Reader 6 - How is professional inquiry similar to other professional activity you are involved with?

Targets

At the start of term, teachers gather evidence from previous years to draw together targets and aims for each individual to achieve by the end of term or more long term for the end of the year.

We then discuss how we could help them achieve this target:

What strategies we could put in place. 

What starter activities could we do to put them on the right path.

Looking at Reader 6 and the common pitfalls in research, I can compare how these relate to producing valid and realistic targets:

Having vague and ill-defined aims

If it is not clear what the student needs to have achieved to meet their target, how will we know if they have met it?

Lacking detail about the research design

There needs to be enough detail in the target to be able in order for the student, teacher, support staff, senior leadership and outside agencies to understand what level the student is currently at and where they are required to be by a specified time. It is not enough for the teacher to understand the students targets - if they are absent, support staff should have the knowledge to continue with the planned strategy to help each student. Also, the supply teacher should be able to come in to the class with no prior knowledge, read the class file (a folder, containing all the information anyone working with the children in the class needs to know about each student: behaviour plans, medical notes, targets) and understand the needs of the  class.

It is also important not to give too much detail so the aim becomes unclear.

Being overly ambitious and unrealistic in terms of scope and timetable

(Fox, Martin, Green, 2007, p .118)

Setting targets that are currently beyond the reach of that student will not help in anyway: the student may feel inadequate; the teacher's methods may be questioned; the school could appear to be underachieving. It is the same if the students are constantly over achieving: the teacher's methods may be questioned as they could appear to not be able to understand their students, or they could be questioned as it could appear that they are trying to manipulate the end results.

In terms of timetable, there is enough pressure within a classroom to deliver a certain amount of the curriculum within a time period without being unrealistic with what you wish to achieve.