Developing your capability to teach Computing - A Practical Guide to Teaching Computing and ICT in the Secondary School - page 46

Appendix 1.3
Advice for Eric
Eric was made aware of the difference between simplifying concepts to aid
comprehension and reducing subject content to such a low level that it was not
fit for purpose. Subsequently, he explored the importance of sequencing concepts
to aid comprehension, and explaining abstract concepts in relation to more
concrete concepts that pupils already understood. This helped Eric to reflect
meaningfully on the progression from Year 7 to post-16, and to understand that
many concepts appeared time and again, requiring increasingly complex levels of
knowledge. Eric endeavoured to alter his language when he was teaching his
pupils. However, he still encountered difficulties in judging how long it would
take pupils to complete activities during lessons, especially in his coursework
lessons.
This is quite a familiar problem. However, with experience and by developing
pedagogical and curricular knowledge, teachers in training, such as Eric, can
develop the ability to target questioning, to ensure that pupils learn what they
need to know. They are able to identify the most important concepts, and
develop metaphors and analogies that helped them to share these effectively
with their classes. They learn which elements of technical language pupils struggle
to understand, and develop a range of definitions that make sense to pupils, but
still have subject-knowledge integrity. They also develop a good understanding
of the assessment requirements for the examination specifications they teach,
and are therefore able to design effective coursework activities for pupils to meet
these efficiently.