The Teacher`s Roles - Alternation Between Different Teacher Positions In Didactic Practices

Author(s):

Vigdis Vangsnes(presenting / submitting)Nils Tore Økland

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 02 C, Teacher's Role, Experience and Knowledge

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-22

15:15-16:45

Room:

K3.06

Chair:

Georg Breidenstein

Contribution

The aim of this study is to develop our understanding of the teacher`s roles in didactic practices. This is a follow-up study of previous qualitative studies, based on the use of computer-games in Norwegian kindergartens and in which three main categories of teacher- roles were suggested: The directing teacher who conveys knowledge, the supportive teacher who guides and scaffolds, and the distal teacher who leaves the responsibility for the learning process to the children (Vangsnes, Krumsvik & Økland 2012, Vangsnes & Økland 2015). In this study, based on a broader data material from school classrooms where learning is facilitated by process drama and dramatization we want to elaborate the characteristics of the teacher roles and examine the role concepts as an analytical entrance to understanding teacher practice. Our research questions are: 1) What characterizes the three teacher-roles when explorative teaching strategies are used in school classrooms? 2) What is the connection between the teacher`s didactic intention and choice of teacher-role?

In our analysis, we apply a phenomenological hermeneutical approach where dramaturgy and didactics constitute our theoretical and analytical positions.

Dramaturgy can be a helpful tool for planning and performing didactics. This is so because dramaturgy has a framework and theories for describing and analysing actions performed by someone in time and space. These actions can be fictional, as in traditional theatre and drama in education, or the actions can be non-fictional, as in everyday activities. But, as Goffman has pointed out, we play different roles even in daily life and activities. Taking this perspective, it means that educators can get assistance from dramaturgic concepts and theories when planning, performing and evaluating structure, form and content of education. Dramaturgy operates, for instance, by describing different models for how to build and analyse actions in time and space. In staged rehearsal rooms, complex relations can be made the subject of investigation and student teachers can be trained in acting in a reflective and competent manner. This discursive universe can thus establish a resonance for interpretation and understanding and might also respond to the changes in media ecology that have important implications for education.

Our data-material consists of field-observations in classrooms, interviews and planning documents and the study is based on more than seven years of research, undergoing critical responses by peers.

Our main findings reveal the diversity and characteristics of the three teacher roles as well as the teacher`s alternation between the roles. The characteristic features of each teacher role are specified in relation to three aspects of the teacher role: a) teacher`s positioning, b) teacher`s academic presentation and c) teacher`s interaction and communication.

By clarifying the content of the three teacher roles, we want to contribute to reflection on teacher education and teacher practice. Conceptualizing the three teacher-roles may be an analytical instrument that can contribute to the development of the discourse on teaching professionalism

Method

In order to answer the research questions we have conducted field observations of six process dramas and one dramatization led by pre-service teachers and two focus group interviews with the students who carried out the teaching. Our empirical field is one initial teacher education program (4 years) and six primary schools. The informants are about fifty pre-service teachers (ten groups) and the students were from 1th – 8th grade. At our university college, we have tried out organizing teacher training as a Rehearsal Room, a framework for structuring teacher education, connecting university and primary school practice, built on repetetive rehearsals including role taking and simulations. Our aim has been to make a room for polyphonic rehearsals and exercises in order to explore subjects, pedagogical themes and media in didactics. We have collected data from the 6 phases of the Rehearsal Room, described as a learning trajectory, containing different teacher education activities. The data presented in this paper are extracted from the phase called Enactment in classrooms. The Rehearsal Room In our final analysis we have taken a phenomenologic- hermeneutic approach where theories about dramaturgy and didactics have been our theoretical fulcrum for analysis. We have analyzed classroom situations where the teachers have different didactic approaches and choose different positions in their interaction with the students. By analyzing three aspects of teacher practice, a) the teacher`s positioning, b) the teacher`s academic presentation and c) the teacher`s interaction and communication we focus on what is the intention of and what characterizes the directing, the supportive and the distal teacher roles.

Expected Outcomes

We find that when looking at the aspect the teacher`s positioning, there are clear differences between the directing, the supportive and the distal teacher role as far as the intention of the teaching is concerned. When choosing the directing teacher role, the intention is to be the engine of the learning process. The teacher positions himself in the centre, and his role becomes the main-character. By choosing a supportive teacher role, the intention of the teacher seems to be to open up for the students to be the engine of the learning process. In the distal teacher role, the intention seems to be to withdraw from active participation and let the students in interaction with the learning medium be the engine of the learning process. Looking at the teacher`s academic presentation, the intention of the directing teacher role seems to be to establish a common focus on what the teacher has selected as the academic content as well as to motivate by arousing and appealing to the students` emotions and intellect. When the teacher chooses a supportive teacher role the intention is to stimulate the students to take responsibility for the learning process. In the distal teacher role it the intention is to develop the students` own academic responsibility and motivate the students` autonomy in the learning process. Looking at the teacher`s interaction and communication, we find that in the directing teacher role the teacher chooses a monological form in order to obtain academic progress and relevance. Choosing a supportive teacher role, the intention of the teacher`s communication seems to be to stimulate for student perspectives and student actions and involvement. In the distal teacher role, the teacher wants to stimulate the students` independence in the learning process, but often in cooperation with each other and different learning media.

References

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Author Information

Vigdis Vangsnes (presenting / submitting)

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

Dept. of education and cultural studies

Stord

Nils Tore Økland

Stord/Haugesund University College

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