Trainee finds it difficult to explain substantive concepts effectively

Cattalena has recently moved to her second school placement and has found the differences in school policies quite difficult to negotiate. Her first school followed a very systematic approach to planning, insisting that every lesson included a significant reading task (which was the main strategy used to introduce new information) and that all key vocabulary was taught in advance of the reading, so that students would not struggle when they first encountered new terms. This prior teaching generally took the form of a glossary, with short definitions offered for each of the key terms identified. Little distinction seemed to be drawn – or perhaps Cattalena had failed to notice what distinctions were drawn – between more and less abstract concepts; or between stable period-specific terms and those whose meanings tended to change over time. In practice this meant that the teaching of important substantive concepts often seemed to be reduced to the presentation of a fixed, and apparently straightforward, definition that could be learned and essentially reproduced verbatim when questions were asked that were intended to check students’ understanding...