Exploring Teaching and Learning

This research study was borne out of a desire to discover and to create better teaching strategies to help teachers in improving their practice in the classroom thereby advantaging their students. Extensive change to teaching strategies may indeed be cumbersome and perhaps impractical to implement, but the practical, if minor, changes recommended by this study can make a positive difference to the continuous interaction of teacher skills and pupil behaviours within the classroom. Change is often feared by teachers because it takes them out of their comfort zone and forces them to adopt new ways of thinking, acting and responding to new challenges (Guthrie, 1998). The view that professional self- examination and insightful reflection, and its practical application, can improve the effectiveness of a school led me to the decision to analyse one school in detail and to suggest strategies to improve teaching within it in the hope that more students might reach their potential and become responsible, contributing members of a developing society.