Keynote address presented by Dr Nril Simco at ESCalates ITE Seminar Preparing students to teach in schools facing challenging circumstances: evidence from research and practice. The seminar was held at the University of Dervy on 26th January 2006. It is presented as a single PDF file of the presentation slides used for the addres

Simco, Neil

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1Learning to Teach:Defining the ChallengeDr Neil SimcoDean, Faculty of EducationSt Martin’s CollegeJanuary 2006Email: n.simco@ucsm.ac.uk or tel: 015394 30218Overview• Identifying some variables in learning to teach• Stage models for learning to teach• Classroom ecology and individual interactions• ConclusionsIdentifying Some Variables inLearning to Teach (1)• Personal biographies of student and mentor, values, educational beliefs, experiences . . .• Personal biographies of pupils• Route taken within initial teacher training• Aspiration to school improvement• Social and economic context of the pupil populationIdentifying Some Variables (1) cont’d/. . .• Characteristics of professional discourse between teachers, teaching assistants and students• Individual interactions between mentor and student –and the quality of these• School development plans• Approach taken to theorizing and the development of educational beliefsIdentifying Some Variables inLearning to Teach (2)• Acknowledging variation in approaches to theory and its role in initial teacher education• Public and private theories• The importance of theory “without it [student teachers] they will become prisoners of their early school experience, perhaps the competent teachers of today, almost certainly the ossified teachers of tomorrow.” (Eraut 1994 p.71)• The challenge of the school context – professional discourse, the nature of teaching, applying theoretical ideas in rich waysIdentifying Some Variables inLearning to Teach (3)The link between initial teacher educationand school improvement• Do all schools recognise the link between initial teacher education and school improvement?• OFSTED 2003/4 annual report• OFSTED 1997 report on Schools in Special Measures• ‘Reflective Action Planning’ (Frost et al 2000)2Personal and Professional Biography• “The personal beliefs and images that preservice candidates bring to programs of teacher education usually remain inflexible” (Kagan 1992)• The process of learning to teach is intensely personal and complex (Calderhead 1993, Calderhead and Shorrock 1997)Taking StockThe title of this conference is ‘Preparing Students to work in schools facing challenging circumstances: evidence from research and practice’.  I want to argue that because there are so many variables in learning to teach, and the play between these variables is both complex and unique, any situation in which a student is placed could for any one of a large number of reasons be seen as challenging.Preparing students to work in schools facing challenging circumstances is as much about recognising the interplay of the variables as it is about understanding the nature of schools in challenging circumstances.Example 1Stage Models of Learning to TeachFuller (1969)1. Students’ self-identity is with pupils2. Focus on survival3. Teaching as performance4. Focus on pupils and meeting needsExample 2Berliner (1988)1. Novice – knowing each element of a classroom task2. Advanced beginner – know similarities anddifferences across teaching contexts3. Competent teacher – making choices4. Proficient teacher – predict events5. Expert teaching – performance is seemingly effortlessExample 3Furlong and Maynard (1995)1. Early idealism2. Personal survival3. Dealing with difficulties4. Hitting a plateau5. Moving on3The problem with Stage Models1. Stage models underplay the breadth of variables.2. Stage models assume that learning to teach is, at least in the broad sense, a movement through a pre-defined process.3. Stage models may underestimate the complexity of learning to teach.4. Stage models may be a misconception of learning to teach and may confuse individuals’ understanding of learning to teach.Classrooms as Complex environments andLearning to TeachA Doylian analysis• Classrooms are naturalistic and have attributes of multidimensionality, simultaneity and unpredictability.• Naturalistic classrooms mean that it is difficult to provide recipes for the improvement of teacher effectiveness.• Classroom behaviour is determined by the response to the characteristics of particular settings.• The critical importance of the social world of the classroom in determining the behaviour of all participants.Doyle (1977)Illustrating Multidimensionality Illustrating MultidimensionalitySome ConclusionsThe challenge of learning to teach is recognising how the student teacher behaves in each individual complex classroom environment.The challenge of mentoring is posing the right questions which emerge from that complex classroom environment.It is for the sector to recognise that learning to teach is perhaps challenging in different ways in all classroom environments.It is for the education service to understand the true potential of initial teacher education for school improvement.BibliographyBerliner, D C, (1988), Implications of Studies on Expertise in Pedagogy for Teacher Education and Evaluation in: New Directions for Teacher Assessment Proceedings of the 1988 ETS invitational conference, pp 39-68, Princetown, NJ Educational Testing Service.Calderhead, J (1993), The Contribution of Research on Teachers’ Thinking to the Professional Development of Teachers, in: C Day, J Calderhead and P Denicolo(Eds), Research on Teacher Thinking Understanding Professional Development, London, Falmer PressDoyle, W (1977), Learning the Classroom Environment: an ecological analysis, Journal of Teacher Education 28, pp51-55.Frost, D, Durrant, J, Head, M, Holden, G (2000), Teacher-led School Improvement, London, Routledge-Falmer.Fuller, F F (1969), Concerns of Teachers, a developmental conceptualization, American Educational Research Journal 6, 207-226.Furlong, J and Maynard, T (1995), The Growth of Professional Knowledge, Mentoring Student Teachers, London, Routledge.Kagan, D (1992), Professional Growth Amongst Preservice and Beginning Teachers,Review of Educational Research, 57, 1, 1-50.OFSTED (2004), The Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools 2003/04: Summary, OFSTED, London.

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