11.12 The Standards for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) make explicit the need for beginning teachers to be able to teach about the mass media, including the moving image. Trainers generally welcome this, and give it as much priority as they can within other more pressing demands, for example to prepare trainees for teaching the National Literacy Strategy. Those consulted are well informed about teaching frameworks, concepts and pedagogy for media education and many have come up with inventive ways of focusing on teaching about the media. However, most are only able to allocate around one or two days to this, though many try to squeeze in more coverage by emphasising the links between teaching strategies for media texts and other types of text. There is more emphasis on analytical approaches than on practical work, because of time and resources but most try to provide at least some experience of practical work, either through school visits or less frequently, chances for trainee teachers to try practical work themselves.
11.13 There are also standards for ITT designed to ensure new teachers' competence in using ICT. It is probably the case that in many teacher training institutions, as in schools, stronger links between media education and the standards for ICT would be beneficial.
11.14 Examples of common teacher training strategies in English: PGCE courses:
■ a session specifically on moving image texts; this may be combined with work on reading;
■ coverage of news writing and advertising, perhaps as part of persuasive writing.
11.15 Other activities cited by individual institutions include:
■ a working visit to a partnership school where there is good practice, which includes watching A level moving image coursework and making and editing a short video;
■ a visit to the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television in Bradford;
■ an ICT task which encourages trainees to plan and teach a media activity, e.g. a sequence of lessons where Year 7 pupils scripted and videoed a film;
■ working with a CD-ROM such as Picture Power to illustrate how modest activities suitable for Key Stage 3 can, in a lesson, give pupils opportunities to sequence still images and to add sound for effect.
EXAMPLE 9
Hope College, Liverpool
(This pattern of training reflects the College's individual approach to covering the mass media in training English teachers; the overall time allocated is typical.)
Three training sessions included some work on media education, including the moving image:
■ a training session on reading included analysing the opening of the Blair Witch project, and a compilation of TV drama openings. This was led by trainees who had studied film or media in their degree;
■ analysing the Levi advertisement campaign in a session on the language of persuasion;
■ preparation for an assignment on a scheme of work linking citizenship with English. This was taught jointly to English trainees and another group taking a PGCE in citizenship with history.
Trainees were introduced to the citizenship curriculum in one session. This was followed up by an introduction to media education. This included trainees identifying what learning outcomes for media education might be. Between them they identified 20 possible learning outcomes for students by the end of Key Stage 4, including appreciate how newspapers, TV etc all interact;
appreciate how different groups in society are not represented in the media, distinguish between what is imaginary and what is real.
11.16Trainers also direct trainees towards sources of advice and teaching resources. Here is an extract from a report by one trainee which shows ingenious gathering and modification of material from websites.
EXAMPLE 10
The majority of ICT resources and websites I have used either to teach or plan for English lessons during the last 10 months have been both relevant to the subject and promoted learning. Most recently I researched a 'Shakespeare on Film’ site to help my Year 10 group with their media coursework. While ostensibly not relevant to the film they were studying (The Full Monty), researching the site allowed me to print handouts that focused on the technical terminology necessary to analyse film - an area that was proving problematic. Similarly the film/media studies section on the site provided similar material for the Year 10 group to see the difference between, for example, a long shot and a close up without me having to tape them onto video. Whilst the Film and Media sections on both websites are generally aimed at A Level, researching them before and either downloading material or bookmarking particular pages to use with an interactive whiteboard meant that they could be used in Key Stage 4.
(English PGCE trainee, Leeds University)
11.17 However, trainers are conscious that the work they do on the moving image is not sufficiently consolidated in many schools. Most trainees tend to base their teaching on what they find in schools, namely newspapers and advertising, so the training is not developed and many trainees forget what they have learned. Only a few seem to go on to build on their initial training, though one trainer noted wryly that recently qualified teachers often find themselves rapidly promoted to take over media studies when gaps occur. As a result media studies continues to be taught on a thin knowledge base.
11.18 There is concern among teacher trainers about this thin base of knowledge and the lack of specialist initial teacher training in media education/media studies. Only the Central School of Speech and Drama has a PGCE in media studies. Some other trainers would be keen to offer it as a second subject, which would include time to provide training in teaching practical production.
11.19The following is a positive example of how training can impact on trainee teachers and how they can plan and teach imaginatively and move beyond what they find in many English departments.
EXAMPLE 11
'The best opportunity I had for teaching film was with my Year 10 class. I was doing the media course work (for GSCE) and was given free reign, which was good because the school tended to do rather small-scale comparisons of different car adverts or how Levi adverts change over time. I decided to copy the idea we saw at Baysgarth school and compare the use of sound and image in the Luhrmann and Zeffirelli versions of Romeo and Juliet. They really liked it, mostly because of the cool Luhrmann version, but also because, before we even touched the two coursework films we did lots of general stuff about media: camera angle, shot type, editing, special effects,...loads of stuff and each lesson I'd show a relevant clip from a recent movie e.g. The Matrix, Shrek, Psycho (not recent, but still cool), Ten Things I Hate about You. That was also when I did the digital camera storyboard which they really liked.
The whole thing seemed to go pretty well.'
(email from English PGCE trainee, York University)