The University of the West Indies

Open Campus

Department of Educational
Studies

Bachelor of Education

EDTL1021
PLANNING FOR TEACHING

Course Writer:
Dr. Dian McCallum
Contents
List of Tables 4
List of Figures 6
Introduction to the Course 7
Unit 1- Sources of Knowledge about Teaching: Informal, Formal, and 8
Experiential
Overview 8
Objectives of Unit 9
Readings 9
Session 1.1 Informal Sources of Knowledge about Teaching 10
Session 1.2 Formal Sources of Knowledge about Teaching : Teacher 16
Education

Session 1.3 Experience as a Source of Knowledge about Teaching: 24

Teaching in Schools

Summary 31
References 32

Unit 2 – The Knowledge Base for Teaching: An Examination of 34

Shulman’s Framework
Overview 34
Readings 35
Session 2.1 The Knowledge Base for Teaching: Shulman’s Framework 36
Summary 51
References 52

Unit 3 – Teacher Planning: Rationale for Planning and Models of 53

Planning
Overview 53
Objectives of the Units 54
Readings 54
Session 3.1 Planning for Instruction: Rationale, Levels and Types of 55
Planning
Session 3.2 Planning for Instruction: An Examination of 75
Some Planning Models

Summary 96

2
References 98
Unit 4 – Teacher Planning II: The Instructional Planning Process and 101
Research on Teacher Planning
Overview 101
Objectives of the Unit 102
Readings 102
Session 4.1 Selecting Instructional Objectives 104
Session 4.2 Selecting Content, Teaching Methods and Student Activities 128
Session 4.3 Evaluation of Learning 145
Session 4.4 The Anatomy of the Unit and Lesson Plan 151
Session 4.5 Research on Teacher Planning 164
Summary 173
References 174
Appendix 178

Unit 5 – Planning for the Management of Teaching and Learning 181

Overview 181
Objectives of the Unit 182
Readings 183
Session 5.1 Exploring the Relationship between Planning for Teaching 185
and Learning and Classroom Management

Session 5.2 Establishing the Learning Environment, Classroom Rules 190

and Procedures

Session 5.3 Managing the Instructional Process and Student Behaviours 205
Session 5.4 Contemporary Challenges to the Management of Students’ 226
Behaviours in Schools and Classrooms
Summary 231
Conclusion 232
References 233

3
List of Tables
Table 1.1 (a) Activity 1.1(a) 14
Table 1.1 (b) Activity 1.1 (b) 15
Table 1.2 Activity 1.2 22
Table 1.3 Berliner’s Novice-Expert Stages 26
Table 1.4 The Six Stages of Teachers’ Development of Professional 28
Expertise

Table 1.5 Activity 1.3 31

Table 2.1 The Knowledge Base for Teaching 36
Table 2.2 Activity 2.1 40
Table 2.3 Categories of the Knowledge Base 41
Table 2.4 Activity 2.2 45
Table 2.5 Activity 2.3 47

Table 3.1 Activity 3.1 55

Table 3.2 Activity 3.2 62
Table 3.3 Activity 3.3 65
Table 3.4 Activity 3.4 73
Table 3.5 The Tyler Rationale: The Questions that Guide Curriculum 75
Planning
Table 3.6 Advances made by the Tyler’s 1949 Rationale 80
Table 3.7 Steps in Taba’s Theory 83
Table 3.8 Madeline Hunter’s Direct Instruction Model 84
Table 3.9 Activity 3.5 87
Table 3.10 Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction Associated with the Internal 89
Learning Processes they Support
Table 3.11 Activity 3.6 94
Table 4.1 Activity 4.1 107
Table 4.2 Activity 4.2 112
Table 4.3 Verbs Applicable to the Six Levels in the Cognitive Domain 116
Table 4.4 Activity 4.3 117
Table 4.5 Affective Traits 122
Table 4.6 Activity 4.4 123
Table 4.7 Descriptions of the Major Categories in the Psychomotor 125
Domain

4
List of Table Cont’d
Table 4.8 Activity 4.5 127
Table 4.9 Presentation/Direct Instructional Strategies 137
Table 4.10 Indirect Instructional Strategies 138
Table 4.11 Experiential/Action Strategies 139
Table 4.12 Interaction Strategies 140
Table 4.13 Types of Learning Activities 142
Table 4.14 Activity 4.6 143
Table 4.15 Activity 4.7 149
Table 4.16 Components of a Typical Unit Plan 152
Table 4.17 Activity 4.8 156
Table 4.18 Lesson Plan Template 159
Table 4.19 Activity 4.9 161
Table 4.20 Activity 4.10 164
Table 4.21 Activity 4.11 171
Table 5.1 Activity 5.1 189
Table 5.2 Activity 5.2 194
Table 5.3 Activity 5.3 200
Table 5.4 Activity 5.4 203
Table 5.5 (a) Activity 5.5 (a) 208
Table 5.5 (b) Activity 5.5 (b) 210
Table 5.5 (c) Activity 5.5 (c) 213
Table 5.6 Teacher Instructional Behaviours and their Meanings 215
Table 5.7 Activity 5.6 224
Table 5.8 Activity 5.7 225
Table 5.9 Activity 5.8 229
Table 5.10 Activity 5.9 230

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List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Pedagogical Reasoning Cycle 43

