Unlocking the Knowledge in Action of an Expert Practitioner

Abstract

A century ago, John Dewey alerted the teaching profession to the need for interventions in the learning-to-teach processes that foster the development of student teachers' knowledge-inaction. Dewey suggested that student teachers should be involved in reflective inquiry to develop an understanding of what takes place when learning actually occurs. He believed the observation of the teaching practice of others vital for student teachers' professional development. Such observation, however, should be tempered with the view to recognizing how the minds of the teacher and students interact (Dewey, 1904/1974c). Observation alone has a danger of focusing only on observable classroom behaviors. Student teachers may limit their practices to imitating or cloning, devoid of insight and initiative. They may lack understanding of the educational principles guiding effective teaching practice. Dewey argued that students with access to the thinking and pedagogical goals underlying observable teaching behaviors will utilize their knowledge of content and educational and psychological principles to become more knowing. Becoming more knowing requires that students make judgments and decisions about teaching practice. Rather than imitating or cloning, students would be engaged in intelligent action (Dewey, 1904/1974c). Dewey called for closer attention to the process of learning to teach, the essential relations between theory and practice, and the ways in which student teachers could develop the knowing of effective classroom teaching (1904/1974c). Learning to teach effectively requires that student teachers access the minds, not only the observable behaviors, of effective teachers. How best to prepare individuals for the complex and multifaceted profession of teaching continues to challenge those concerned with preservice teacher education. Student teachers, during the learning-to-teach process, participate in two distinct learning contexts. On-campus university classes involve students in the study of educational theory, curriculum design and development, psychology of learning, and teaching strategies and classroom management. During school-based practicum experiences, student teachers observe and practice various teaching approaches, skills, and techniques. Despite the commitment of teacher education institutions to providing effective preservice programs, research all too often reveals that student teachers engage in apprenticeship practica where they model teaching practice on the observable behaviors of supervising teachers. Only tenuous links exist between beginning teachers' theoretical and procedural knowledge of teaching. As student teachers gain more classroom experience during practicum, they often fail to build on the learning and understandings from their on-campus university classes. Instead, they perceive that much of the formal on-campus course work appears irrelevant when viewed from the perspective of classroom practice (Bromme & Tillema, 1995; Russell, 1987, 1988, 1989). Practicum experiences result typically in student teachers being left to intuit the pedagogical principles underlying effective classroom practice. One way to reconcile the dilemma of the theory-practice nexus is to examine and make explicit the typically tacit understandings of both beginning and expert teachers. The intervention we describe in this article brought together the stimulated recall of an expert teacher's thinking and the collegial reflections of a group of student teachers. We report one stage of a qualitative study involving the development, implementation, and evaluation of a cognitive intervention in preservice teacher education. The larger study comprised a yearlong program of interactive workshops conducted with nine preservice student teachers enrolled in a 1-year graduate diploma of education course at an urban university in Australia. The underlying goal of the program was to assist student teachers in reconciling the theoretical and practical knowledge of teaching. …

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