Title: Becoming a Teacher
1Becoming a Teacher
2(No Transcript)
3Teachers as Learners
-
- Well all teachers these days are having to
learn all time. Whether it is the new diplomas or
working with social services. They are having to
learn new things.. - (A senior teacher May 2008)
4Outline of the Talk
- The knowledge paradox in Initial Teacher
Education (ITE) in England - A sociocultural approach to learning
- Transfer or transitions
- Implications for relationships between
universities and schools - The development of teacher expertise
- Relational agency
- Implications for ITE
5(No Transcript)
6The Knowledge Paradox in Initial Teacher
Education (ITE)
- Two models of learning to be found at the same
time in ITE - Learning occurs through storing facts acquired in
university and applying them in your work as a
teacher - Learning occurs through participating in the
practical actions of a community on school
placement
7Attempts to Overcome the Conceptual Muddle
- Bridging the practice-theory gap though
reflection - Drawing on critical pedagogy so that student
teachers avoid being mindlessly acculturated into
school practices - Asserting the value of Higher Education
- Putting ITE into schools and train through an
apprenticeship scheme
8The English Case Study
- Placing ITE in universities was a triumph for the
teaching profession - and for the application of
knowledge view of learning - But increasingly the ITE curriculum has been
brought under government control and the
independence of universities eroded therefore
the warrant for a higher education base has been
undermined
9The Eroding of the Position of Universities in
ITE in the 1990s
- Government saw universities as the problem rather
than the solution to improving standards in
school - ITE became increasingly bureaucratised and the
curriculum controlled by government - Student teachers became adept at the delivery of
the agreed curriculum - Compliance with government demands was essential
or funding to ITE programmes was cut
10The Outcome of the Erosion
- The acquisition and application model did not
provide universities with a rationale for their
role that would withstand these attacks - The apprenticeship model of ITE gained ground
11The Response to the Attacks
- Professional autonomy was asserted in order to
argue against the bureaucratisation of teaching - But . the myth of autonomy is dangerous
-
12Autonomy or Isolation?
- Teachers operate as isolated professionals or
rugged individuals lion-taming in public - Student teachers avoid public failure and
therefore avoid the complexity involved in
responding to pupils as learners
13Another Way of Looking at the Paradox the
sociocultural approach
- Learning involves internalising the ideas that
are culturally valued and externalising what is
learnt in actions on our worlds - We are shaped by our social situations of
development but also shape them by our actions
in and on them - As we are shaped by and shape our worlds both we
and they are changed
14Vygotsky and tool mediated action
Mediational Means ideas, resources
Object
Subject
15Learning as Recognition and Response
- Mind is outward-looking and pattern seeking
- Learning is evident in increasingly complex
interpretations of phenomena e.g. recognising
that a childs behaviour is part of a wider set
of problems she is facing - Learning is also evident how we respond to those
more complex interpretations
16Transfer in the Three Views of Learning
- Acquisition and application of knowledge
transfer is crucial - Participation in practices transfer is not an
issue as learning is heavily situated in
practices which permit and support certain ways
of thinking and acting - One sociocultural line (Greeno) transfer is
helped by recognisable patterns in social
practices as people move between settings the
focus is the learner, her transition and her
sense-making
17Transitions as Changing Relationships between
Self and World
- Transitions rather than transfer
- A focus on the sense-making actor
- As we navigate our way across settings we are
actors in them seeking patterns and responding to
them - Transitions need to be seen as a changing
relationship between individuals and their social
situations of development
18From Transfer to Transitions
- Any sociocultural reconceptualization of transfer
should be true to the premise that underlies all
sociocultural approaches to learning and
development that learners and social
organizations exist in a recursive and mutually
constitutive relation to one another across time. - (Beach,
1999, p111)
19Consequential Transitions (Beach, 1999)
- As we learn to see something differently we
reposition ourselves in relation to it - As we navigate across settings we confront many
differences and negotiate them in ways that are
consequential for us - A student teacher in a school will negotiate the
social practices of a school in order to fit in
with those practices and not draw on what she has
learnt in university
20A Focus on the Student Teacher as Learner
- Looking at transfer is a focus on what a student
teacher knows and can apply - Looking at transitions is a focus on how the
student teacher is making sense and contributing
to the school as she navigates her way through it
21Differences as Teaching Opportunities in ITE
-
- We should recognise that universities and
schools offer different experiences to students
and when there are differences, they are useful
learning opportunities which need to be supported
by teachers in schools
22The Question
- How can teachers in schools be attuned to the
need to help students to recognise differences,
seek complexity and so learn?