Figure 3.1 Types/Levels of Teacher Planning 73

Figure 3.2 The Linear Rational Model 76

Figure 3.3 Gagne’s Instructional Model 86
Figure 3.4 The Backward Design Model by Wiggin and McTighe 93
Figure 4.1 Why use Instructional Objectives? 112
Figure 4.2 Basic Seven Steps Planning Process 129
Figure 4.3 Diagrammatic Representation of the Teacher Planning 163
Process
Figure 5.1 Mrs Mutner’s Classroom Rules 200
Figure 5.2 Students and Teacher’s Classroom Behaviours 202
Figure 5.3 Components of Classroom Management 225

6
Introduction to the Course
This course, Planning for Teaching (EDTL1021) builds on and extends the work done
in Introduction to Teaching and Learning (EDTL1020) and continues your ongoing
engagement in the study of what teaching involves. The course is designed to
familiarise you with the knowledge base – the essential knowledge, skills and
attributes – which teachers are expected to acquire in order to become accomplished
and effective classroom practitioners. A main goal of this course is to facilitate an
understanding of teaching as a professional activity moreso in terms of performing
one of the most central function of teaching – planning. The course therefore
contributes to the acquisition and development of that knowledge base which
underpins your preparation and practice as a teacher.

On completing this course you should be able to:

1) Explain the different sources from which knowledge about teaching is
acquired
2) Analyze the knowledge base for teaching as conceptualized by Lee Shulman
3) Analyze the stages in the pedagogical reasoning process
4) Explain the rationale for and the different levels/types of teacher planning
5) Analyse the instructional planning process
6) Relate the research on teacher planning to classroom practice
7) Examine the relationship between classroom instruction and classroom
management
8) Examine the meaning of and rationale for establishing classroom environment
and for establishing classroom rules and procedures and their contribution to
the effective management of classrooms
9) Examine the behaviours exhibited by teachers in the management of
instruction and students’ behaviours
10) Assess the historic and contemporary challenges posed by students’
behaviours to the effective management of schools and classrooms
11) Relate theory to specific classroom practice through case study analysis and
classroom based enquiry
12) Engage in the documentation of personal reflections and professional learning
using a reflective journal and teacher portfolio.

7
 Unit 1
Sources of Knowledge about Teaching: Informal, Formal
and Experiential

Overview
In a previous course, Introduction to Teaching and Learning, you were introduced to
the idea of developing a philosophy of teaching statement that would capture your
beliefs and feelings about what teaching is and the type of teacher you would like to
be or thought you were depending on whether or not you were already involved in
this occupational activity. You would have learnt that your philosophy of teaching is
intimately related to the experiences you had as a student in school as well as other
life experiences which cumulatively contributed to the formation of your personal
identity and thus your identity as a teacher.

In this unit you will come to appreciate the importance of surfacing your philosophy
of teaching as it is a vital piece of evidence of the influence of your school and
general life experiences in shaping your views of teaching and by extension how you
teach. Through this unit you will gain some insight into how your experiences as
students in schools are recognized as one vital source of knowledge about teaching
which very often serve as a filter through which you acquire additional information
about teaching from other sources, in particular through formal sources such as
teacher education. Teaching experience, another source of knowledge about teaching
is believed to serve as reinforcement of knowledge acquired as a student in school.

By the end of this unit, it is expected that you would have gained an understanding of
the various sources through which you acquire knowledge about teaching and to
recognize how these shape and thus influence the views or philosophy you hold about
teaching. It should be evident then, that the personal philosophies we hold about
teaching, as about any other facet of life, can change and/or expand as we accumulate
additional knowledge about that phenomenon, in our case teaching. One important
point to note however is that we usually replace existing views or beliefs only when
the alternative seems to be credible and viable.

8
Objectives of Unit

Explain the different sources of knowledge about teaching

Outline the chief strengths and/or limitations of the different sources of
knowledge about teaching

Assess the measures introduced in the reforms of teacher education to improve
preparation of prospective teachers

Evaluate the role of experience in learning to teach

Readings
Evans, H. (2000). Learning to teach, learning from teaching, In Brown, M. M. (Ed),
Dimensions of teaching and learning: The Caribbean experience. (pp.3-28).
Kingston, Jamaica: Institute of Education, The University of the West Indies,
Mona.

Knowles, J. G., Cole, A., with Presswood, C. S. (1994). Through preservice teachers’
eyes: Exploring field experiences through narrative and inquiry. Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey: Merrill. (Chapter. 2)

Marland, P. (2001). Teachers’ practical theories: Implications for teacher

development, In Y. C. CHENG, K. W. CHOW, and K. T. TSUI, K. T.
Teaching effectiveness and teacher development: Towards a new knowledge
base. (pp.165 – 181). Kluwer Academic Publishers: The Hong Kong Institute
of Education.

Posner, G. J. (2000). Field experience: A guide to reflective teaching (5th ed) New
York: Longman.

Moon, J. (2001). Learning through reflection, In F. Banks and A. Shelton Mayes

(Eds), Early professional development, (pp.364 – 378). London: David Fulton
Publishers.

