3.4 A CONSTRUCTIVIST VIEW OF TEACHING.pptx
- 1. What do teachers bring to the teaching-learning process?
- 2. Studies in effective teaching In the first two chapters we examined a number of different ways in which people have tried to explain how learning occurs. There have been many different artempts to account for effective teaching. Once again, some of these fall within a positivist paradigm; that is, they are mainly concerned with measuring characteristics of teachers, with correlating information, and with drawing general conclusions from the results obtained. These studies have been referred to as process-products studies in that one of their major concerns has been to identify what kind of action on the part of teachers is most likely to bring about a desired result (e.g. good exam grades). We shall first examine some of these studies of what makes a 'good' teacher, before considering an alternative perspective.
- 3. Ericksen describes a study in which the views of learners and administrators about teachers were analysed. The conclusion reached was that 'an outstanding teacher should be an inspiring instructor who is concerned about students, an active scholar who is respected by discipline peers, and an efficient organised professional who is accessible to students and colleagues' (Ericksen 1984:3).
- 4. Good teachers…? Match a list of characteristics like those in the study cited by Ericksen, or describe desirable ways of behaving, as in Merrett and Wheldall's positive teaching mode (Merrett and Wheldall 1990; Wheldall and Merrett 1984). Rosenshine (1971) and Rosenshine and Furst (1973) review a number of 'process-product' studies, in which various forms of teacher behaviour were connected with measurable learning outcomes such as test results. From this they identified nine key factors contributing to effective teaching:
- 5. • Altough some attempts have been made to translate these and similar findings into guidelines for action (e.g. Perrott 1982), on the whole they have proved surprisingly unhelpful to most teachers seeking to improve their professional practice. This is pardy because such factors are themselves open to a variety of interpretations (e.g. What exactly is meant by 'enthusiasm'?), but also because in the real world good teachers come in all shapes and sizes, with a wide range of different personalities, beliefs and ways of working.
- 6. Teachers also come from different backgrounds and belong to different cultures. We would, therefore, expect them to work in different ways that suit their own personalities and situations. In Bennett's original (1976) study of effective teachers, for example, one of the most highly rated teachers demonstrated very few of the descriptors of how an effective teacher should behave. In another study of effecrive teaching, Brown and Mcintyre (1992) report a study of the opinions of seventy-five 12- to 13-year-olds in one city comprehensive school in the UK as to what made a good teacher. Ten categories were identified as representing dements of good teaching:
- 7. ¿…? • As a conclusion of their study, however, these authors found themselves faced with the dilemma that although they could identify such elements of what they termed professional 'craft' knowledge amongst teachers, they could draw no simple conclusions or generalisations about how this highly complex knowledge could be transformed into guidelines for action.
- 8. THEN…? It seems fruitless to atempt to shape oneself into the model of a good language teacher, as indicated by research, what other routes appear to be open? A radical alternative involves an inner exploration of oneself rather than a search for the outward characteristics of the perfect teacher. Such an alternative is provided by a constructivist approach to teachers and teaching. We shall now discuss briefly the broader issue of what is meant by a constructivist view of education, before moving on to consider what light constructivism sheds on what it means to be a good teacher. We choose to introduce the notion of a constructivist view of education here for two reasons. • First, as we shall suggest later in this chapter, one of the many facets that teachers bring to the teaching- learning process is a view of what education is all about. • Second, we wish to introduce at this early stage a number of the main issues and themes that will be taken up later .in this book, such as the distinction between learning and education and the importance of learning to think and solve problems.
- 9. A Constructivist view of Education
- 10. What is Education according to Glasersfeld? • Political enterprise 1. Empower learners to think by themselves 2. Perpetuate in the next generation ways of acting and thinking ALL KNOWLEDGE IS INSTRUMENTAL
- 15. 3.4 A CONSTRUCTIVIST VIEW OF TEACHING
- 16. Making sense of or meaning from There is never anyone right way to teach. In considering what a constructivist approach offers to teachers. Teaching, like learning, must be concerned with teachers making sense of, or meaning from, the situations in which they find themselves.
- 17. Understanding the meaning of teachers` work • Investigating the thinking and planning that teachers do outside the classroom (Clark and Peterson 1986). • Ethnographic studies of their routines, rules and patterns of teaching. • Autobiographical accounts of the understanding teachers bring to their work. (Ashton-Warner 1980; Connelly and Clandinin 1990).
- 18. The struggle to find professional competence From a practitioner's perspective .. . teaching is a struggle to: • Discover and maintain a settled practice, • A set of routines and patterns of action which resolve the problems posed by particular subjects and groups of children. These patterns, content and resolutions to familiar classroom problems are shaped by each teacher's biography and professional experience. (Louden 1991 ;xi)
- 19. How do changes relate to teachers' understandings of their work? Pay close attention to the meaning that teachers make of the physical environment of their classrooms The syllabus Particular teaching practices Act in accordance with our understanding of these meanings. TEACHERS´HORIZONS?
