Reconstructing educational theory from the authority of personal experience: how can I best help people learn to teach?

This paper reports data from a three‐year self‐study of teaching two types of students: science method students in theBEd program at Queen's University (Canada), and grade 12 physics students in a secondary school. By returning to the secondary school classroom after many years, I had the opportunity to revisit personally some of the challenges and dilemmas awaiting those beginning their careers as physics teachers. By listening closely to my students, I studied their experiences of learning as I experienced my own ‘re‐learning. One goal of my return to the secondary classroom was to explore ways in which I could model in my own teaching the processes of learning from experience that I wanted to convey to those learning to teach.

From this self‐study has emerged the construct of'authority of experience’ (Munby and Russell, 1994) as a term that can inform reflective practice by suggesting to teachers that they give attention to their own voices and to those of their students, and generally consider the ways in which experience has authority in relation to other sources of authority about teaching and learning to teach. The paper provides data to illustrate this construct and its potential value to those learning to teach. It also considers ways in which this stance toward teacher education represents a reconstruction of educational theory.     

Supporting emerging teacher identities: can we identify teacher potential among students?

The research focuses on Estonian university students’ emerging teacher identity and their interest in becoming teachers. Five hundred and sixty‐five first, third and fifth year students participated in the survey. The results suggest that pedagogical reasons for entering teacher education and clear motives for studying are significant indicators of teacher potential. Pedagogical reasons for entering teacher education or the teaching profession and the wish to function as a change agent in the society were related to academic self‐efficacy beliefs and the belief that the teacher expertise is mainly pedagogical in nature. However, at the point in their studies at which the students are able to choose their masters programme and entry into teacher education, their likelihood of choosing teacher education remains low, indicating that there is a need to develop pedagogical content, study counselling and career guidance services to encourage students’ continued interest in and entry to teacher education and the teaching profession.     

Teacher as knower and learner: Reflections on situated knowledge in science teaching

I argue from an understanding of current feminist philosophy that a teacher's practice reflects changing experiences, knowledge, values, and identities, and as such can be productively thought of as a site for learning as much as a site for expounding upon what is known. This suggests a vision for what constitutes effective practice different from that commonly held in science. I argue that praxis proceeds from the personal epistemological standpoints of the teacher (defined as standpoint theory). This knowledge is only partially applicable to particular situations in the classroom. The hallmark of feminist pedagogy, if conceptualized as derivative from standpoint theory, is to “take everyday life as problematic” (Smith, 1991, p. 88). Implicit in such a conceptualization is that pedagogy starts from an explicit recognition of everyday life and both builds from and questions that beginning. This is true for students and also for the teacher, and is the root of my claim that through teaching, the teacher becomes a learner. The immediate circumstances in which teaching occurs present different and unique qualities from those in which the teacher's knowledge and value were created. As a teacher, I am therefore continuously confronted with the inadequacy of my knowledge. The circumstances and children's activities tell me that I need to do things differently. In this situation, the act of teaching as an assertion of knowing becomes a recognition of not-knowing. Teaching becomes an occasion for learning about subject matter, children, and self. I recount an example of teaching in a first-grade classroom to give this argument substance. This story is an example from my own teaching in which parallels between scientific theorizing and storytelling are drawn and capitalized upon as a vehicle for critical thinking in science. This became an occasion for reflecting upon the appropriateness of those values because of the multicultural qualities of the classroom. J Res Sci Teach 35: 427–439, 1998.     

Enquiry-based learning workshop for deep learning in Middle Eastern classrooms – an action research approach

The senior year design students and I were dismayed when my linear teaching and their habitual rote learning failed in a Middle Eastern University. The gulf between the curricular objectives and our teaching-learning methods intrigued me. I turned this into an action research project that sought to answer the questions, ‘What paradigm shift might we need to migrate from traditional rote learning to deep learning? What attitudinal change and philosophical beliefs would that call for in an instructor?’ The search for a solution metamorphosed me from a disengaged instructor into an empathizing reflecting practitioner. It led my students to active engagement in an enquiry-based learning workshop, which significantly improved their performance. This paper celebrates the journey of our collective deep learning. It explicates how I built my personal theory of teaching praxis through critical consciousness and meta reflection. This knowledge-creation process is empowering and may draw many teacher researchers towards meta-reflexive engagement with the social systems around. These change drivers can initiate institutional overhaul to effect systemic reforms.     