9
Session 1.1
Informal sources of knowledge about teaching: Early Socialization
Experiences

Objective of this session

Explain how early socialization experiences influences

personal knowledge and theories about teaching

Learning about teaching and what it involves does not begin within the context of a
formal teacher education programme. Though this is where prospective teachers are
introduced formally to the knowledge required for teaching, knowledge about
teaching no matter how ill-defined is acquired from early socialization experiences.
These experiences are gained primarily through schooling where students learn about
teaching through observation. This early observation of teaching is described as the
apprenticeship of observation by Lortie (1975) who states that “There are ways in
which being a student is like serving an apprenticeship in teaching” (p.61). He draws
to attention the fact that students who become teachers have had a long period of
contact with teachers “normally sixteen continuous years” and that students “see
teachers at work much more than they see any other occupational group.” Thus,
according to Lortie, students would have “spent 13,000 hours in direct contact with
classroom teachers” (p.61), by the time they graduate.

While students might be in close interaction with teachers and are learning about
teaching, there are as Lortie explains:
…important limits on the extent to which being a student is like serving an
apprenticeship for teaching. First, the student sees the teacher from a specific
vantage point; second, the student’s participation is usually imaginary rather
than real. The student is the ‘target’ of teacher efforts and sees the teacher
front stage and center like an audience viewing a play. Students do not receive
invitations to watch the teacher’s performance from the wing; they are not
privy to the teacher’s private intention and personal reflections on classroom
events. Students rarely participate in selecting goals, making preparations, or

10
 post mortem analyses. Thus they are not pressed to place the teacher’s action
in a pedagogically oriented framework. They are witnesses from their own
student-oriented perspectives (Lortie, 1975, p. 62).

From the extract above we can make two main inferences. The first is that being in
the presence of teachers, students invariably pick up ideas about what teaching
involves and can imitate teachers as a result of this. The second point is that not
having an insider’s understanding of what background knowledge and preparation
teachers bring to their lessons, students will form the view that teaching is what they
see. In essence, they have no pedagogical framework with which to assess teaching
and to know what planning and preparatory activities teachers engage in before
enacting their lessons.

Other writers have commented on the ‘apprenticeship of observation’ phenomenon as

described by Lortie and have produced empirical evidence to support the view that
prospective teachers do learn informally about teaching from observation and that
these years of observation forms the basis of the belief system they develop about
teaching which is difficult to change. Knowles and Holt-Reynolds (1991) for instance
comment that the “apprenticeship of observation” makes the preparation of teachers
different from the preparation of professionals in other fields because unlike those
who choose to become teachers

Lawyers, architects, physicians, and others have not been immersed in their
future professions before they enter professional schools. For the most part
they have little or no personal history with reference to these professions to
bring to their formal study (p.88).

Unlike these professionals, prospective teachers already have conceptions about

teaching formed over a longer period of time than the number of years they spend in
teacher preparation. As Knowles and Holt-Reynolds contend these beliefs that student
teachers take with them to teacher education are “difficult to inform or enlarge”
(1991, p.88). They note too that student teachers “rely on and trust as models,
significant prior experiences as school students” using them “as a backdrop against
which to think about and evaluate the practical potential of ideas they encounter in

11
course work. These memories act as one filter by which preservice teachers’ judge the
worth of new experiences, theories, and practices as these are presented to them
(Knowles and Holt-Reynolds, 1991, p.90).

Knowles and Holt-Reynolds cited the case of a teacher, Hilda, in their teacher
education programme who abandoned a teaching method she had been taught about in
the programme when she felt it was unworkable. In explaining her actions in her
student teaching experience Hilda noted:

You [in reference to her professors] had wanted us to experiment with

different ways of doing lessons. I did that but could not pull off the lessons as
I thought I should have done…because it did not seem right to me, I decided
that teaching noisy, discovery, and cooperative learning lessons were not for
me. I don’t want to teach that way. It’s not the way I learned… (Knowles and
Holt-Reynolds, 1991, p.97).

In commenting on this, the writers stated:

Hilda changed her plans midstream and discarded the practices she had
prepared. She suddenly decided that discovery and cooperative learning were
inappropriate for teaching math. In the process of justifying her stance, she
‘peeled off’ the more recently encountered fragile, theoretical positions and
practices that she had learned at the university and had been encouraged to
pursue, trying instead some tried and tested teaching methods with which she
completed the unit. While she continued with the presentation of the same
subject matter, her methods became those of her ‘favourite math teacher’ –
everyday routinization of lecture, guidance while students practiced
computations, further individual practice, assignment of homework, and a
period of time before the bell sounded for students to begin their homework
(Knowles and Holt-Reynolds, 1991, p. 97).

The work of Knowles and Holt-Reynolds in highlighting the salience of early

experiences as an informal source of knowledge about teaching echoes in the writing
of Richardson (1996) who reaffirms that preservice teachers enter teacher education

