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This article was downloaded by: [Northeastern University] On: 15 November 2014, At: 09:42 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK European Journal of Teacher Education Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cete20 A Personal Reflection on Scenario Writing as a Powerful Tool to Become a More Professional Teacher Educator PAUL CAUTREELS Published online: 01 Jul 2010. To cite this article: PAUL CAUTREELS (2003) A Personal Reflection on Scenario Writing as a Powerful Tool to Become a More Professional Teacher Educator, European Journal of Teacher Education, 26:1, 175-180 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0261976032000065742 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms- and-conditions

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Page 1: A Personal Reflection on Scenario Writing as a Powerful Tool to Become a More Professional Teacher Educator

This article was downloaded by: [Northeastern University]On: 15 November 2014, At: 09:42Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

European Journal of Teacher EducationPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cete20

A Personal Reflection on ScenarioWriting as a Powerful Tool to Become aMore Professional Teacher EducatorPAUL CAUTREELSPublished online: 01 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: PAUL CAUTREELS (2003) A Personal Reflection on Scenario Writing as a PowerfulTool to Become a More Professional Teacher Educator, European Journal of Teacher Education, 26:1,175-180

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0261976032000065742

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: A Personal Reflection on Scenario Writing as a Powerful Tool to Become a More Professional Teacher Educator

European Journal of Teacher Education,Vol. 26, No. 1, 2003

A Personal Reflection on Scenario Writing as a

Powerful Tool to Become a More Professional

Teacher Educator

PAUL CAUTREELS

SUMMARY Reflection nowadays is a major goal in teacher education. One of the primaryconditions for student teachers to become reflective professionals is the guidance of a reflectiveteacher educator. In this article we try to show that teacher educators can benefit from the workof scenario writing to become more reflective professionals themselves. We will not give ascientific explanation about scenario writing, we simply tell the story of the adventure we wereinvolved in during the past two years. Nevertheless, at the end we add some theoretical notionsilluminating this ‘learners’ log’.

RESUME Aujourd’hui le developpement de la capacite de reflexion est un aspect important dela formation des enseignants. Pour que les etudiants puissent devenir un jour des professionnels‘reflexifs’, ils ont besoin d’un guide professionnel: un professeur ‘reflexif’ lui-meme. Pourdevelopper leurs capacites de reflexion, les professeurs peuvent certainement se servir de latechnique du scenario. C’est ce que nous essayons de demontrer dans cet article. Nous nedonnons pas un expose scientifique sur les techniques d’ecriture de scenarios. Nous racontonstout simplement l’aventure que nous avons vecue ces deux dernieres annees. Neanmoins, nousajoutons quelques notions theoriques pour illustrer ce journal d’un ‘apprenti’.

RESUMEN En la actualidad, la reflexion es uno de los objetivos mas importantes de laformacion del profesorado. Una de las condiciones principales para que los profesores seconviertan en unos profesionales reflexivos es la orientacion de un formador del profesoradoreflexivo. En este artıculo, tratamos de ilustrar que los formadores del profesorado se puedenbeneficiar del trabajo de crear escenarios para convertirse ellos mismos en unos profesionalesmas reflexivos. No proporcionaremos una explicacion cientıfica de la creacion de escenarios,simplemente contaremos la historia de la aventura en la que nos vimos envueltos durante losdos ultimos anos. No obstante, al final anadiremos algunas nociones teoricas que iluminen este“diario de aprendices”.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Reflexion ist heutzutage ein Hauptziel der Lehrerausbildung. Einewesentliche Voraussetzung dafur, daß Lehramtsstudierende zur beruflichen Reflexion befahigtwerden, besteht in der Reflexivitat der sie betreuenden Lehrenden. In diesem Beitrag versuchen

ISSN 0261-9768 print; ISSN 1469-5928 online/03/010175-06 2003 Association for Teacher Education in EuropeDOI: 10.1080/0261976032000065742

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wir aufzuzeigen, daß Lehrerausbilder aus dem Verfassen von Szenarios fur die beruflicheReflexionsfahigkeit selbst Gewinn ziehen konnen. Wir werden das Entwerfen von Szenariennicht wissenschaftlich erklaren, sondern wir werden einfach erzahlen, in welches Abenteuer wirin den letzten Jahren verwickelt waren. Trotzdem werden wir am Ende einige theoretischeAnmerkungen machen, die das Logbuch des ‘Lerners’ erlautern sollen.