From professor to colleague: Creating a professional identity as collaborator in elementary science

This self‐study of collaboration examines the lived experiences of a university researcher and a classroom teacher who shared the work of teaching 6th grade science. Sharing teaching involved planning, enacting, assessing, and reflecting upon instruction, and became the context for telling stories of collaboration. I interpreted these stories using models of social identity that employ performance metaphors in the construction/deconstruction of multiple identities. The analysis uncovered several tensions in building a collaborative relationship: a) The tension created by my assumption of multiple roles including new teacher, researcher, and collaborator; b) the tension between my desired role of collaborator and the role of professor ascribed to me by the classroom teacher; and c) the tension of an outsider searching for a comfort zone in an established classroom community. The meanings of collaboration that emerged from this study have implications for others who embark upon university/school partnerships. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 548–562, 2000     

新课程背景下激发学习兴趣的语文课堂教学策略

文章主要就新课程背景下,在语文教学中,如何聚焦课堂,更好地激发学生的学习兴趣,提高课堂效率,促进学生自主发展谈几点自己的想法和建议：课堂上展开真正有效的师生之间的对话教学;转变观念,由关注“教”到关注学生的“学”,把知识规律的探索权归还给学生;让活动在课堂教学中闪光。     

A Teacher Educator's Fate: Seeking contexts to engage student teachers in thinking about learning to teach

Through self-study I believe I can gain a better understanding of myself, of my students, and of the process of teacher education. Exploring the ways in which I respond in writing to pre-service teachers helps me to better understand my practice and the learning-to-teach experiences of pre-service teachers. This paper reports on my written responses to 160 stories of learning to teach at four different intervals across an 8-month teacher education program. Importantly, writing about my learning through self-study has challenged me to represent the ways in which I plan to apply my newfound knowledge to my practice.     

Perception of teacher education and professional identity among novice teachers

This study examines student teachers’ perceptions of teacher education and its contribution to their professional life, when they become novice teachers during their internship period. The sample comprised 97 student teachers in their fourth year of studies for a BEd degree. Data were collected through questionnaires which included both a structured and an open‐ended part, with regard to five aspects of the teaching profession and teacher education: motivation for teaching, conceptions of teaching–learning, roles of teachers, components of teacher education, and agents of training. Prominent among the findings regarding the motivational aspects of teaching, is a perception of the profession as granting intrinsic rewards. Teaching is perceived as according self‐realisation, providing a sense of purpose and mission, and enabling lifelong development. The component perceived as most important to the teacher’s role is delivering universal values. Findings regarding perception of learning–teaching processes reveal a preference for a constructivist approach.     

Teaching and nurturing: changing conceptions of self as teacher in a case study of becoming a teacher

Interest is growing in better understanding how teachers think and how they come to think like teachers. From a theoretical orientation informed by insights gained from symbolic inter‐actionism, recent research in the role metaphors play in self‐understanding, and schema theory, the authors present a case study of the first year of teaching of a divorced mother of five young children. Over the course of the year this teacher's understanding of herself as teacher changes, as indicated by changes in her personal teaching metaphor, teacher is nurturer. The reasons for these changes are explored. Of particular note is the struggle this teacher has balancing the demands of home and work. Finally, some implications for teacher education are discussed.     

Embodying Care: Igniting a Critical Turn in a Teacher Educator’s Relational Practice

When a cultural disconnect became antagonistic between me and my students of color, I found myself at a crossroads as a White teacher educator: use coercion and force students to follow my directions, or care and base my responses on students’ needs. I chose the latter. Findings suggest that this choice benefitted the class and changed how I see myself as a teacher educator. The construct of embodied care helps describe the turn in my relational teacher educator practice from caring intentions that were dyadic in nature to caring that uses relational means for social justice ends. Data points include field notes, analytic journal entries, email communication, course materials, student interviews, and course evaluations. This self-study research contributes to the literature on caring teaching by suggesting that, in racially and culturally diverse classrooms, caring habits can help teacher educators from dominant groups gain critical self-awareness.     