12
programmes with “strong or perhaps central beliefs… about teaching, learning,
subject matter and students. They hold images of teachers, both negative and positive,
formed during their experiences as students” (p.113). Marland (2001) adds to this
general consensus on the role of early socialization experiences in the development of
teachers’ professional knowledge by stating that there is:
… a growing realization that teachers place little reliance on researchers and
the research enterprise for knowledge about how to teach, but instead draw
heavily on another fund of knowledge which remain largely private and tacit.
This other fund of knowledge is derived in large measure from their own
experiences as teachers but also from their own life experiences. It has been
referred to, variously, as working knowledge…craft knowledge… or practical
knowledge (pp. 166-167).
Finally, in our examination of the contribution of informal sources to knowledge
about teaching, an anecdote from an unknown author cited by Hammerness, Darling-
Hammond, and Bransford (2005), illustrates the limitations of learning from
observation alone:
Amy had learned to cook delicious ham dinners by watching her grandmother.
For the grandmother’s 85th, birthday, Amy cooked a ham “just like
grandmother used to make” and the grandmother stood by proudly to watch.
One of the secrets that Amy had observed was that her grandmother always
cut off a rather large piece of the end of the ham before cooking it. Amy had
explained to her children that this allowed the juices to simmer in a very
special way. As the grandmother watched her granddaughter slice off the end
of the ham, she asked, “Why did you cut off the end of the ham, Amy”? Amy
replied, “Because you always did it, grandmother, and your hams were
always the best.” The grandmother smiles and explained, “I did it to fit the
ham into my oven – it was much smaller than yours”! (Hammerness, K.,
Darling-Hammond, L., Bransford, J., with Berliner, D., Cochran-Smith, M.,
McDonald, M., Zeichner, K., 2005, P.367).

From our discussion in this section of the unit, it is evident that teachers’ own
personal theories built up from experiences cannot be discounted even where these
theories about teaching might consist of misconceptions. The question is then, what
role does teacher education play in the development of the knowledge base for

13
teaching if the influence of early experiences and later the experiences gained from
teaching in classrooms are so powerful?

Table 1.1 (a) Activity 1.1 (a)

Reading Task
1.Read the first section (to the end of section on pre-training) of Evans article and
respond to the following:

Why do you think the experienced teachers in her study failed to acknowledge
the contribution of teacher preparation to how they learnt to teach?

How useful is the Learning-to-Teach continuum presented by Evans to your
understanding of the different phases involved in the process of becoming a
teacher? Without this information what possible sources of knowledge about
teaching would you have identified as contributing to the process of learning
to teach?

What is the nature of some of the views that student teachers hold about
teaching prior to entry into teacher education? (college/university) and why
might this knowledge hinder how they learn about teaching?
2. Read through the chapter by Posner (2000) and follow the activities provided to
help you discover where personal perspectives come from. How useful are the
activities in helping you to surface your deeply and tacitly held views about teaching
and why is it important to do this especially in the context of teacher education?

14
Table 1.1 (b) Activity 1.1 (b)

Reading Task
A. In doing this activity read the article by Perc Marland (2001) ‘Teachers’
Practical Theories: Implications for Teacher Development’ and respond to the
following:
 Explain what you understand by Marland’s observation that
researchers have come to the realization that teachers place little
reliance on researchers and the research enterprise for knowledge
about teaching.
 How has he defined practical theories, what are their components and
what strategies have researchers used to gain access to teachers’
practical theories
 What are the implications of personal theories for teachers’
development?

B. In reviewing the discussion on the informal sources of knowledge for teaching

and Marland’s discussion of practical theories, outline the role that experience
of schooling plays in shaping what prospective teachers believe about teaching
and state why this source of learning about teaching seems to be so influential.
C. Reflect on your own experiences of schooling and consider if any of the views
or personal theories you hold about teaching can be traced to the teaching
styles of a past teacher. State briefly what your personal theories of teaching
are.
D. What are the shortcomings of the informal sources of knowledge about
teaching? Consider the anecdote about Amy.

15
Session 1.2
Formal sources of knowledge about teaching: Teacher
education

Objectives of this Session

• Assess the contribution of teacher education in the process of
learning to teach
• Assess the strengths and limitations of teacher education as a source
of knowledge about teaching
• Assess the measures in traduced in the reform of teacher education to
improve the preparation of prospective teachers

The formal process of learning to teach takes place within the confines of teacher
education preparation programmes where prospective teachers are introduced to
foundational courses such as educational psychology, sociology of education and
philosophy and/or history of education which underpin the study of teaching. In
addition to these aspects of the teacher education curriculum, courses in subject
specific pedagogy are also taught so as to provide instruction in the teaching of say
Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, Social Studies, English
Language/Literature to name the more traditional subject areas. These foundational
and subject specific or other general courses which focus on how to teach are usually
classified as the theory of education. Another major component of the formal learning
to teach phase is the supervised practicum or field experience which provides the
opportunity to practice theory in ‘real’ classrooms. This component is generally
described as the practice of education.

The components of teacher education as outlined above represents a very generalized

picture of what obtains in teacher education as such programmes vary in their lengths
in particular, the amount of time dedicated to field experiences and in the scope of
their curriculum in terms of how studies of academic and professional education
courses are organized. For example, at the University of the West Indies, Mona
Campus, there are three distinct types of teacher education programmes. There are

16
two Bachelor of Education programmes which combine academic study of subject
discipline with professional education courses. Teachers in the two-year programme
are college graduates and their practicum component which lasts for a period of six
weeks and takes place in the first semester of the final year, is regarded as a form of
professional development than as practice teaching in the literal sense of the word.

In the three years programme, student teachers are provided with early field
experiences through classroom observation in their first year and a period of
supervised practice in their second and third year. In both instances, their professional
experience/classroom practicum last for six weeks. The post graduate diploma in
education programme, (now embedded in the Master of Arts in Teaching – MAT –
Programme) is designed for graduates with a first degree in a content area. This
means that their course of study focuses on professional education courses related to
their academic disciplines and foundation courses with a supervised practicum
traditionally lasting for six weeks, but now expanded to cover ten weeks, in the
second semester of the programme.

