Knowing about teaching, learning to teach and beginning teachers as

learners. What does research tell us?

Trevor MuttonUniversity of Oxford

Research and the Teaching Profession: Building the Capacity for a Self-Improving Education System (BERA-RSA, 2014)

3 aspects of professional knowledge• Situated understanding

phronesis

• Technical knowledge techne

• Critical reflection episteme

3 aspects of professional knowledge• Situated understanding

phronesis

• Technical knowledge techne

• Critical reflection episteme

2 popular conceptions of a good teacher

Both inadequate as they stand Only the conception of teacher as

professional encompasses all three

Teaching Learning to teach

Combining the roles of teacher and learner

The challenges inherent in teaching

Teaching

1. The range of knowledge that teachers need

• Of learners and learning; • Of subject matter and curriculum

goals;• Of knowledge of teaching

(Bransford et al. 2007)

2. The importance of interpretation & judgement

‘Clinical reasoning’

... the analytical and intuitive cognitive processes that professionals use to arrive at a best judged ethical response in a specific practice-based context. (Krievaldt and Turnidge, 2013: 106)

The challenges inherent in teaching

Teaching

1. The range of knowledge that teachers need

• Of learners and learning; • Of subject matter and curriculum

goals;• Of knowledge of teaching

(Bransford et al. 2007)

2. The importance of interpretation & judgement

• The complexity of the classroom (Doyle, 1977)

• Reconciling competing concerns (Kennedy, 2004, 2005; Burn et al. 2003)

Competing concerns

• covering desirable content; • fostering student learning; • increasing students’ willingness to participate; • maintaining lesson momentum; • creating a civil classroom community; and • attending to their own cognitive and

emotional needs (Kennedy, 2004, 2005).

1. Professional knowledge has to be enacted(Buchmann, 1984; Shulman 1998)

2. Simple ‘rules of thumb’ are not enough(Kennedy 2006; Hammerness et al. 2005; Hagger & McIntyre, 2006)

3. Expertise revealed in practice isdifficult to articulate (Hagger 1997, Hagger & McIntyre 2006, Eraut 2000)

4. Asking critical questions of experienced teachers demands sensitivity and self-awareness (Hagger 1997, Hagger & McIntyre 2006)

Learning to teach

The challenges inherent in learning to teach

Combining the roles of teacher and learner

1. The importance of teacher identity

2. The risks of hitting a plateau(Furlong & Maynard 1995Hagger & McIntyre 2006Zeichner 1996)

The challenges in being a learner of teaching

Unless the practicum helps to teach prospective teachers how to take control of their own professional development and to learn how to continue learning, it is miseducative, no matter how successful the teacher might be in the short run. (Zeichner 1996: 217)

Combining the roles of teacher and learner

1. The importance of teacher identity

2. The risks of hitting a plateau(Furlong & Maynard 1995Hagger & McIntyre 2006Zeichner 1996)

3. Compounded by a culture of performativity (Ball 2003)

The challenges in being a learner of teaching

Combining the roles of teacher and learner

So what do we know about beginning teachers as learners?

The DEBT projectDeveloping Expertise of Beginning Teachers

Focus What and how are beginning teachers learning?- as reflected in their accounts of practice (planning, teaching and evaluation) - as stated in claims about learning in relation to that lesson- as described in more general reflections on their learning

Sample 36 student teachers from two institutions (12 each in English, Maths and Science)

24 tracked for a further two years in teaching

DataObservations & Interviews

PGCE year: 4 post-lesson interviews (+ start & year end)NQT year: 3 post-lesson interviews (+ year end)2nd year of teaching: 3 post-lesson interviews (+ year end)

Combining the roles of teacher and learner

So what do we know about beginning teachers as learners?