Critical Factors in On‐Campus Clinical Experiences: Perceptions of Preservice Teachers

In this paper, I present the findings of a self‐study into my teaching practices as a sociology‐of‐education lecturer working in the pre‐service teacher education programme of a regional university in New South Wales, Australia. The principal data source is a logbook of the teaching practices which characterised several tutorial classes taught in 2007. To understand these practices, the paper draws upon Aristotle's concepts of techne and praxis, and Bourdieu's understanding of practices as socially constructed and contested. The paper situates tensions between more technicist and praxis‐oriented teaching approaches to pre‐service teacher education, within the teacher education and university contexts in which these classes were undertaken. In doing so, the paper reveals tensions between assessment‐driven and more authentic teaching practices, and more student‐ and teacher‐centred teaching practices. The paper also shows how accountability pressures within tertiary settings have led to a more instrumental approach to tertiary teaching. I conclude that there is a need for greater attention to the conditions of work which influence teacher educators' practices, rather than fetishising individualistic instantiations of such practices.     

‘Me at university doing teacher training – what a big laugh’: narrative and parrhesia

This paper uses Foucault’s notion of parrhesia to analyse the story of another and to interrogate teacher education in terms of the particular moral order or the forms of socialization that it uses. I examine the context of my own teaching in terms of truth‐telling and the normative expectations that were found to exist. Through reflection and analysis and using the patterns of action research came the realization that some of what we do within teacher education examines a student’s moral performance rather than their pedagogical ability. The particular moral code that fits within teaching and teacher education needs to be considered in terms of social justice and social change. It argues that there exist collegial restraints and the typifications that serve to find the kinds of students and future teachers we consider appropriate. As an example of an action research study, the paper raises many questions that need to be further considered particularly in regard to ‘regimes of truth’ within teacher education.     

Attitudes and self‐efficacy of pre‐service teachers towards inclusion in Pakistan

This study sought to determine the attitudes and teaching self‐efficacy of pre‐service teachers towards the inclusion of students with disabilities into regular classrooms. A questionnaire was administered to 194 pre‐service Pakistani teachers (male 73, female 121) enrolled in a 1‐year teacher education programme at a government university in Pakistan. Overall, male pre‐service teachers expressed more positive attitudes than their female counterparts regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular classrooms. Surprisingly, those pre‐service teachers majoring in special education did not express more positive attitudes towards inclusion than their counterparts who were preparing to teach in mainstream schools. However, participants with training in special education, knowledge of disability legislation, teaching experience and personal experience with a disability reported higher levels of self‐efficacy towards teaching within inclusive settings. The findings of the study are discussed with possible implications for policy‐makers and teacher educators in Pakistan and other countries in the South Asian region.     

Effects of reciprocal teaching on reading comprehension of low‐achieving adolescents. The importance of specific teacher skills

Low‐achieving adolescents are known to have difficulties with reading comprehension. This article discusses how reciprocal teaching can improve low‐achieving adolescents' reading comprehension in whole‐classroom settings (as opposed to small‐group settings) and to what extent intervention effects are dependent on teacher behaviour. Over the course of 1 year, experimental teachers (n = 10) were given extensive training and coaching aimed at using principles of reciprocal teaching, while control teachers (n = 10) used their regular teaching method. Observations of teacher behaviour were focused on instruction of reading strategies, modelling and support of group work and were performed in both experimental and control classes, comprising a total of 369 students (mean age = 13.01). Our study shows that reciprocal teaching contributed to adolescent low achievers' reading comprehension only when experimental teachers provided high‐quality strategy instruction. In addition, results suggest that the quality of implementation of reciprocal teaching in whole‐classroom settings should receive more research attention.

Highlights

What is already known about this topic

• Reciprocal teaching is a method of instructing and guiding learners in reading comprehension.
• It consists of a set of three related instructional principles: (a) teaching comprehension‐fostering reading strategies; (b) expert modelling, scaffolding and fading; and (c) students practising and discussing reading strategies with other students, guided and coached by the teacher.
• High quality of implementation of reciprocal teaching by teachers in classrooms is difficult.

