Teaching, between myths and research

Author(s):

Giorgio Ostinelli(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 02 A, Teacher’s Competence for the Quality of Education

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-13

15:15-16:45

Room:

J 23/16,G, 20

Chair:

Antonio Medina

Contribution

Everyone of us acts on the basis of her or his proper beliefs (Hofer, 2002). These can be based either on sound or weak arguments as much as on emotional, affective reasons (Pehkonen & Pietilä, 2003; Pajares, 1992): all of them can be basically individual or mainly collective in their nature. This mix of factors and their reciprocal interaction plays a key role in originating a number of widespread myths along with some well-founded ideas commonly trusted in the school.

At present, being a teacher is becoming a more and more demanding and complex task (Darling-Hammond, 2009; Ostinelli, 2009). In this framework, a professionalism grounded firmly on scientific knowledge can be more successful in dealing with educational issues than one based mostly on intuitive beliefs (Hargreaves, 2007). This argument suggests that the scientific foundation of teaching is a key component of quality in schools. Nevertheless, it is also commonly known that the effects of educational research on actual teaching in classrooms are rather limited (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1996 ; Tyack & Cuban, 1995 ; Berry & Bourisaw, 1996 ; Hess, 1998; Kaestle, 1993) .

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare between themselves the actual beliefs and practices of some secondary teachers working in different countries, including Switzerland, Italy, Finland, Canada and Mexico, and to verify to which extent they match (or don't) some well-known conclusions reached during the years by educational research. Moreover, some aspects of the teachers’ daily practice in school will also be investigated, in order to better understand how teachers’ beliefs are connected with their actual teaching, and how educational research is (or isn’t) translated into practice in different contexts. The results, coming from a pool of “average” secondary schools (neither excellent, nor dreadful), will also be compared with the performances obtained by their respective school systems in international tests, like PISA.

Method

The inquiry, at present at the end of its project stage and starting with its implementation, will be done through the administration to the teachers of some secondary schools located in different countries (Switzerland, Italy, Finland, Canada and Mexico) of an on-line questionnaire translated in their respective languages. It includes some items asking the teachers about their knowledge and use of some well-known methodologies (e.g.: formative evaluation, cooperative learning, scaffolding) and their agreement on a number of statements – representing either some myths or some more checked assertions, sustained by research evidence – like for instance “Flunking a weak pupil can be beneficial to his/her learning”. A statistical analysis of the resulting data will be performed.

Expected Outcomes

The first query is if teachers, while teaching inside their classroom, rely mainly on sound methodologies or perform more intuitive and less research-based approaches. The expectation is that, even in countries like Finland or Canada – where there is notoriously a stronger link between research and teaching, if compared for instance with Italy or Mexico – the use of more scientifically based approaches to teaching is still somewhat limited. It will however be interesting to know which among the stated methodologies are more widespread. The second main question is about teachers’ beliefs. It is likely that some myths are quite deep-rooted in school culture, and are therefore particularly hard to overcome, even in the more advanced school systems. Here, too, it will be interesting to know which are the more “popular” beliefs. The main interest of this inquiry is obviously the comparison between schools pertaining to different countries. This can be useful in highlighting the effects of educational research on everyday practice inside the classroom in different contexts. Moreover, taking in account each country’s policies in this field, it is possible to obtain some useful indications for a better implementation of research findings inside daily teaching practices.

References

Berry, S., Bourisaw, D. (1996) From Dinosaurs to Decision-making. Thrust for Educational Leadership. 5, 22, 3. Darling-Hammond, L. (2009): Teaching and the Change Wars: The Professionalism Hypothesis. In A. Hargreaves, M. Fullan (Eds.) Change Wars. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Fullan, M., Hargreaves, A. (1996) What’s Worth Fighting for in Your School. (New York: Teachers College Press) Hargreaves, D. (2007) Teaching as a Research-based Profession: Possibilities and Prospects. In M. Hammersley (Ed.) Educational Research and Evidence-based Practice. London: Sage Hofer, B. (2002) Personal Epistemology as a Psychological and Educational Construct: An Introduction. In B. Hofer, P. Pintrich (Eds.) Personal Epistemology: The Psychology of Beliefs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Kaestle, C. (1993) The Awful Reputation of Educational Research. Educational Researcher, 22, 1, 23-31 Ostinelli, G. (2009) Teacher Education in Italy, Germany, England, Sweden and Finland. European Journal of Education, 44, 2, 291-308 Pajares, F. (1992) Teachers’ Beliefs and Educational Research: Cleaning Up a Messy Construct. Review of Educational Research, 62, 3, p. 307-332 Pekhonen, E., Pietilä, A. (2003) On Relationships between Beliefs and Knowledge in Mathematics Education. European Research in Mathematics Education, III, p. 1-6 Tyack, D., Cuban, L. (1995) Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press)

Author Information

Giorgio Ostinelli (presenting / submitting)

University of Bologna - DFP Breganzona (Switzerland)

Genestrerio

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