At the college level in Jamaica, teacher preparation takes place within the context of a
three years Diploma Programme and according to Evans (2000) consists of “(1)
subject matter courses, (2) methods of teaching subject matter, (3) theory of
foundations courses taught in the subject education, and (4) field experiences,
including early field experiences and student teaching” (p.9). Learning about teaching
is not confined to the formal programme of study in a teacher education programme
for learning about teaching also takes place informally through other sources. Thus, as
Evans (2000) pointed out:
…we should not ignore the effects of the institutional culture of the college, of
students’ participation in college life, the efforts to enhance their personal
development and their sense of self. Each of these segments represents a
distinct occasion for learning to teach (Evans, 2000, p.9).

In the Eastern Caribbean there is a variation in the duration of the teacher education
programmes with colleges offering a one-year diploma course for teachers with an
undergraduate degree while those without a degree enrol in a two-year certificate

17
programme. This two-year programme has been “upgraded to an Associate Degree in
education for both primary and secondary practitioners” (Griffith, 2004, p.58).

Teacher education shows a similar variation in other countries. For example, in the
United States of America most teachers as Feiman-Nemser (2001) revealed, “enter
teaching through a 4-year undergraduate program that combines academic courses
and professional studies or a 5th-year program that focuses exclusively on professional
studies” (p.1019). She confirms too, the common nature of the curriculum of teacher
education programmes despite other variations. Thus she stated:
Academic requirements consist of arts and science courses including an
academic major. Professional preparation includes courses in educational
foundations and general and/or specific methods of teaching. Educational
psychology is a staple in educational foundations, but courses in philosophy or
history have been replaced with an ‘introduction to teaching’ course. All
programs require some supervised practice called student teaching (Feiman-
Nemser, 2001, p.1019).

In a general sense therefore teacher education programmes are designed to provide

two broad areas of experiences in learning to teach. One concerns the acquisition of
knowledge in the theory of education where principles of learning and teaching are
taught. Theory is taught as propositional knowledge which means knowledge of rules,
procedures or theories derived empirically from research. Methods courses which
explore a variety of ways in which learning experiences can be organized in terms of
the methods used for teaching, and the activities designed for students are also taught
to prospective teachers as propositional knowledge. The practice of education is
organized differently in many teacher education programmes.

In places such as the United States of America the concept of Professional

Development Schools (PDS) have evolved to provide the sites for prospective
teachers to learn how to teach. These schools have been described as:
…innovative institutions formed through partnerships between professional
education programs and P-12 [pre-school to grade 12] school. Their mission is
professional preparation of candidates, faculty development, inquiry directed
at the improvement of practice, and enhanced student learning.

18
 Professional development schools…are real schools, often in challenging
settings, which have been redesigned and restructured to support their
complex mission… (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education,
2001, p.1).

Another explanation of the role of PDS in the practical preparation of prospective

teachers provides further clarification on the nature of these schools. As Darling-
Hammond et al explains, the PDS represent:
One strategy that purposefully seeks to construct communities of practice and
a greater degree of coherence between university coursework and student
teaching experiences… The intentions of such schools are consistent with
learning theory that emphasizes inquiry about practice in learning
communities. In these sites, new teachers learn to teach alongside more
experienced teachers who plan and work together, and university-and school-
based faculty work collaboratively to design and implement learning
experiences for new and experienced teachers, as well as for students (Holmes
Group, 1990 cited in Darling-Hammond et al., 2005, p. 414).
Among the most noted features of Professional Development Schools are the
following:

More extensive experience within the school for prospective teachers

More frequent and sustained supervision and feedback

More collective planning and decision-making among teachers at the school as
well as among school-and university-based faculty

Participation in research and inquiry about teaching and teacher education by
novices, veteran teachers, and university faculty (Abdal-Haqq, 1998, pp.13-
14; Darling-Hammond, 1994, cited in Darling-Hammond et al., 2005, p.415).

A similar type of immersion in the practice of teaching takes place in England where
teacher education is offered as a post graduate certificate in education (PGCE). These
programmes are largely school-based and are thus offered on a partnership basis
between universities and schools. This arrangement provides for student teachers to
spend two-thirds of the time in schools with teachers playing a major administrative
and teaching role (Calderhead and Shorrock, 1997).

19
The emergence of Professional Development Schools in the United States and the
Partnership/Integrated/School-Based Model of Teacher Education which exists in
England are just two clear examples of reforms which have taken place in teacher
education programmes within the last decade of the twentieth century. The main
intention of these models was to increase the length of the practicum component
which is illustrative of the now widely accepted view that learning to teach requires
an integration of theory and practice rather than the theory first, practice later model
which characterized many programmes. The integration of theory and practice is
supported by research findings which suggest that “theoretical ideas are better grasped
when taught in context or illustrated in situations of practice” (Evans, 2000, p. 12).
According to Evans (2000) “These ideas have been applied to teacher education with
beneficial results” (p.12). At the same time however, teacher education programme
within the Caribbean context have not yet fully integrated the theory and practice
components of education. At about the time when these reforms were taking place
elsewhere, Evans noted that:
The approach to theory now evident in the programme in Jamaica teachers
colleges represents for the most part the applied social science view of theory.
The student teacher learns social science knowledge and later applies this
knowledge to teaching. As in many teacher education programmes, the theory
and practice are separate entities, and there is very little relationship between
the two. This structure may impede the ‘application’ or the potential benefit of
theory (1998, p.157).

