Critical Aspects of Critical Events in Teacher Students’ Learning to Teach

Author(s):

Kyriaki Doumas(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 06 A, Professional Identity & Teacher Identity: Motivations

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

15:30-17:00

Room:

K5.18

Chair:

Marianne Maugesten

Contribution

Aim and purposes

It is important to try to clarify critical aspects of competence in teaching to develop the understanding of and to improve teaching and education. The education of teachers is strategic in reaching such clarification and improvement.

This study investigates critical aspects of competence in teaching and learning to teach as experienced by teacher students in practice parts of teacher education. The focus is on what teacher students experience as critical in critical events occurring during their teaching practice, and if and how they focus on the relation between teaching and pupil learning, critical from a theoretical educational perspective. The question focused is what those experiences of the events tell about the students’ teaching competence and their learning to teach, and about teaching competence in principle and more generally.

Theoretical framework

A research orientation inspiring the present project and focusing on critical aspects of teaching and learning is phenomenography (Svensson 2016). This research tradition has been focusing on pupils understanding of subject matter, what are critical aspects of subject matter, and teachers’ way of dealing with critical aspects of subject matter. Teaching has been especially in focus in what has been called ‘learning studies’ focusing on necessary conditions for pupils’ learning of well defined subject matter content (Marton & Tsui, 2004; Marton, 2014). This research is focusing on critical differences in the presentation of and the understanding of subject matter.

It is important to, in combination with a focus on subject matter presentation and understanding, also consider other qualities of the support of learning and of learning. Teachers’ and pupils’ approach to and understanding of subject matter forms part of a context involving more aspects than only subject matter and knowledge aspects. Such aspects are ethical, moral, affective, emotional, interest, engagement and more aspects. Even if different investigations are restricted to focusing some aspects one has to consider how those form part of a bigger context ((Dash, 2009; Doumas, 2011).

In recent research on teaching it is common to talk about events and critical events (Akinbode, 2013; Bruster & Peterson, 2013; Longfield, 2009; Woods, 1993). The investigation suggested here builds on the idea that investigating critical events is a specially relevant and fruitful way to clarify teacher competence and learning to teach.

Method

Methodology The methodology is case based contextual analysis (Svensson & Doumas 2013) where student teachers’ experiences of critical events in teaching are the cases analyzed and compared. Four groups of four teacher students in each, preschool, leisure, literature and physics teacher students, participated in the research. During a period of their last teaching practice the students wrote narratives about critical events in their teaching sessions. Reflecting and focus interviews about the described critical events followed. The general approach to the analysis of the material was contextual analysis. Each case, event, was analyzed to find what constitutes main parts and aspects of the event. The focus was to find out what characterizes the events and if they can be grouped in some main types of events. The events from the four groups of teacher students were also compared to illuminate the eventual specific character of critical events and aspects of those for each group/program but also to find similarities across groups and programs.

Expected Outcomes

Preliminary results Three types of events were mainly identified through the analysis of critical events described by the teacher students: Gaining authority, Facing the tension between the intended and the enacted object of learning and Creating relational didactics. Fronesis as flexibility to act contextually and in situ as wells as courage to act anew and to take the risk of failure which relational didactics presupposes are considered to be main teaching competencies. Gaining authority concerns the effort of the teacher students to be accepted as professionals and as member of the teaching community by the in-service teachers and by their pupils as well as the familiarization to the school context. This is perceived as necessary base to succeed with their teaching. Facing the tension between the intended and the enacted object of learning concerns the gap between the predefined and manifested teaching and the dilemma which the teacher students face striving to meet the learning needs of specific pupils in specific classroom situations. Creating relational didactics concerns teacher students’ effort to create genuine relations of trust and respect to their pupils’ individuality and on this ground to activate pupils learning desire. The fragility of human relations is noticed as well as the frustration which this can sometimes imply. Above all, Fronesis is considered to be main teaching competence as the human condition is unpredictable and presupposes preparedness for action in-situ.

References

Akinbode, A. (2013). Teaching as Lived Experience: The value of exploring the hidden and emotional side of teaching through reflective narratives. Studying Teacher Education: A journal of self-study of teacher education practices, Vol 9(1), pp. 62-73. DOI: 10.1080/17425964.2013.771574 Bruster G., B. & Peterson R., B. (2013). Using critical incidents in teaching to promote reflective practice. Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Vol. 14(2), pp. 170-182, DOI: 10.1080/14623943.2012.732945 Dash, I. (2009). Flexibility in knowing school mathematics in the contexts of a Swedish and an Indian school class. Diss. Lunds universitet, Pedagogiska institutionen. Doumas, K. (2011). Students’ experiences and perceptions of good teaching practice. Diss. Lunds Universitet, Sociologiska institutionen, Avdelningen för Pedagogik. Longfield, J. (2009). Discrepant Teaching Events: Using an Inquiry Stance to Address Students’ Misconceptions. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Vol. 21(2), pp. 266-271. Marton, F. & Tsui, A. (2004). Classroom Discourse and the Space of Learning. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Marton, F. (2014). Necessary conditions of learning. NY: Routledge Svensson, L. & Doumas, K. (2013). Contextual and Analytic Qualities of Research Methods Exemplified in Research on Teaching. Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 19(6), pp 441-450. Svensson, L. (2016). Towards an integration of research on teaching and learning. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. Vol 60(3), pp. 272-285. Woods, P. (1993). Critical events in education. British Journal of Sociology of Education. Vol. 14(4) pp. 355-371.

Author Information

Kyriaki Doumas (presenting / submitting)

Linneus University

Lund

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