23A Science Department Team Room (Ann Childs and
Jane McNicholl)
24Student Teacher as Expert
- CL (NQT) is working on her laptop in the team
room. DE and AD (student teachers) are planning
lessons. -
- CL then asks AD about good ideas about how he
would explain to students in Y10 that objects
fall at the same rate despite their being
different masses. - AD explains Fma and other equations on the team
room whiteboard. DE joins in, CL then says she
needs a simpler explanation.
25- BW (Head of Department and experienced physics
teacher) enters the team room and says that this
is difficult and gives CL an analogy where she
uses Canderel and then biscuits. DE says she gets
it. - CL says thats all very well but she is
thinking about the students in her Y10 class and
they wont get this analogy. BW gives another
explanation.
26 Expertise is Distributed across Systems
- Expertise is held in systems and is negotiated in
order to accomplish tasks - Expert teaching is the negotiated accomplishment
of pupil learning - Knowing what to teach, when to teach it and how
to teach it but also who and what can augment
your practice
27Becoming a Resourceful Teacher
- So much knowledge
- Knowledge is off-loaded onto artefacts
- Knowledge is distributed in systems of expertise
- Resourceful teachers know how to access and use
these resources to enhance their responses
28The Resourceful Navigator
- Teachers are professional decision-makers
- They learn to recognise the resources available
and how to use and contribute to them - They can move across terrains e.g. working with
other professionals or in research or training
partnerships with universities
29The Detail Project an ITE research partnership
Viv Elliswww.education.ox.ac.uk/research/resgr
oup/osat/detail.php
30The DETAIL study
- A joint research study over three years
- Eight English teachers in four schools
- Four student teachers in each school each year
- One (!) university English Education tutor
- Exploring subject teaching, pedagogy and the
structures and practices of the English
departments in the schools using Developmental
Work Research
31Unpacking the Social Situation of Development
- DETAIL shows what is gained by student teachers
and by teachers from examining the social
situation of development in which they find
themselves - They become better at recognising and therefore
opening up complexity - They also recognise that that teaching is more
than safe performance instead it is a process
of recognition and resourceful response
32Moving on from Rugged Individualism in DETAIL
- VE Is it part of this thing about being a rugged
individual? - M1my interns (student teachers) are writing
every week I survived - M2.Its still at that very superficial level of
this is tough hard work and Im going to succeed
by proving I can fight my way out of a corner
33The Concept of Relational Agency an Alternative
to Autonomy (Edwards, 2005)
- Aligning ones thoughts and action with others
while interpreting and acting on the world (mind
is outward-looking) - Expanding the object of activity by bringing to
bear the sense-making of others and drawing on
the resources they offer when responding - Need to question school practices which create
rugged individuals (or headless chickens) - purposeful action with others
34Connecting with Notions of Distributed
Intelligence
- Hakkarainen et al - networked expertise
- Billett - relational interdependence in the
workplace - Bruner - extended intelligence
- Engestrom and Middleton negotiated task
accomplishment - Nardi NetWork
- Childs and McNicholl the knowledge-rich school
department
35Relational Agency supporting professional action
- A strong form of agency is necessary for practice
in complex settings - Individual agency can be strengthened by working
with others - Professionals can, and need to, draw on and
contribute to systems of distributed expertise
36Being Collaborative
- Knowing how to know who - i.e. knowing how to
access the expertise that is distributed across a
system - Knowing how to align ones practices with those
of others while working on a childs learning
trajectory - It is only a matter of adjusting what you do to
other peoples strengths and needs (practitioner)
37Relational Agency as Resourceful Outward-looking
Practice
- Contesting interpretations of the task or
problem while working within sets of professional
values - Recognising the fluidity of relationships
different people, known and not yet known - Recognising what can support your practice and
how you can support others
38Implications of RA for Professional Learning and
Practice
- Professional learning needs to include a capacity
for interpreting and approaching problems,
contesting interpretations, reading the
environment, drawing on resources to be found
there, being a resource - That takes us to an enhanced version of
professionalism
39Implications for ITE in Universities and Schools
- Transition rather than transfer
- A focus on the student teacher as learner
- Emphasis on recognition and complexity
- Downplaying autonomy and curriculum delivery as
performance - Emphasis on the resources that are available to
enhance responses - Demonstrating how to access and draw on those
resources and how to be a resource