Similarly, in describing the practical component of teacher education in the Eastern

Caribbean, Griffith (2004) observed that:
While research and developments in pedagogical practice have informed
changes in the methods courses offered in teachers’ colleges, there appears to
have been rather limited change to the format of the practicum over the last 40
years. Much of the research in Caribbean teacher education has tended to
focus primarily on programmatic issues such as: organizational models and
designs of teacher preparation, entry level qualifications, programme content,
and programme effectiveness… Very little attention seems to have been paid
to the practical teaching component (p.59).

20
This is in direct contrast to the reforms which have taken place in other teacher
education programmes outside the Caribbean. The starkness of the contrast is seen in
the description of the clinical experiences which prospective teachers enjoy in many
programmes in the United States as Darling-Hammond explains:
The traditional approach to clinical training [learning theory in isolation from
practice] … differs a great deal from that taken in many programs today in all
the programs we studied. First of all, they involve teachers in clinical work
throughout the entire program. In all cases, prospective teachers participate in
at least thirty weeks of mentored clinical practice under the direct supervision
of one or more expert veteran teachers…
The placements are carefully selected to offer settings where particular kinds
of practices can be observed and learned by working with expert teachers and
with students having particular characteristics (various developmental levels,
special needs students in a range of community and school types)…
In virtually all cases, individual teachers are selected as cooperating teachers
or mentors not because they can offer a classroom in which novices can
bungle about but because of their deep expertise and willingness to share it
systematically with an entering colleague (Darling-Hammond, 2006, pp.153-
154).

From the explanation cited above it should be evident that from some of the new
trends in teacher education it seems possible that the clinical experience, as the
practicum is also called, is designed to provide student teachers with something akin
to total immersion into teaching by extending the practicum and having them work
alongside specially selected practitioners in the field. There seems to be then, an
urgent need to improve this formal phase of learning to teach in the Caribbean given
as we noted earlier in this unit that informal sources of learning to teach are
formidable and durable. It is for this reason that teacher education programmes have
introduced pedagogical strategies such as autobiographical writings as a medium for
surfacing and interrogating early and misguided perceptions of teaching.

This is in recognition of the influence of early learning experiences on classroom

practices. It is thought that the use of autobiographical writing as a pedagogical tool
by teacher educators will help student teachers clarify their beliefs about teaching,

21
recognize the sources of these beliefs, and demonstrate a willingness to replace,
modify or enlarge these as more viable alternative are presented as propositional
knowledge in teacher education courses. Autobiographical writings is also one way by
which student teachers can come to realize how their early experiences have
contributed to the shaping of their teacher identify.

Autobiographical writings represent another way in which teacher education

programmes are responding to the need to reform their programmes to make this stage
of learning a more influential source of knowledge about teaching. This development
however has not necessarily caught on in teacher education programmes in some
places. Evans (2000) for instance, has noted that within the Jamaican context
“pretraining experiences are not usually examined or scrutinized during the preservice
programme or thereafter. Students are treated as ‘clean slates on entry” (p.8).The
reforms which have taken place in teacher education over the past two decades or so
were in response to, among other things, the charge that teacher education was not
sufficiently influential in the learning to teach process and is a comparatively weak or
‘impotent’ source of learning about teaching when compared with informal sources of
learning. As Feiman-Nemser explains however:
Despite the perceived wisdom that teacher preparation is a weak intervention,
preservice programs can make a difference, especially when they are
organized around an explicit and thoughtful mission… integrate courses and
fieldwork…and attend to students’ entering beliefs and evolving professional
identity and practice (Barnes, 1987, Howey & Zimper, 1989; National Center
for Research on Teacher Learning, 1991, cited in Feiman-Nemser, 2001,
p.1022).

Table 1.2 Activity 1.2

Session Review
1. Recall briefly the nature of the knowledge that is acquired formally through
teacher education
2. Why has there been a change in the way that the practice of education is
organized in many teacher education programmes in a number of countries
worldwide?

22
3. What are Professional Development Schools (PDS)? And what roles are they
designed to play in the professional preparation of teachers?
4. What do you understand by ‘communities of practice’ as used to describe the
role of Professional Development Schools (PDS) in the professional
preparation of prospective teachers?
5. How do you believe teacher education as the formal source of the knowledge
base for teaching can become a more influential source of knowledge about
teaching?

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Session 1.3
Experience as a Source of Knowledge about Teaching:
Teaching in Schools

Objectives of this Session

• Evaluate the role of experience in learning to teach
• Discuss the view that experience is not necessarily the best teacher

The act of teaching itself is regarded as one of the prime sources of knowledge about
teaching. It has often been reported that student teachers tend to rate “student teaching
as the most valuable part of their preservice preparation” (Feiman-Nemser, 1983,
p.167). Darling-Hammond et al., (2005) in citing Guyton and McIntyre (1990), states
similarly that “Many teachers have claimed that the most important elements in their
professional education were the school experiences found in student teaching” (cited
in Darling-Hammond et al., 2005, p. 409). Thus engaging in actual teaching is widely
acknowledged as an important source of learning about teaching for as Feiman-
Nemser observed:
No matter how good a preservice program may be, there are some things that
can only be learned on the job. The preservice experience lays a foundation
and offers practice in teaching. The first encounter with real teaching occurs
when beginning teachers step into their own classroom. Then learning to teach
begins in earnest (Feiman-Nemser, 2001, p.1026).