What this paper adds

• After 1 year of implementing reciprocal teaching, no main effects of the treatment were established.
• Intervention effects were moderated by quality of instruction: strategy instruction led to higher scores on reading comprehension in the treatment condition but not in the control condition.
• Implementation of the instructional principles was by no means optimal: teachers were unable to provide detailed guidance to students working in small groups and modelling of strategies requires more experience and theoretical insight in the use and nature of reading strategies.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Extensive training and coaching are needed for teachers to become experts in reciprocal teaching.
• Teachers need hands‐on tools to be able to guide students in their collaborative group work and to fade the teachers' role in order to allow more individual self‐regulation by students in their use of strategies.
• Implementation quality has to be taken into account when doing effectiveness research and when adopting new, theory‐based didactic approaches.

     

EVALUATING A TEACHER RESEARCHER'S CHOICE OF ACTION RESEARCH

In this paper I discuss my reasons for choosing educational action research in my enquiry into the process of writing, redrafting, learning and autonomy in the examination years (Eames, 1987). I look first of all at my own interests as a teacher‐researcher, and then explore my reasons for rejecting the ‘dominant research paradigms, which seemed to me inappropriate for what I was trying to do. I explain what I understand by action research, and examine objections to it, as well as considering its strengths.     

Professional identity and educational reform: confronting my habitual practices as a teacher educator

This essay explores my role as a teacher educator within a changing policy and curriculum landscape, including managerial attempts to define acceptable educational ‘outcomes’ and other globalising pressures to regulate education. I interrogate my professional knowledge and experience as a teacher educator, raising questions about the adequacy of my support for student teachers as they enter this new landscape. I conceive the key challenge facing me at the moment as a challenge to my professional identity that requires me to find new ways of understanding and talking about my work (cf. Teaching and Teacher Education 19(1) (2002) 5). The essay might be read as a ‘self study’, in which my ‘self’ is conceived as a function of the networks or relationships in which I operate as a teacher educator and the larger structures that shape my professional world.     

Towards a Language of Possibility: critical reflection and mentorship in initial teacher education

Abstract

This paper examines a programme which aimed at creating alternative school‐based experiences for postgraduate students following a 1‐year higher diploma of education course at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. The programme was premised on the belief that critical reflection is necessary for educational transformation, and that teacher educators increasingly will be expected to raise the quality of teaching in schools. The background to the Mentor Programme is described and the underlying rationale is discussed. Whilst the evidence from the study reflects mentor satisfaction at the quality and range of teaching skills developed by students during the programme, the investigators express disappointment at their lack of success in attaining critical reflection by their students. Students generally did not look critically, as they had been encouraged to do, at the institutional or societal context of their teaching. The discussion identifies three possible reasons for this, but concludes that any approach to teacher education which does not encourage teachers to reflect critically on their own educational views and on the nature of education as it is realised in the institutional setting of schools will be inherently flawed.     

Motivation to Learn and Teach English in Slovenia

This study was conducted in Slovenia, and explored the views of a sample of 226 pupils (aged 14‐15 years) regarding their motivation to learn English and the views of a sample of 95 student teachers regarding their motivation to become a teacher of English. The data consisted of two questionnaires. The first questionnaire asked the pupils to rate the importance of each of 15 reasons for wanting to learn English. The most frequent reasons given by pupils were ‘Because English is an international language’, ‘Because English helps me with advanced study’ and ‘Because English will help me with my future career’. The second questionnaire asked the student teachers to rate the importance of each of 20 reasons in influencing their decision to become a teacher of English. The most frequent reasons given by the student teachers were ‘I enjoy the subject I will teach’, ‘English is important to me’ and ‘I want to help children succeed’. The findings are further explored in terms of the relative importance of the different types of motivation involved.     

Personal Teaching Efficacy and Its Sources: Student teachers’ perceptions

Teachers’ confidence in their ability to perform the actions that lead to student learning is one of the few individual characteristics that predicts teacher practice and student outcomes. Teachers and especially student teachers need strong efficacy beliefs in order to continue teaching during in‐service education. The current study explores the factors that precede student teachers’ beliefs of teaching efficacy and determine their conviction that they can influence instructional strategies, classroom management, and students’ engagement. In the study 198 fourth‐year students from two primary education departments in Greece completed a Teacher Efficacy Sources Inventory and a Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale. It was found that self‐perceptions of teaching competence, personal characteristics, and motivation for teaching were contributory factors to teaching efficacy. The search for this type of information from student teachers is based on the assumption that feedback from students comprises a substantive factor in relation to the evaluation and improvement of teacher training programmes.