The emerging professional:Teacher education students’ developing conceptions of the relationship between theory and practice before, during and
after a PGCE programme
Rupert Knight, University of [email protected]
TEAN Conference May 2012
Background and rationale
• The complex nature of teachers’ professional knowledge (e.g. Shulman, 1986, Hagger & McIntyre, 2006)
• The challenge of integrating theory and practice in learning to teach in two settings (Thomas, 2007, Korthagen, 2010)
• The changing face of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) (Department for Education, 2010)
The study
How do teacher education students’ conceptions of the relationship between theory and practice in their learning develop before, during and after a PGCE programme?
The focus is students’ own conceptions – a central case group of 5
Mainly qualitative data: not only what the changes / developments are but what triggers this and how it happens
A longitudinal study, beginning with preconceptions before course begins (Lortie, 1975, Hobson et al, 2008) and tracking this through to first employment
The trouble with ‘theory’…
• A contested term: the need for ‘verbal hygiene’? (Thomas, 2007)
theory practice
unitary
plural (adapted from Thomas, 2007)
The trouble with ‘theory’…
• A contested term: the need for ‘verbal hygiene’? (Thomas, 2007)
• A problematic concept in education: a ‘dirty word’? (McIntyre, 1993)
• The place of theory: theory into practice or practice into theory? (e.g. Korthagen, 2010)
• How and when to introduce the term: perpetuating the dichotomy vs. the ‘elephant in the room’. (Laursen, 2007)
Methodological tensions and dilemmas
• The dual role: separation of roles and data; ‘bureaucratic burden’ (BERA, 2011); benefits for the case group vs. the whole cohort
• Conducting an ongoing conversation: ongoing analysis (Flowers, 2008); prompts; varying the interaction
• Capturing development over time: changes to participants as a result of participation; different contexts for data collection
• The ‘unique case’: sampling; the ‘uniqueness fallacy’ (Pring, 2004); ‘fuzzy generalisations’ (Bassey, 1999)
The story so far…
What are we learning?
How (and where) do we learn?
How do we make links?
What are we learning?
A focus on ‘content’.
Teaching as delivering the curriculum
Teaching is primarily about engaging
learners.
Belief in a body of professional knowledge
(but what is this?)
A need for underlying principles that go
beyond practice, but T&P not discussed as
separate entities
A broader conception of
subject knowledge
A variety of pedagogies.
A developing understanding of children’s needs
Moving from theory as a set of facts to theory as
tentative and uncertain
Immediately before course By end of Placement 1 During Placement 2
A focus on age-appropriate pedagogies
Assessment for learning and
personalisation to the fore
Increased ownership of theory: adapt and theorise
How and where do we learn?
Learning in school centres on observing
and mimicry
University’s function is to give the
background and pointers to enable survival in school
Interpersonal issues barely mentioned /
anticipated
Learning through personal
experience.
Not just feedback but also joint
reflection
Relationship with the mentor (class teacher) is critical.
University is valued as a place to share and make sense of
practice
Immediately before course By end of Placement 1 During Placement 2
Feedback on own teaching, but
observation of others again prominent
The importance of teamwork: working
with a fellow professional
University learning has been useful to
look back on – makes sense after
practice
How do we make links and make sense?
Linking university and school seen as fairly
uncomplicated
Theory, including research findings and
M Level study could be useful for practice
Worries centre on workload and the
intensity of the course
Reflection has a central role: the
need for space and time to reflect
As well as offering some ideas for
practice, theory has an important role in
making sense of practice
retrospectively
Realisation of the complexity of the role.
Strong evidence of the emotional dimension
(confidence etc)
Immediately before course By end of Placement 1 During Placement 2
Overload at first but makes sense after Placement 1
Not a conscious influence, but
relevance seen. M Level study
especially useful – fosters a way of thinking critically
Understanding the role: feeling like a
teacher
Next steps in data collection
• June:participant feedback on findings so far: a new source of data
• June:whole cohort questionnaire
• September / October:final interview (retrospective, ‘graph’ as stimulus)
Possible questions arising at this stage
• Is there scope for students working in different ways with mentors or university staff in school in order to make practice-theory links in situ?
• Do we need to break up long blocks of teaching with opportunities to reflect and ‘theorise’ at university?
• Do we need to get preconceptions out in the open at the outset and work together to define the professional knowledge required?
• Do we make enough of students observing their mentors in a new way later on in the process?
Theory is…
Someone’s idea or perspective on an issue, sometimes based on
research or experience. It can be an aid or a guideline for practice.
Rather than being a solid fact, theory is open to interpretation and
is not always 100% concrete.
Composed from Focus Group responses Dec 2011
Bassey, M. (1999) Case study research in educational settings, Maidenhead: Open University Press
British Educational Research Association (2011) Ethical guidelines for educational research (2011), [internet] available at http://www.bera.ac.uk/files/2011/08/BERA-Ethical-Guidelines-2011.pdf (accessed 30.10.11)
DfE (2010) The importance of teaching: the schools white paper 2010 [internet] available at: www.education.gov.uk/b0068570/the-importance-of-teaching , accessed 23.12.11
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