Donald McIntyre

Mentoring: Perspectives on School-Based Teacher Education

The political and historical aspects of mentoring are mentor teachers educators? from supervisor to colleague-mentor competence and the mentor-student relationship the role of the mentor mentoring teachers - what are the issues? a theoretical justification of the generic skills approach to mentoring the impersonation of wisdom.

Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice.

The premise of this paper is that the acknowledged gap between research and practice is primarily a gap between two sharply contrasting kinds of knowledge. The nature of this contrast is described and it is suggested that these two kinds of knowledge are at the opposite ends of a spectrum of kinds of knowledge related to classroom teaching and learning. Three possible ways of bridging this gap are explored. The first of these is derived from research. To bridge the gap, it is suggested, several steps are necessary from each of the two extremes before a balanced dialogue is likely to be possible. The process culminates in the critical trial by teachers of research‐based suggestions in the context of their own practice. A second complementary way of bridging the gap is through the choice of research strategies designed for that purpose. Three principles that might guide the choice of such strategies are suggested and exemplified; and it is noted that relatively little educational research in the UK has been in line with these principles. It is also noted that this second approach can facilitate, but not replace, the first. The third way of bridging the gap is through the development of ‘knowledge‐creating schools’ and the related idea of ‘Mode 2’ research. Being located near the middle of the continuum, and being designed to incorporate the complementary strengths of both ends of the continuum, such research might eliminate the gap entirely. Despite major issues concerning the validation and dissemination of knowledge claims, the development of all schools as knowledge‐creating schools is seen as an attractive idea, but not one that can replace the first approach.

Pupil voice : comfortable and uncomfortable learnings for teachers

The study explores how teachers use the ideas that pupils offer when consulted. Six teachers (two each in English, Maths and Science) and their Year 8 classes at three secondary schools were involved. The research was carried out in three stages. During the first stage the focus was on eliciting pupils’ ideas about classroom teaching and learning and teachers’ responses to their pupils’ ideas. Six pupils from each class were interviewed individually about each of three observed lessons. Transcripts of these interviews were fed back to the teachers. Teachers were interviewed about their reactions to them. During the second phase teachers’ use of pupil ideas was investigated and both the teachers’ and the target pupils’ evaluations of what happened were sought. In the third stage, each teacher was visited some six months later, in the following academic year, to explore how far the pupil ideas had had a lasting impact on the teachers’ practice and what use the teachers were making of pupil consultation. Our main findings were: (1) Pupils’ responses were characterised by a constructive focus on learning, consensus about what helps learning, and differences in articulacy; (2) Pupils agreed that interactive teaching for understanding, contextualising learning in appropriate ways, fostering a stronger sense of agency and ownership, and arranging social contexts amenable to collaborative learning were all helpful to the learning; (3) Teachers tended to respond positively and were reassured by the insightfulness of pupil ideas; (4) Teachers differed in what they did in response to pupils’ ideas. Three types of teacher reaction were identified: ‘short‐term responsiveness’, ‘growing confidence’, and ‘problems with using pupil consultation’. Some of the conclusions, based on evidence from the six teachers and their classes, are reassuring for teachers, others are perhaps less so. We construed them as ‘comfortable’ and ‘uncomfortable’ learnings.

Teachers’ conceptions of teacher professionalism in England in 2003 and 2006

Theoretical and political perspectives on the nature of professionalism in teaching are abundant, but little is known about the views of teachers themselves. We asked primary and secondary school teachers in England what teacher professionalism means to them. We explored what teachers think about professionalism, on what dimensions their thinking varies, and how much it varies. We researched how successful the government had already been, and how successful it would be in the future, in changing teachers’ conceptions of professionalism. Two large-scale national surveys were conducted, with a longitudinal element. We found that teachers’ thinking about their professionalism may be construed as consisting of an inner core of strong, shared beliefs and commitments; an intermediate set of coherent but contested components of professionalism; and an outer layer of disparate elements which are generally highly disputed and which remain unintegrated into broader ways of thinking.

Initial teacher education as practical theorising: A response to Paul Hirst

This article explores an approach to initial teacher education which emphasises the process of ‘practical theorising’ as the context in which educational theory can contribute to this professional education. The practical theorising approach is exemplified by reference to the Oxford Internship Scheme, and the article focusses especially on arguments against a practical theorising approach presented by Paul Hirst in a commentary on the Oxford scheme. These arguments are concerned with: the need for a public rationally defended consensual body of professional knowledge; the unreasonable demands which a practical theorising approach makes of student‐teachers; and the perceived failure of a practical theorising approach, at least in the Oxford context, to differentiate adequately among different kinds of theory and their place in initial teacher education.

An Action-Research Approach to Innovation in Centralized Educational Systems.

Summaries English This paper develops an argument for attempting to use a particular action‐research model for curriculum innovation in a centralized education system. A description of the use of this approach in the implementation of an innovation concerned with differentiation of work in mixed‐ability classes is provided, and the significance of the findings for the action‐research strategy is discussed. The roles adopted by the researchers raised practical and theoretical problems, some of which might have been avoided while others seem inescapable. The value of action‐research for curriculum innovation is assessed in the light of the study; it is argued that what is of value to the curriculum innovator is a set of clear, valid, abstract, explanatory principles to guide his judgements, and that action‐research directed towards establishing such principles should be planned as a three‐strand strategy. The final section considers ethical issues relevant to action‐research. ‡Earlier versions of this paper...

The Conceptualisation of Attainment.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to articulate our dissatisfaction with current thinking about attainment, in the hope that this may help us to see more clearly what ways of conceptualising attainment would be more useful. Thus most of the paper is devoted to demonstrating the inadequacy of psychometric and taxonomic ways of thinking about attainment, but towards the end we shall very much more tentatively suggest an alternative approach.

The Evaluation of School Science Departments.

Abstract In this paper, we have identified a prescriptive model which we believe is implicitly used for evaluating science departments in Scottish secondary schools, and we have attempted to demonstrate that this is an inappropriate way of evaluating these departments. We have also briefly outlined two kinds of evaluation of these departments which we think would be appropriate. While the paper has been exclusively concerned with science departments in Scottish secondary schools, we suspect that some of the issues discussed may well be relevant to other subject departments and in the context of other national systems.