- 20. What does it mean to be a language teacher? When confronted by new problems and challenges, a teacher struggles to resolve them in ways that are consistent with the understanding she brings to the problem and this process leads in turn to new horizons of understanding about teaching. Personal experiences, Traditional ways It continues to grow with every new experience.
- 21. Teaching is not as the passing on of a parcel of objective knowledge (Salmon 1988:37) The differences between teachers, therefore, are not simply a question of whether they are good or bad, competent or incompetent, because every teacber is unique. Teachers do not just act as gateways to knowledge Teachers experience an engagement with their learners out of which further constructions emerge. Teacher and learners reshape their ways of understanding, their knowledge structures and tbe meanings that tbey attribute to events and ideas as a result of this interactive process. They also continually reconstruct their views of each other..
- 22. THEREFORE… A skills-based approach with its emphasis upon how to perform effectively, which seeks to find commonalities between good teachers. A constructivist approach to teaching: Emphasises the fact that no two teachers and no two teaching situations are ever the same. Both the content of any lesson and the way in which it is offered are part of the person of each individual teacher. The need is for teachers to become more self-aware with regard to their beliefs and the ways in which they make of the world, particularly with regard to their views about education and how those views themselves come to be shaped. At the same time, they need to be aware also that they themselves are being construed by their learners and that their words, their actions and their interactions form part of every individual learner's own construction of knowledge. An important component of a constructivist approach to education is for teachers to become aware of what their own e Ie s an views of the world are, which leads us into the notion of the reflective practitioner.
- 23. 3.5 The teacher as reflective practitioner
- 24. Act consistently in accordance with your expressed (or 'espoused') beliefs. If teachers are to be effective in whatever approach they decide to take, it seems reasonable to expect them to act consistently in accordance with tbeir expressed (or 'espoused') beliefs. if there is discrepancy between a teacher's expressed beliefs and the ways in which that teacher acts professionally, then learners are likely to receive confused and confusing messages. In an effort to improve teachers' self-awareness in this respect, some educational theorists have fostered the notion of critical reflection (Boud, Keogh and Walker 1985). The intention here is to enable to become reflective practitioners (Schon 1983), thereby they subject their everyday professional practice to ongoing critical reflection and make clear their own particular world view by means of such consideration.
- 25. REFLSchon (op. cit.) draws the distinction between reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. He contends that each individual's knowledge is mainly tacit and implied by the ways in which they act, such that 'our knowing is in our action' (Schon 1983:49). We do not necessarily have to think about how to act appropriately as teachers in any situation before we do so. When we 'think on our feet' or make spontaneous decisions about how to act, then we can be seen as reflecting-in-action, which in turn gives rise to the application of 'theories-in-action'. It is such theories, according to Schon, rather than externally imposed knowledge or theories from elsewhere, which underpin each professional's own unique way of working. ECTION IN ACTION VS REFLECTION ON ACTION
- 26. A reflective teacher needs a kind of educational technology which does more than extend her capacity to administer drill and practice. Most interesting to her is an educational technology which helps students to become aware of their own intuitive understandings, to fall into cognitive confusions and explore new directions of understanding and action.
- 27. A REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER • Schon outlines some ways in which teachers-as-reflective-practitioners act. Firstly, the curriculum must be seen as an inventory of themes of understanding and skill to be addressed rather than a set of materials to be learned. Each student has to be treated as an individual, 'a universe of one' (Schon, op. cit.:333). act • A reflective teacher needs a kind of educational technology which does more than extend her capacity to administer drill and practice. Most interesting to her is an educational technology which helps students to become aware of their own intuitive understandings, to fall into cognitive confusions and explore new directions of understanding and action. (Schon op. cit.: 333)must be seen as an inventory of themes of understanding and skill to be addressed rather than a set of materials to be learned. Each student has to be treated as an individual, 'a universe of one' (Schon, op. cit.:333).
- 28. HOW ABOUT THE INSTITUTIONS? An institution congenial to reflective practice would require a learning system within which individuals could surface conflicts and dilemmas and subject them to public enquiry, a learning system conducive to the continual criticism and restructuring of organisational principles and values. (Schon op. cit.:336)
- 29. How to do it? In considering the implications of taking such an approach, Smyth suggests that critical reflection can be fostered by asking a number of guiding questions: • What do my practices say about my assumptions, values and beliefs about teaching? • Where did these ideas come from? • What social practices are expressed in these ideas? • What views of power do they embody? • Whose interests seem to be served by my practices? • What is it that acts to constrain my views of what is possible in teaching?
- 30. Remember Reflective practitioners and non reflective practitioners are not two fundamentally irreconcilable groups, but are, rather, professionals working at different points in different ways to achieve common goals. 'Not to examine one's practice is irresponsible; to regard teaching as an experiment and to monitor one's performance is a responsible professional act.’ To be an effective teacher in our own terms we need to look both inwards and outwards. We then need co construct a particular identity of the kind of teacher that we want co be and co seek to reproduce this in our day- co-day activities, in our actions and in our interactions in the teachinglearning arena.