Introduction

In 1998 I became involved in the activities of the Association of Teacher Education inEurope (ATEE). This association has a number of Research and Development Centres(RDCs). By joining RDC19, focused on Perspectives on Curricula in Teacher Edu-cation, I became involved in the scenario project of this RDC.

Looking back on this project, I realised that RDC19 and the scenario project hasserved as a powerful learning environment for me. With the preach-as-you-teach adagein mind I will reflect in this ‘learners’ log’ on the learning process that was stimulatedby the scenario work.

The participants of RDC19 of ATEE meet twice a year, once during the annualATEE conference in three or four working sessions, and another time during an interimmeeting at a teacher education college of one of the members of the group. Thoseinterim meetings are scheduled during a weekend with working sessions from Fridayafternoon until Sunday noon. My first participation in the activities of the RDC wasduring the ATEE Conference in Limerick (Ireland, 1998). I remember my being a littlebit shy at the beginning but there was a hearty, welcoming atmosphere in the group andI got the impression that good work was done by all participants. So I decided to jointhe group for the next few years.

All RDC19 meetings start with an ‘update’: all participants give a short overview ofthe developments in education in general and teacher education in particular in theirrespective countries. Since about ten different countries are usually represented at themeeting, this update always takes quite some time but also reveals very interesting ideasand topics to discuss and to reflect upon.

The Start

Some weeks before our interim meeting in Amsterdam (February 2000), we receivedsome homework to prepare for the meeting. We had to study a text on the Internetabout ‘Scenario Thinking’ (http://www.gbn.org/scenarios/NEA/NEA.htm). I rememberbeing a little bit overwhelmed by this document. It seemed to me too theoretical andof no importance for the practice of my everyday work as a teacher educator. I alsowondered what the group could do with it during a whole weekend. So I went toAmsterdam with a lot of questions about this kind of ‘educational futurology’. But fromthe introduction of the methodology of scenario writing and onwards we were involvedin an amazing adventure of discussing, exchanging ideas about society, education andteacher education.

We started by making an individual inventory of changes in society and their impacton education and teacher education in particular. Common fields of change weidentified were, for example, dualism (haves–have nots; employment–unemployment;etc.), environmental worries (ecological themes), multiculturalism, constant change,globalisation, English as the dominant world language, etc.). Concerning teachereducation, the fields of change we identified were: the growing impact of teacher

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A Personal Reflection on Scenario Writing 177

education, changes in student and teacher educator populations, growing influence ofpolitics on educational matters, quality thinking. Every participant gave some examplesfrom their own country to illustrate some of these changes in society and education.

The next step was to identify some dilemmas that were typical for each field ofchange. Thereafter we had to decide which of these dilemmas could be used as thebasic axes for our scenario matrix (see Snoek, 2003).

I remember being very involved in the work we did, especially in the fundamental—sometimes theoretical—discussions about the basic notions we had chosen to form thematrix. I really enjoyed the contributions of some participants about the notions‘idealism’ and ‘pragmatism’. I seldom would take a book to read about those theoreticalnotions, but the dialogue with fellow teacher educators was a vivid and very powerfulmethod to learn a lot about the philosophy of education, and also about the history ofphilosophy and some great philosophers … I was surprised to become so occupied withthose topics, since I used to be a very practice-orientated teacher educator. One of themain insights I gained from this working weekend concerned the relationship betweenour daily work in the classroom and different kind of developments on the macro level.It became clear to me that lots of changes at schools and teacher education collegesindeed were embedded in a kind of actual hegemony of ‘economic’ thinking enteringthe educational ‘business’.

