A Written Report of the Teaching Practice School Visit

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As a part of the course, Teaching Young Learners, a teaching practice school visit to the Vífilskóli in Garðabær was conducted on February 12th and 26th. During the visit the English teacher, Björg Jónsdóttir, answered questions, demonstrated her teaching methods and expertise. The purpose of the school visit was to observe English lessons, teach an activity, and connect theoretical concepts taught in the course with the real life situations in the classroom. This report describes the schools situation, the main characteristics of the teaching program, the activity taught, and interaction with learners, as well as evaluating implementation of the newest National Curriculum and gender segregation.
To begin with, the school situation of the privatized Vífilsskóli is different from other municipally run schools in Iceland due to its gender segregated curriculum. The privately owned company, Hjallastefnan ehf., has service agreements with different municipal divisions in Iceland; Vífilskóli, being one of its primary schools, was established in 2010 for 5th-7th graders. The Ministry of Education accredits schools that comply with the general guidelines set by the National Curriculum for all Icelandic primary schools. On establishment, Vífilskóli's ideological diverse curriculum was infra structured into the older, required competence framework of the National Curriculum Guide from 1999.
However, the implementation of the newest National Curriculum from 2011 taking place in schools, allowing Vílilskóli an integration timeframe until spring 2015. Hjallastefnan's diverse curriculums emphasize on English from an early age. For that reason, one would anticipate Vífilskóli's desire to increase English lessons accordingly, as refered to...

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...poverished input, social environment, and perception of life, which violates Chomsky's, Piaget's, and Vygotsky's theories of child development in various aspects.
Overall, the education of young learners is an integration of an effective school system, well-educated teachers and realistic methods as well as standards. The social environment teaches learners to learn a language and to interact, intrinsic motivation keeps them interested, and self-confidence helps them to take risks. These fundamental aspects of learning should be embraced and taught in an enriched social, mixed gender environment. In short, connecting theoretical concepts learnt in the course with real life situations in the classroom, not only enhanced my knowledge of the school system but also stressed the importance of possessing extensive expertise when teaching young learners.

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