Session Information
10 SES 08 C, Paradigms, Agency and Knowledge
Paper Session
Contribution
Internationally there has been a recent resurgence of interest in teacher education models based on evidence-based teaching. These models take a variety of forms. They include: clinical models of teacher education (Alter & Coggeshall 2009; Grossman 2010; NCATE 2010; Burn & Mutton 2013; Conroy, Hulme & Menter 2013; McLean-Davies et al 2013; DfE 2015a).; instructional rounds (City et al 2009) and teacher rounds (Del Prete 2013); and professional learning communities (PLCs) (e.g. Stoll et al 2006). There is also increasing interest in translational research in teaching in schools, exploring how educational research findings can be translated into practice.
At the same time there has been an international increase in research and theorisation of teachers’ agency in relation to professional learning, particularly across Europe (e.g Sannino 2010; Reeves & I’Anson 2014; Pyhältö, Pietarinen & Soini 2015; Toom, Pyhältö & Rust 2015). Questions can be asked about the relationship between evidence-based teaching and teachers’ agency, both in terms of the nature and scope of professional learning and in terms of the authority that teachers have within systems of schooling.
Some commentators have argued that evidence-based teaching provides an important opportunity for teachers to exercise agency and enhance their authority (Goldacre 2013). However, at the same time dissenting voices have critiqued professional development models such as instructional rounds and PLCs for focusing too narrowly on the efficient implementation of prescribed teaching techniques rather than broader social questions about schools and schooling (Servage, 2008, 2009: Bottery 2003). Others have criticised evidence based-practice, including evidence-based teaching, for obscuring the ideological nature of decisions about social practices like teaching behind an illusion of neutrality (Kirmayer 2012; Lee, Fitzpatrick & Baik 2013; Biesta 2010). Such critiques also suggest that, rather than serving as an affordance for teachers’ agency, evidence-based teaching could provide a constraint. This debate, in part, turns on how we define evidence-based practice and what seems to be clear is that not everybody advocating evidence-based teaching is calling for the same thing.
This paper reports on research into initial teacher education (ITE) students’ conceptions of evidence-based teaching as they near the end of their ITE courses. The research reported here forms part of a larger project into students’ experiences and understandings of evidence-based teaching in ITE.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Alter, J. and Coggshall, J.G. (2009) Teaching as a Clinical Profession: Implications for Teacher Preparation and State Policy Biesta, G.J.J. (2010) Why ‘what works’ still won’t work: from evidence-based education to value-based education, Studies in the Philosophy of Education, 29, 491-503 Bottery, M. (2003) The leadership of learning communities in a culture of unhappiness, School Leadership and Management, 23 (2), 187-208 Burn, K and Mutton, T (2013) Review of ‘research-informed clinical practice’ in initial teacher education, BERA, City, E.A., Elmore, R.F., Fiarman, S.E, and Teitel, L. (2009) Instructional Rounds in Education; a network approach to improving teaching and learning, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Education Press Conroy, J., Hulme, M. and Menter, I. (2013) Developing a ‘clinical’ model for teacher education, Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy, 39 (5), 557-573 Del Prete, T. (2013) Teacher Rounds; A Guide to Collaborative Learning in and from Practice, Thousand Oaks: Corwin DfE (2015a) Carter Review of Initial Teacher Education, London: DfE Goldacre, B. (2013) Building Evidence into Education, retrieved from www.gov.uk/government/news/building-evidence-into-education Grossman, P. (2010) Learning to Practice: The Design of Clinical Experience in Teacher Preparation, retrieved from: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/Clinical_Experience_-_Pam_Grossman.pdf Kirmayer, L.J. (2012) Cultural competence and evidence-based practice in mental health: Epistemic communities and the politics of pluralism, Social Science and Medicine, 75, 249-256 Lee, H., Fitzpatrick, J.J. and Baik, S-Y (2013) Why isn’t evidence based practice improving healthcare for minorities in the United States? Applied Nursing Research, 26, 263-268 McLean Davies, L., Anderson, M., Deans, J., Dinham, S., Griffin, P., Kameniar, B.. Page, J., Reid, C., Rickards, F., Taylor, C. and Tyler, D. (2013) Masterly preparation: embedding clinical practice in a graduate pre-service teacher education programme, Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy, 39 (1), 93-106 NCATE (2010) Transforming Teacher Education through Clinical Practice: a national strategy to prepare effective teachers, Pyhältö, K., Pietarinen, J. and Soini, T. (2015) Teachers’ professional agency and learning – from adaption to active modification in the teacher community, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 21 (7), 811-830 Servage, L. (2008) Critical and transformative practices in professional learning communities, Teacher Education Quarterly, Winter 2008, 63-77 Stoll , L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M. and Thomas, S. (2006) Professional learning communities: a review of the literature, Journal of Educational Change, 7, 221-258
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