Learning to teach in the first years of teaching is particularly critical to the long term
development of the teacher depending on how those early years are experienced.
Feiman-Nemser (2001) describes these early years as intense and formative an
observation underscored by Bush (19830 who explains that:
The condition under which a person carries out the first years of teaching have
a strong influence on the levels of effectiveness which that teacher is able to
achieve and sustain over the years; on the attitudes which govern teachers’
behaviour over even a forty year career; and, indeed, on the decision whether

24
 or not to continue in the teaching profession (p.3, cited in Feiman-Nemser,
2001, pp.1026-1027).
Feiman-Nemser adds further that:
Researchers characterize the first years of teaching as a time of survival and
discovery, adaptation and learning…According to one school of thought,
novices rely on trial and error to work out strategies that help them to survive
without sacrificing all the idealism that attracted them to teaching in the first
place. They continue to depend on these strategies whether or not they
represent best practice… (2001, p.1027).

The picture painted by these research findings are revealing for they suggest that
novice teachers who are deprived of guidance and assistance by a mentor or
experienced teacher whose expertise is well established, will likely develop unsound
practices by virtue of learning from experiences in an unreflective and unsupported
way. The role of experience in learning to teach comes out in the description of
teachers knowledge as ‘embedded’ in the sense that such knowledge is acquired
through practice though it is difficult to articulate. Calderhead and Shorrock (1997)
draw attention to the varied and embedded nature of teachers’ knowledge:
The knowledge that teachers call upon in planning their work, teaching in the
classroom and later evaluating their work is highly varied, including
knowledge of children, teaching strategies, school rules, the availability of
materials… Teachers’ knowledge also takes different forms, some of it is
clearly propositional and is relatively easily articulated; other aspects of their
knowledge are embedded within action and are more easily demonstrated than
put into words (p.12).

One way in which research has attempted to establish the role experience plays in the
development of teachers’ knowledge is through the study of expert and novice
teachers. Berliner (2001) in his study of ‘teacher expertise’ identified and compared
the characteristics of expert teachers with experts in professional and other domains
and suggested that teachers pass through a five stage professional development
journey from novice to expert teacher. Similarly, Leithwood has also shown the stages
through which teacher’s development of expertise takes place. We will look briefly at
these two models and the stages they identified in turn.

25
Table 1.3 Berliner’s Novice-Expert Stages

Stage 1: Novice

The behaviour of the novice whether that person is an automobile driver, chess
player, or teacher is very rational, relatively inflexible and tends to conform to
whatever rules and procedure the person was told to follow. This is a stage for
learning the objective facts and features of situations and for gaining experience.
And it is the stage at which real-world experience appears to be far more
important than verbal information…
Stage 2: Advanced beginner

This is when experience can meld with verbal knowledge. Similarities across
contexts are recognized, and episodic knowledge is built up. Strategic knowledge
– when to ignore or break rules and when to follow them - is developed. Context
begins to guide behaviour… Experience is affecting behaviour, but the advanced
beginner may still have no sense of what is important…
Stage 3: Competent

There are two distinguishing characteristics of competent performers. First, they
make conscious choices about what they are going to do. They set priorities and
decide on plans. They have rational goals and choose sensible means for reaching
the ends they have in mind. In addition, they can determine what is and what is
not important – from their experience they know what to attend to and what to
ignore. At this stage, teachers learn not to make timing and targeting errors. They
also learn to make curriculum and instruction decisions, such as when to stay with
a topic and when to move on, on the basis of a particular teaching context and a
particular group of students.

Because they are more personally in control of the events around them, following
their own plans, and responding only to the information that they choose to,
teachers at this stage tend to feel more responsibility for what happens. They are
not detached. Thus they often feel emotional about success and failure in a way
that is different and more intense than that of novice or advanced beginners.

Stage 4: Proficient

This is the stage at which intuition and know-how become prominent…out of the

26
 wealth of experience that the proficient individual has accumulated comes a
holistic recognition of similarities. At this stage, a teacher may notice without
conscious effort that today’s mathematics lesson is bogging down for the same
reason that last week’s spelling lesson bombed. At some higher level of
categorisation, the similarities between disparate events are understood. This
holistic recognition of similarities allows the proficient individual to predict
events more precisely, since he or she sees more things as alike and therefore as
having been experienced before...
Stage 5: Expert

If the novice, advanced beginner, and competent performer are rational and the
proficient performer is intuitive, we might categorise the expert as often arational.
They have both an intuitive grasp of the situation and a non-analytic and non-
deliberative sense of the appropriate response to be made. They show fluid
performance, as we all do when we no longer have to choose our words when
speaking or think of where to place our feet when walking…

Experts do things that usually work, and thus, when things are proceeding
without a hitch, experts are not solving problems or making decisions in the usual
sense of the terms. They ‘go with the flow’, as it is sometimes described. When
anomalies occur, things do not work out as planned, or something atypical
happens, they bring deliberate analytic processes to bear on the situation. But
when things are going smoothly, experts rarely appear to be reflective about their
performance.

Source: Berliner, D. (2001). Teacher expertise. In F. Banks & A. Shelton Mayes

(Eds), Early professional development for teachers (pp.20-26). London: David Fulton
Publishers.