The Work Went On …

At the ATEE Conference in Barcelona (2000) the group continued its scenario workin a more concrete manner. For this purpose, the participants were divided into foursmaller groups. Every group was to write out a small role-play; each of them illustratingone of the four scenarios.

I joined the group focusing on scenario I ‘individualism–idealism’ (ATEE-RDC19,2003). At the beginning we had great difficulty in coming to a useful description … weweren’t able to produce any coherent role play. Discussing this difficulty with the othergroups, we all realised that we needed some structure and together we finally decidedto construct a format guiding the work of each group.

This format (see Snoek, 2003) was the result of a very intensive process ofcooperative thinking of all participants. I remember writing a first draft version of aproposal for the format on a sheet of paper and having doubts about presenting it. Butafter discussing it with the whole group we succeeded in constructing a useful handoutfor the writing of the scenarios. The work in the small groups continued, and at the endeach group had some good, original ideas about a possible scenario.

At this stage we were so enthusiastic about the work done that we wanted tocommunicate our findings to other people. The proposal to give a group presentationabout scenario writing during the next ATEE Conference (Stockholm, 2001) was aninspiring challenge for all participants. We decided to ‘go for it’.

After the Barcelona Conference I felt quite happy about the development in ourgroupwork: I really enjoyed the experience of a ‘learning community’ of teachereducators and was looking forward to the next steps we still had to take.

During the next interim meeting (London, March 2001) each group completedtheir scenario and presented it to the other groups. Through evaluative and vividdiscussions every scenario finally got its definitive form. It was a very intensive weekendof work and joy in a group becoming more and more enthusiastic about the events tocome.

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… and Presented to an International Audience of Teacher Educators

At the ATEE Conference in Stockholm (August 2001) our RDC got the opportunityto organise a round table event for all conference participants. It must be said: we reallyfelt a little bit nervous making the last preparations the day before. When presenting ourscenario work we started with a presentation of the four role-plays: it seemed to me thatmost of the people appreciated this quite unusual way of presenting the scenario writingconcept (since the general structure of conference is to sit down and listen to a lectureof a specialist. Now something completely different was going on!). A panel ofinternational specialists afterwards presented their first reactions to the presentationsfollowed by a vivid discussion with the audience. Afterwards we really felt happy aboutthe job done, we received very positive reactions and our presentation seemed to be soinspiring for some conference participants that they joined our RDC the following day.

Preparation of a Thematic Issue About Scenario Writing

Our enthusiasm also led to a positive answer when we were asked to prepare a thematicissue about scenario writing for the European Journal of Teacher Education. We immedi-ately started brainstorming about possible articles and each of us went home with newhomework.

During the next interim meeting (Antwerp, February 2002) we discussed the firstdraft versions of these articles and decided to complete the job at the next ATEEConference (Warsaw, August 2002).

Is Scenario Writing Promoting the Professionalism of a Teacher Educator?

My answer to the above question is a positive one. I want to illustrate this answer byreferring to some theoretical notions concerning reflective teaching and professionalstandards for teacher educators.

Firstly, it seems obvious that a very important characteristic of good educators(including teacher educators) has to be a ‘reflective habitus’. Is scenario writingpromoting reflective competencies? We have the experience that it really does. Zeichnerand Tabachnik (2001) describe four traditions of reflective teaching: an academicversion (a), a social efficiency version (b), a developmentalist version (c) and a socialreconstructionist version (d). The academic version stresses reflection upon subjectmatter. The social efficiency version emphasises the intelligent use of generic teachingstrategies suggested by research on teaching. The developmentalist version prioritisesteaching that is sensitive to student’s interest, thinking and patterns of developmentalgrowth. The social reconstructionist version stresses reflection about the institutional,social and political contexts of schooling and the assessment of classroom actions fortheir ability to contribute towards greater equality, justice and humane conditions inschooling and society. In addition to these four traditions, Zeichner (1992) identifieda fifth tradition, a generic version of reflection, in which reflection in general isadvocated without much specificity about the desired purposes and content of thereflection.

