaching: what it is to be an effective and competent teacher; classroom processes such as planning, observation and assessment; the variety of ways in which children learn and develop thinking skills through various curriculum areas including ICT; equal opportunities and special needs issues; 'in loco parentis' responsibilities and reflective approaches to teaching. Written in an accessible style, the aim throughout is to offer guidance and encouragement in the challenging and complex task of early years and primary teaching. Comprehensively revised and updated throughout, this second edition, produced by colleagues from Anglia Polytechnic University and University of Leicester, discusses teaching and learning in the context of recent initiatives such as the Foundation Stage, the Literacy Hour, the induction year for newly qualified teachers and the growth and development of ICT. It will be an essential text for all students and newly qualified primary teachers.