The wide range and deeply entrenched nature of their preconceptions

- about teaching, learning and learning to teach (Younger et al. 2004; Lortie 1975; Smylie 1995; Kennedy 1999; Hobson et al. 2008)

The diversity within beginning teachers' learning:

- questioning ‘stage’ theories (Fuller & Bown, 1975; or Furlong & Maynard, 1995)

- different starting points and different trajectories

- their progress is not linear

- not thinking about different things over time but about the same range of things differently (Burn et al. 2000, 2003; Pendry 1997)(

The range of issues with which they are trying to grapple from the very beginning (Burn et al. 2003)

The fundamental importance of learning from experience (Hagger et al. 2008)

Sources to which they attributed learning

Experience 72%

Other in-school sources

19%

University sources 3%

Unspecified 6%

The differences in their approach to learning from experience – particularly the extent to

which they plan deliberately for that learning(Hagger et al. 2008, Mutton et al. 2010)

Orientations towards learning from experience

Aspiration

Intentionality

Frame of reference

Response to critical

feedbackAttitude to

context

The importance of the affective dimension - impacting on their capacity to evaluate their own practice and receptiveness to feedback and guidance(Burn et al. (2015) Malderez et al. 2007, Hobson et al. 2008,)

I’ve had a few bad ones that have upset me personally because I’ve spent a lot of time trying to make it interesting, because initially you think ‘It’s you, it’s the way you’re doing it, it’s wrong’. (Science student teacher, interview 2)

But I do get upset. I do beat myself up over it and go home in floods of tears about it. (English student teacher, interview 3)

• The wide range and deeply entrenched nature of their preconceptions

• The diversity within beginning teachers' learning• The range of issues with which they’re grappling from

the very beginning • The fundamental importance of learning from

experience • The differences in their approach to learning from

experience • The importance of the affective dimension

So what do we know about beginning teachers as learners?

Implications for teacher educators and for partnerships

1. Taking the beginning teachers' preconceptions, emerging ideas and developing thinking seriously

2. Structuring the beginners’ access to the curriculum of teacher education (the realities of teaching)

3. Teacher educators providing a powerful role model in their own approach to professional learning

4. Promoting the development of a deliberative approach to their own learning

5. Expanding beginning teachers’ frame of reference

Read more ....

•Guide for teacher educators

•Draws on the DEBT research

•Case study approach

Katharine BurnHazel HaggerTrevor Mutton

Burn, K., Hagger, H., Mutton, T., & Everton T. (2000) Beyond Concerns with Self: the sophisticated thinking of beginning teachers, Journal of Education for Teaching, 26 (3) pp 259 – 278

Burn, K., Hagger, H., Mutton, T. & Everton T. (2003) ‘The complex development of student teachers’ thinking’, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 9 (4) pp 309-331

Hagger, H., Burn, K., Mutton, T. & Brindley, S. (2008) Practice makes perfect? Learning to learn as a teacher in Oxford Review of Education 34 (2), 159-178

Younger, M., Brindley, S., Pedder, D. and Hagger, H. (2004) ‘Starting points: teachers’ reasons for becoming teachers and their preconceptions of what this will mean’, European Journal of Teacher Education 27(4), 245-264.

Mutton, T., Burn, K & Hagger, H. (2010) Making sense of learning to teach: learners in context, Research Papers in Education 25 (1) 73-91

Malmberg, L., Hagger, H., Burn, K., Mutton, T. & Colls, H. (2010) Observed Classroom Quality during Teacher Education and two years of Professional Practice, Journal of Educational Psychology 102(4), 916-932.

Burn, K., Hagger, H. & Mutton, T. (2010) Strengthening and sustaining learning in the second year of teaching, Oxford Review of Education 36 (6) 639-659.

Mutton, T., Burn, K. & Hagger, H. (2011) Learning to Plan, Planning to Learn; the Developing Expertise of Beginning Teachers, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 17 (4) 399-416.

Hagger, H., Mutton, T & Burn, K. (2011) Surprising but not shocking: the reality of the first year of teaching, Cambridge Journal of Education, 41 (4) 387-405.

Burn, K. Hagger, H. and Mutton, T. (2015) Beginning Teachers’ Learning: Making Experience Count , Critical Publishing.