‘Reflecting’ on the past two years of experience of scenario writing it is clear to methat elements of different traditions of reflection were relevant especially the socialreconstructionist version. But also the other types of reflection occurred. We will givesome illustrations referring to the traditions of reflection: fundamental discussions and

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new insights on idealism and pragmatism in education (a); a growing attention to therelations between changes in society and changes in the field of education and especiallyteacher education (d); a growing preference for educational themes on the macro level(c). This of course is an illustration of a developmentalist vision on the personal growthof the teacher educator himself; changes in student populations lead to new, moreadaptive systems of teacher education (c).

Furthermore, Zeichner (1992) also describes some characteristics of the socialreconstructionist conception of reflective teaching. One of those is the commitment toreflection as a social practice. Here the intention is to create communities of learningwhere (prospective) teachers can support and sustain each other’s growth. I think thisis one of the most important positive experiences I had in the working process with thescenarios during the past two years: being part of a learning community of teachereducators … Being part of a group of ‘soul mates’ gives you an enormous feeling andinspiration for the daily job as a teacher educator.

Secondly, another way to answer the question about the promotion of the profes-sionalism of the teacher educator through scenario writing can be found by confrontingour experiences to a professional standard for teacher educators. In the Netherlands aproject developing such a standard has been going on for several years now (see Velon,1999 and Koster, 2000).

Some of the competencies listed in this standard for teacher educators have beenpromoted by the scenario writing experience: The competence to:

• take charge of one’s own professional development;• communicate one’s pedagogical views to colleagues;• be dedicated, committed and involved;• be oriented towards the stimulation of systematic reflection;• acquire and maintain knowledge from a variety of sources;• maintain a network of relevant professional contacts, both within and outside the

world of education;• cope with processes within groups of colleagues;• evaluate with colleagues new developments in the field of education and in the area

of teacher education;• reflect systematically on one’s own pedagogical approach;• make one’s own learning process explicit to colleagues and students.

Of course, all those kind of ‘reflective’ and other competencies can be promotedthrough other initiatives and some other interesting possibilities to use scenario writingas an instrument of reflection and learning are illustrated in this issue (Stomp, 2003;Hilton, 2003), but we hope that the story we have told may inspire some of ourcolleagues to start the exciting experience of scenario writing for themselves.

REFERENCES

ATEE-RDC19 (2003) Scenarios for the future of teacher education in Europe, Eu-ropean Journal of Teacher Education, 26, pp. 21–36.

HILTON, G. (2003) Using scenarios as a learning and teaching strategy with students,European Journal of Teacher Education, 26, pp. 143–153.

KOSTER, B. (2000) Towards a professional standard for Dutch teacher educators. Paperpresented at the ATEE Conference, Orlando, USA, February.

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SNOEK, M. (2003) The use and methodology of scenario making, European Journal ofTeacher Education, 26, pp. 9–19.

STOMP, L. (2003) Days of future passed: staff development and the use of scenarios asa strategic tool, European Journal of Teacher Education, 26, pp. 155–168.

VELON (1999) Beroepsstandaard leraren-opleiders—eerste versie [Professional Standard forTeacher Educators, first version] (Diemen, Vereniging Lerarenopleiders Neder-land—Stuurgroep Beroepskwaliteit Lerarenopleiders).

ZEICHNER, K.M. (1992) Conceptions of Reflective Practice in Teaching and TeacherEducation, in: G. HARVARD & P. HODKINSON (Eds) Action and Reflection in TeacherEducation (Norwood, NJ, Ablex Publishing).

ZEICHNER, K.M. & TABACHNIK, B.R. (2001) Reflections on reflective teaching, in: J.SOLER, A. CRAFT & H. BURGESS (Eds) Teacher Development—Exploring Our OwnPractice (London, Paul Chapman in association with The Open University).

Correspondence: Paul Cautreels, Karel de Grote-Hogeschool, Department of TeacherEducation, Kleine Doornstraat 26, B-2610 Antwerp, Belgium. E-mail:[email protected]

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