Contribution
Description: This paper considers the ways in which ideas from situated learning theory (Lave 1988, 1990, Lave and Wenger 1991, Rogoff 1990) and Engestrom's (1999, 2001, Engestrom et al 1995) formulation of activity theory can be used to understand the difficulties of transforming knowledge across different social contexts in initial teacher education (ITE). The specific empirical focus is post-graduate (PGCE) ITE in England but the practices of ITE that are explored in the English context are common to many other European countries and comparisons are drawn between these practices across Europe.The paper poses two questions: · what factors are most conducive to effective transformation of knowledge across different socio-cultural contexts?· what implications does this have for the current organisation of ITE courses?
Methodology: The paper begins by conceptualising learning in the higher education institution (HEI) and in the school as activity systems and discusses how this illuminates the problems that effective transformation of knowledge between socio-cultural contexts faces. It is proposed that the current organisation of many ITE courses is underpinned by a conception of "transfer" of learning derived from cognitive psychology. Within this conception, learning transfers most effectively when it is learned in a general, abstracted and decontextualised form first before being deployed in specific contexts. Research from both cognitive psychology and situated approaches to understanding learning suggests that this is a problematic idea as evidence of transfer is limited and the idea of learning which is not socially situated is, in itself, questionable. The paper includes a review of recent literature on transfer of situated learning in general (Greeno 1997, Greeno et al 1993, Hatano & Greeno 1999) and within vocational education in particular (e.g. Billet 1994, 1996a, 1996b, 1998, Fuller 2003, Fuller & Unwin 1998, 2003, Fuller et al 2005). This review results in a list of conditions in which transformation of situated learning across social contexts is most likely to be effective and an alternative conceptualisation of transforming knowledge is proposed, 'disembedding' (Billet), in which knowledge that is situated in specific socio-cultural contexts is later abstracted and generalised.The implications of this review are then considered for current practices in ITE. In particular, the paper considers research on 'situated' or 'learning curricula' (Gherardi et al 1998, Lave and Wenger 1991, Jordan 1989) to propose that one of the barriers to transforming knowledge within ITE is a mismatch between the learning curriculum experienced during school placements and the teaching curriculum offered in the HEI. This mismatch reduces chances that situated experiences from the school will be disembedded in the HEI and that matching 'affordances' (Greeno) between the two contexts will be found by students to facilitate transformation of knowledge across contexts. This analysis is backed up by small scale empirical research, carried out for the paper, that suggests that typical teaching curricula in PGCE courses in England, represented by timetables of HEI based sessions in secondary English PGCE courses in four institutions, are organised according to a different logic and chronology to the school based learning curriculum, represented by the statements of eight English subject mentors on a school based Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP), about the nature and order of activities that GTP students participate in. Although this empirical data is limited it suggests that more research in this area to confirm its findings would be beneficial.
Conclusions: The paper concludes by offering a number of suggestions for developing ITE courses that might reduce this mismatch to improve the chances of effective transformation of knowledge between the two contexts of HEI and school. Central among these is the desirability of reconfiguring teaching curricula in HEIs around the learning curricula in schools.
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