27
 Table 1.4 The Six Stages of Teachers’ Development of Professional Expertise
Stages
1. Developing survival skills
2. Becoming competent in the
basic skills of instruction
3.Expanding one’s
instructional flexibility
Characteristics of Expertise

Partially developed classroom-management skills

Knowledge about and limited skill in use of several
teaching models

No conscious reflection on choice of model

Student assessment is primarily summative and
carried out, using limited techniques, in response to
external demands (e.g., reporting to parents); may be
poor link between the focus of assessment and
instructional goal

Well-developed classroom management skills

Well-developed skill in use of several teaching
models

Habitual application through trial and error, of certain
teaching models for particular parts of curriculum

Student assessment begins to reflect formative
purposes; although techniques are not well suited to
such purposes; focus of assessment linked to
instructional goals easiest to measure

Automatized classroom management skills

Growing awareness of need for and existence of
other teaching models and initial efforts to expand
repertoire and experiment with application of new
models

Choice of teaching model from expanded repertoire
influenced most by interest in providing variety to
maintain student interest

Student assessment carried out for both formative and
summative purposes; repertoire of techniques is
beginning to match purposes; focus of assessment
covers significant range of instructional goals
28
4. Acquiring instructional
expertise
5. Contributing to the growth
of colleagues’ instructional
expertise
6. Participating in a broad
array of educational decisions
at all levels of the education
system
Source: Leithwood, 1992, pp. 86-103, cited in Acheson, K. A. and Gall, M. D.
(2003).Clinical supervision and teacher development. Preservice and inservice
application (pp.30-31). NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Classroom management integrated with program;
little attention required to classroom management as
an independent issue

Skills in the application of a broad repertoire of
teaching models

Has high levels of expertise in classroom
instructional performance

Reflective about own competence and choices and
the fundamental beliefs and values on which they are
based

Able to assist other teachers in acquiring instructional
expertise through either planned learning
experiences, such as mentoring, or more formal
experiences, such as inservice education and
coaching programs

Is committed to the goal of school improvement

Accepts responsibility for fostering that goal through
any legitimate opportunity

Able to exercise leadership, both formal and
informal, with groups of adults inside and outside the
school

Has a broad framework from which to understand the
relationship among decisions at many different levels
in the education system

Is well informed about policies at many different
levels in the education system
29
Read through these stages carefully and outline what you feel to be the most
important differences between novices and the experts as described by Berliner and
Leithwood. Please note however that these models are not suggesting that teacher’s
professional development progress in neat, linear and predictable stages. Experienced
teachers do not all demonstrate these capabilities and there are instances where novice
teachers have entered into teaching demonstrating skills and abilities that belie their
status as novices. At the same time, expert teachers possess what Shulman has termed
the wisdom of practice, the study of which has been instrumental in the
conceptualization of the framework he developed (This you will read about further in
Unit 2).

It is worthwhile to remember however what we discussed in the two preceding

section about the informal and formal sources of influence on learning to teach and to
recognize that experience is not synonymous with expertise. This means that
experience is not necessarily the best teacher. Feiman-Nemser (1983) conveys this
point eloquently. She wrote:
Given the relative impotence of formal programs at both the preservice and
inservice levels, learning to teach is mostly influenced by informal sources,
especially the experience of teaching itself. Experience is not always a good or
effective teacher, however, and the problematic role of first hand experience is
apparent at every phase of the learning-to-teach-continuum (1983, p.167).
It is with this in mind that we move to a consideration of the framework which
outlines the knowledge base for teaching discussed in the next unit.

30
Table 1.5 Activity 1.3

Session Review
1. After examining the different stages in the development of teachers’
knowledge according to Berliner’s study and Leithwood’s model, what are the
chief features of the knowledge base possessed by novice and advanced
beginners?
2. Compare the models presented by Berliner and Leithwood and comment on
the similarities and differences they depict in the characteristics of teachers as
they develop from novice to experts.
3. Compare the three sources from which knowledge of teaching is derived by
noting the specific nature of the knowledge derived from each.
a) Recall the reasons why informal sources seem to be so influential
b) Explain how teacher education can become a more meaningful source
of the knowledge base for teaching
c) Why is experience not necessarily the best teacher?

Summary

In this unit we:

Examined the different sources of knowledge about teaching

Discussed the attempts made in teacher education programmes to improve
how prospective teachers learn to teach through the implementation of reforms
in the practice of education (the field experience) and in the pedagogy of
teacher education

Considered the salience of practice in learning to teach and how experience if
not guided and supported in the early years of teaching can lead to formation
of poor pedagogy or unsound practices.

Examined two models of teacher development from novice to expert which
highlights the differences in the knowledge base (both formal and experiential)
possessed by novice and experienced teachers.

31
 References

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development. Preservice and inservice applicatons. NJ: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.

Berliner, D. (2001). Teacher expertise. In F. Banks, & A. Shelton Mayes (Eds.), Early
professional development for teachers (pp.20-26). London: David Fulton
Publishers.

Bransford, J., Darling-Hammond, L., and LePage, P. (Eds.). (2005). Introduction. In

L. Darling-Hammond, & J. Bransford, J. Preparing teachers for a changing
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Calderhead, J. & Shorrock, S. B. (1997). Understanding teacher education. Case

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Marland, P. (2001). Teachers’ practical theories: Implications for teacher

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