Becoming a critical reflective teachers

Author(s):

Claudio MelacarneBruno Rossi Maura Striano Loretta Fabbri

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 03C, Research on Programs in Teacher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-10

14:00-15:30

Room:

A1 336

Chair:

Peter Gray

Contribution

Theoretic background The study has been focused on the analysis of transformative learning processes (Mezirow, 1990; 1991) occurring during the practicum within the interaction among novice and expert teachers. The research question is how we can study the teacher’s critical professional thinking and developed it. This topic and research question are make in according to a constructivist paradigm and a important framework that started in the last thirty years with the Schön “reflective turns” (Schön, 1987). Starting with an Dewey’s enquiry theory, Schön definited a new paradigm where a significant attention is given to knowledge processes and practice construction in professional setting. So, the professional and educational action comes out of an inquiry process reflectively constructed. Professional competence is thus constructed and developed through a reflective process leading to new forms of knowledge. In fact, academic knowledge acquired within, formal education context are not enough to implement good forms of action in professional organizations (Tirosh, 1994). The implementation of practices which lead student to use a reflective rationality is the ‘key’ to develop innovative and critical scripts, perspectives, interpretative world views in professional practices. The research’s issues The recent curriculum’s reform, the international and local trasformation of the economic, social and personal style of live involve the schools and the teachers to renovate the usually action plans and the professionals frame of work. So, the teachers are required to administrate learning and teaching process, the beliefs, the representations, the theories (tacit theories, naïve theories, common sense theories) with conscience and critical prospectives. Hypothesis Our hypothesis is that the critical thinking is a reflective process that involve different frames of reference (Hofer, Pintrich, 2001). We suppose that this frames of reference define the ways we use to describe our life and professional world. Frames of reference are the structures of assumptions through which we understand our experiences. They selectively shape and delimit expectations, perceptions, cog¬nition, and feelings. They set our line of action (Mezirow, 1997). So, the critic though isn’t a usually way to understand and transform the experience because it’s a particularly reflective process that involve the critic of the assumptions. The novice start to work into school with sociocultural, autobiography and personal ideas and frame of reference about how to teach, how the students learn and others assumptions. This ideas and ‘tacit knoledge’ (Polany, 1976) aren’t always the best frame to understand the new problem, events and situation that every teacher meet in their daily work. These may involve assumptions which are distorted in content, process or premise (Mezirow, 1991). They may be transformed by validity testing through critically reflective dialogue and a educational reflexive curriculum. Objective 1) The first objective (research objective ) of he study was to understand the specific form of reflection (reflection on the content, reflection on the process, reflection on the assumptions). 2) The second objective (research objective ) was to understand the teacher’s distorted assumption. The frame of reference they use are usually validate only in the personal, individual and informal context. 3) The third objective (transformative objective) was to involve the same teachers to improve their critical reflection action for evidence and try to change the distorted assumption through critically reflective dialogue.

Method

The analysis was developed by a qualitative methodology. In particular, the qualitative study has involved 100 novice teachers attending a two year training course in Teacher College at the Universities of Florence and Siena and has been focused on the analysis of transformative learning processes (Mezirow, 1990; 1991) occurring during the practicum within the interaction among novice and expert teachers. We used the ‘critical incident’ metodology (Brookfield, 1990). We asked to the novice teacher to write a short narratives about a problematic experience in their training. Narratives have been analyzed according to a triadic matrix, useful to identify the intersection of epistemic, psychological and emotional, socio-linguistic meaning perspectives (Mezirow, 1991). The analysis of narratives has been done using investigator triangulation involving multiple researchers (two internal and one external to the research framework) and considering the pre-service teachers themselves part of the data analysis and interpretation process. According to Cohen & Manion (1986, p. 254), in social sciences triangulation “attempt to map out, or explain more fully, the richness and complexity of human behaviour by studying it from more than one standpoint”.

Expected Outcomes

Narratives have first analysed using a quantitative approach.According to this first level of analysis, it is possible to assume that professional identity and epistemology is being constructed and developed within mainly three problematic areas which lead to specific learning interests for novice teachers: -A didactical-relational-communicative area: here teachers are committed to solve problems such as: “How can I solve the problem to establish a good communicative climate in order to mediate and transfer effectively new knowledge structures?”; “Which kind of knowledge, competences, strategies, tools do I need to manage effectively a class of students?”. -A personal-introspective area: “Why did I choose to become a teacher?” - “What does it mean to be a good teacher?”. -Learning theories area: “What does learning mean?” - “Which strategies ands methodologies should I use in order to support learning?”. So, narratives have second analysed using a qualitative approach. The qualitative analysis shows how the teacher's distorted assumption about: the means of knowledge and learning, the role of others teachers in the curriculum activity, the role of emotion in the educational context.

References

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Author Information

Claudio Melacarne

University of Siena

Department of Education

Arezzo

104

Bruno Rossi

University of Siena, Italy

Maura Striano

University of Naples, Italy

Loretta Fabbri

University of Siena, Italy

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