How Teachers Combine TheirStudent- and Content-related Notices of Teaching Practices in Attention Demanding Situations

Author(s):

Iina Männikkö(presenting / submitting)Jukka Husu

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 05 B, Teacher Education and the Professional Knowledge Base

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-24

13:30-15:00

Room:

NM-Theatre N

Chair:

Teresa O'Doherty

Contribution

Much research has been done on teacher knowledge. A great deal of them concentrates on large concepts about content knowledge (i.e. how teachers are able to teach the subject matter), pedagogical knowledge (i.e. how teachers are able to choose appropriate teaching methods for students) or pedagogical content knowledge (i.e. how teachers’ are able to transform their content knowledge into teaching practice). Classifying different knowledge forms is important but focusing only on one field of teacher knowledge may cause that we still do not know how to implement it in teaching practice (Ball, Thames & Phelps, 2008). Thus, examining how teachers are able to bring their knowledge into practical actions requires more nuanced connections between different knowledge forms (Mena, Garcia, Clarke & Barkatsas, 2015). Recently, Gitomer et al. (2015) have suggested more detailed investigations in integration of content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge in teaching with different combinations of those knowledge forms. This is important because teachers should be able to combine their different ways of knowing during their classroom actions (Lampert, 2001; 2010).

This study investigates different ways to assess teachers’ practical knowledge in attention demanding teaching situations. The research questions are: (1) what teachers notice about students and content being taught as they make decisions for teaching actions, and (2) how teachers’ combine their student- and content-related notices in their teaching decisions.

Method

This study is based on qualitative data of 10 teacher interviews. All teachers were qualified primary school teachers who worked in two different schools in Southern Finland. The interviews included four narratives each presenting a certain attention demanding event during the on-task situation. The narratives aimed to trigger teachers’ thoughts about their actions in attention demanding classroom events as authentic as possible. The interviews were qualitatively analyzed and carried out in two phases using inductive coding scheme (Miles, Huberman & Saldaña, 2014). First, all reported teacher notices were classified into the student- and content-related notice units. In addition, the different subclasses were labelled by thematizing them along similar themes within teachers’ meanings. Second, the both of student- and content-related notice units were analyzed together in separate episodes. By focusing only on one episode at a time, there were able to find out different ways to combine student- and content-related notices. The different combinations of student- and content-related notices were labelled by thematizing them along the similarities in the patterns of all thematized notices in the separate episodes.

Expected Outcomes

The 1st research task produced a detailed exploration of teachers’ student-related and content-related notices. Teachers’ student-related notices focused on describing students; their needs, individual characteristics and the qualities of behavior. It was characterized by four features describing: (1) student being, (2) student acting, (3) student support and (4) students’ learning settings. Instead, teachers’ content-related notices focused on the ways to implement the subject content in practical teaching actions. It was characterized by four different notices of the content (1) aims (2) demands, (3) methods, and (4) outcomes. The 2nd research task identified five different combinations of teachers’ student- and content related notices through different teaching actions in each episode. The combinations were characterized by: (i) providing emotional support for enhancing students’ on-task behaving, (ii) recognizing students’ different positions to confront the learning aim and work with it, (iii) exploiting interaction as a tool for making instructional decisions for actions, (iv) applying individualized content treatment for responding students’ learning demands and (v) emphasizing the diversity in teaching methods for students’ effective studying behavior. The findings confirm the multidimensional nature of teachers’ practical knowledge involving delicate interplays between social and intellectual features of teaching and student learning. The results help us better understand how pedagogical and didactical solutions go hand in hand and support each other in teaching practice. This study also makes suggestions for the interplay between teachers’ reflections and practical actions. Additionally this awareness stimulates the interest to continue examining how the different knowledge combinations during teaching action sequences have an effect on teachers’ ability to impact effectively on students’ learning activities.

References

Ball, D.L., Thames, M. H. & Phelps, G. (2008). Content Knowledge for Teaching: What Makes It Special? Journal of Teacher Education, 59(5), 389-407. doi: 10.1177/0022487108324554 Gitomer, D. H. & Zisk, R. C. (2015). Knowing what teachers know. Review of Research in Education (39), 1-53. doi: 10.3102/0091732X14557001 Lampert, M. (2001). Teaching problems and the problems of teaching, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Lampert, M. (2010). Learning Teaching in, from, and for Practice: What Do We Mean? Journal of Teacher Education, 61(1-2) 21–34. doi: 10.1177/0022487109347321 Mena, J., García, M., Clarke, A. & Barkatsas, A. (2015): An analysis of three different approaches to student teacher mentoring and their impact on knowledge generation in practicum settings. European Journal of Teacher Education. doi: 10.1080/02619768.2015.1011269 Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M. & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook (3rd). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Author Information

Iina Männikkö (presenting / submitting)

University of Turku

Department of Teacher Education

Järvenpää

Jukka Husu

University of Turku, Finland

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