Dilemmas, Tensions And Complexity: How College Based Teacher Educators Use Modelling In Their Practice With Their Student Teachers

Author(s):

David Powell(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 01 B, Creating Knowledge in Teacher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-10

13:15-14:45

Room:

A-202

Chair:

Vivienne Griffiths

Contribution

Modelling is a teaching method employed by teacher educators to demonstrate, explain, debate and theorise their practice and so support the learning of their student teachers. Research undertaken in the Netherlands and Australia has highlighted that although using modelling is judged to be a highly effective strategy and considered one of the roles and professional competencies of a teacher educator (Korthagen et al. 2005; Loughran and Berry, 2005), Lunenberg et al. (2007) concluded that there is little evidence to suggest that teacher educators fully recognise or utilise it as a teaching method. There are a number of reasons why this seems to occur: one of the reasons given is that the trait is “difficult to develop alone” (Loughran and Berry, 2005, p.194); another is the impact a teacher educator’s professional identity has on their pedagogical decision making, including feelings of vulnerability when teaching colleagues (Noel, 2006, Lunenberg et al. 2007, Boyd, 2011). The research undertaken on modelling in European settings to date, much of which has been done in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, has focused on university based teacher educators such as White’s (2011) self-study. Therefore, this paper focuses on how this English university-based teacher educator, as part of his Doctor of Education (EdD) study, is using an action research approach to work collaboratively with a team of four teacher educators from an English general further education (FE) college who teach in-service student teachers working in post-compulsory education and training, and how together they are exploring the participants’ use of modelling in their practice and how they might extend and further develop its employment in their teaching. In doing so, I am seeking to answer three questions: firstly, how do teacher educators in FE colleges use modelling in their practice; secondly, what impact does the professional identity of FE based teacher educators have on their teaching behaviours and use of modelling; thirdly, what type of professional development do teacher educators based in FE need to support their use of modelling.

Key words: Modelling, Action Research, Professional Identity, Professional Knowledge, Continuing Professional Development

Method

This research adopts an action research (AR) methodology, more specifically a second-person practice approach (Chandler and Torbert, 2003, p.142) in which the author has sought to work democratically and collaboratively with teacher educators from an English general further education college to jointly explore the use of modelling in their practice with their in-service trainee teachers. Three data collection instruments were used within the first cycle of the research: a stimulated-recall interview and a semi-structured interview with the participants and a focus group with their student teachers. Shavelson et al. (1986) describe a stimulated recall interview as a teacher using a video recording of one of their classes as a visual prompt to help them explain and discuss with another teacher their pedagogical practice and decision making, and the semi-structured interview has been used to create a “professional conversation” (Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009, p.2) with each participant about their use of modelling. A focus group was held after the videoed class to gain the students’ perspective on their teacher’s use of modelling. Interviews were recorded and then transcribed prior to the data analysis. Wellington’s (2000, p.141) seven stages of analysis have been used “to make sense of the data”.

Expected Outcomes

The paper discusses the initial findings from the first cycle of the project including the impact a teacher educator’s professional identity has on their pedagogical decision making, along with feelings of vulnerability when teaching colleagues (Noel, 2006, Lunenberg et al. 2007, Boyd, 2011); what types of modelling are used by teacher educators working with student teachers from vocational settings and what shapes and influences their use of it and what professional development FE based teacher educators need to support their use of modelling.

References

Boyd, P., (2011) Approaches to ‘modelling’ as a strategy for teacher educators: challenging current conceptions and practice. pp1-6. 2nd TEAN - Teacher Education Advancement Network Annual Conference, The Important Role of Higher Education in Teacher Education, May 20th 2011 Chandler, D., and Torbert, B., (2003) Transforming inquiry and action: interweaving 27 flavors of action research. Action Research. 1 (2). pp133-152. online] Available from: Summon [Accessed 9 August 2012]. Korthagen, F., Loughran, J., and Lunenberg, M., (2005) ‘Teaching teachers—studies into the expertise of teacher educators: an introduction to this theme issue.’ Teaching and Teacher Education. 21 (2). pp107–115 [online] Available from: Summon [Accessed 1 December 2010]. Kvale, S., and Brinkmann, S., (2009) InterViews: learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing, 2nd ed., London: Sage Loughran, J., and Berry, A., (2005) ‘Modelling by teacher educators’. Teaching and Teacher Education. 21 (2). pp193-203 [online] Available from: Summon [Accessed 1 December 2010]. Lunenberg, M., Korthagen, F., and Swennen, A., (2007) ‘The teacher educator as a role model’. Teaching and Teacher Education. 23 (5). pp586-601 [online] Available from: Summon [Accessed 1 December 2010]. Shavelson, R., Webb, M., and Burstein, L., (1986) ‘Measurement of teaching’: In Wittrock, M., (1986) (ed.) Handbook of research on teaching. 3rd ed. New York: MacMillan. pp50-91 Taylor, A., (2008) Developing understanding about learning to teach in a university-schools partnership in England, British Educational Research Journal. 34 (1) pp.63-90 [online] Available from: Summon [Accessed 22 June 2011]. Wellington, J., (2000) Educational research: contemporary issues and practical approaches. London: Continuum. White, E., (2011): Working towards explicit modelling: experiences of a new teacher educator, Professional Development in Education, 37:4, 483-497[online] Available from: Summon [Accessed 1 February 2013].

Author Information

David Powell (presenting / submitting)

University of Huddersfield

Education and Professional Develop-ment

Huddersfield

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