| Abstract: | The Action on Principled Pedagogy and Learning Evaluation (APPLE) project is a cross cultural study of teaching in primary/elementary schools in England and North Carolina. The study is focused on variance in teaching, how teaching differs from the best, or most effective, that it might be, and on the relationship between professional knowledge for teaching and teachers' roles and actions. The major products of this study were: (a) a set of 16 dimensions of teaching and a model for analysis of the degree to which each dimension is an asset or barrier to learning in any given instruction and (b) a new typology of teaching, based on variance from the best that could be rather than in comparison to others. In this article we describe, briefly, the APPLE project, present the dimensions and the new typology and discuss their implications for the professionalisation of teaching. In particular, the finding that even amongst the best teachers, the ability to articulate practice in a clear, technical language is rare, is, it is argued, a major barrier to the definition of teaching as a professional activity. |
