Gregory Auhl

Collaborative feedback and reflection for professional growth: preparing first-year pre-service teachers for participation in the community of practice

Teaching has been described as an emerging community of practice. Within such professional communities, the processes of reflection and collaborative dialogue, or critical transformative dialogue, are central to the maintenance and improvement of professional practice for individuals, and the field. This paper reports on the challenges experienced by a group of first-year pre-service teachers engaging in a process of reflection and critique with peers, as they participated in a program focused on the development of core practices of teaching. These pre-service teachers responses indicated their growing understanding of the importance of engaging in ongoing critical dialogue, as part of the “unnatural” aspects of teaching. The paper concludes with a reflection on the value of feedback from the earliest stages of professional learning.

Encouraging Pattern Language Development in a Pre-service Inclusive Education Course: A Comparative Study

This study investigated the ability of students in a pre-service teacher education course to deploy pattern language (or professional lexicon) related to specific inclusive teaching strategies. The study sought to determine whether there were differential effects of two approaches to learning, one based on a field-based placement (Applied Experience) and the other employing an embedded course design approach (Embedded Design). The results indicate that pattern language frequency and sophistication increased significantly over time. Results also indicate that pre-service teachers’ use and sophistication of pattern language differed according to the structure of the university learning approach employed. The findings are discussed within the context of Embedded Design theory and the role of Applied Experience in pre-service inclusive education, as well as within the context of building more rigorous teacher preparation programmes.

Preparing pre-service teachers for the profession: creating spaces for transformative practice

Within professional learning communities, the processes of shared reflection and critique, or critical transformative dialogues are considered crucial for the maintenance and improvement of professional practice. This paper focuses on the development of the processes of critical transformative dialogues and their application in the professional development of pre-service teachers. Participants reported a growing understanding of the importance of a continuing critical dialogue, and an appreciation of the value that critical feedback has in developing professional skills. The paper argues for the value of providing spaces for early engagement in the processes of critical transformative dialogue as part of professional preparation. A cumulative model of transformative practice for supporting pre-service teachers’ emerging schema for teaching is proposed.