John Loughran

Researching Teacher Education Practices Responding to the Challenges, Demands, and Expectations of Self-Study

This article explores the nature of self-study of teacher education practices by examining what self-study is and how it might be conducted and reported. In working through these ideas, the article makes an argument for the need for learning through self-study to be documented in ways that might not only be accessible to others but also meaningful for their practice in teaching about teaching. Although the term self-study suggests a singular and individual approach to researching practice, the reality is that self-studies are dramatically strengthened by drawing on alternative perspectives and reframing of situations, thus data, ideas, and input that necessitate moving beyond the self. Moving beyond the self also matters because a central purpose in self-study is uncovering deeper understandings of the relationship between teaching about teaching and learning about teaching. This article argues a need for these deeper understandings to be developed in ways that enhance an articulation of a pedagogy of teacher education.

Exploring Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Science Teacher Education

While the development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is considered to be a goal of teacher education, teaching about the concept itself is an unusual practice. In this case study, we explore the outcomes when a teacher educator explicitly introduces student‐teachers to ideas about PCK through the use of a CoRes and PaP‐eRs conceptualisation. The case study explores how, through this purposeful use of PCK in a pre‐service science teacher programme, student‐teachers’ thinking about their teaching and about their development as science teachers is shaped.

Revisiting the Roots of Pedagogical Content Knowledge

In recent times there has been growing interest in the notion of a scholarship of practice (Hutchings, 2000; Shulman, 2002a). Scholarship is displayed through a teacher’s grasp of, and response to, the relationships between knowledge of content, teaching, and learning in ways that attest to practice as being complex and interwoven. A consequence of this work is the recognition that teachers’ professional knowledge is difficult to define and categorise, and therefore exceptionally difficult to articulate and document—yet it is increasingly important to do so. Through the work of the Carnegie Foundation (Shulman, 2000, 2001, 2002b) the impetus to encourage the education community to pay more attention to teachers’ knowledge and to better value professional practice has become increasingly important. Yet, attempts to articulate the critical links between practice and knowledge have proved to be exceptionally difficult because, for many teachers, their practice and the knowledge/ideas/theories that tend to influence that practice are often tacit (Schön, 1983). Additionally, definitions of knowledge, and distinctions between these definitions (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Connelly & Clandinin, 2000; Fenstermacher & Richardson, 1993; Korthagen & Lagerwerf, 1996; Richardson, 1994), have impacted on what researchers have looked for, and valued, in attempts to describe a knowledge base that might be described as influencing teachers’ approaches to, and practices of, teaching. Further to this, for school teachers there is little expectation or obvious reason for such articulation (Loughran, Berry, & Mulhall, 2004; Loughran, Milroy, Berry, Gunstone, & Mulhall, 2001) as the demands of time, curricula, and student achievement tend to create a focus more on ‘doing teaching’ rather than explicating the associated pedagogical reasoning. Importantly, however, if science teaching is to be better understood and valued, such

Exploring the Development of Pre-Service Science Elementary Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge

This paper explores how a group of pre-service elementary science student teachers came to understand the development of their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) over the course of a semester’s study in a science methods course. At the start of the semester, PCK was introduced to them as an academic construct and as a conceptual tool that they could use to plan for, and assess, the development of their professional knowledge and practice as beginning science teachers. All participants were provided with a tool known as a CoRe (Content Representation) and the manner in which they worked with the CoRe was such that it supported them in planning for and assessing their own learning about teaching elementary science through a focus on the development of their PCK. Through analysis of data derived from the application of a CoRe based methodology (modified and adapted for this study) to the teaching of the science topic of Air, participants’ reasons for, confidence in, and perceived meaningfulness of their learning about science teaching could be examined. In so doing, the nature of participants’ PCK development over time was made explicit. The results illustrate real possibilities for ways of enhancing student teachers’ ongoing professional learning in teacher preparation and offer a window into how the nature of PCK in pre-service education might be better understood and developed.

Teacher Talk: The Role of Story and Anecdote in Constructing Professional Knowledge for Beginning Teachers.

Abstract This paper focusses on the stories and anecdotes which a small group of English teachers told in their efforts to describe the complexities of their first year of teaching, when they were invited by their former English Method lecturer to meet together as part of a larger research project investigating the challenges faced by beginning teachers. A distinctive feature of their discussion is the way they use narrative to organise and give meaning to their experiences, and thus explore the possibilities of narrative enquiry for professional development and educational research.

Seeking Knowledge for Teaching Teaching: Moving beyond stories

Recognizing and documenting problems in practice and engaging in self-study are not necessarily the same thing. Acting on the problems, issues or concerns that attract attention in teaching and learning about teaching requires an acceptance of the need to seek alternative perspectives and to seek data that is outside of the self. It is in the reporting of self-study that the complexities and interrelationships between research and practice can inadvertently be overlooked or lost. Therefore, paying careful attention to what shapes a self-study is an important factor in reporting on self-study and this distinction between doing and reporting requires careful and ongoing attention.

On becoming a teacher educator

This paper is designed to offer an Australian perspective on the nature of teacher educators’ work based on the observations and experiences of the author, who has been involved in the field for the past two decades. In so doing, the paper is designed not only to offer insights into how teacher education in Australia has been challenged and shaped in recent times, but also to begin to illustrate how the nature of teacher educators’ work simultaneously shapes their identity.

Beginning to Understand Teaching as a Discipline

We explore the possibility of understanding teaching as a discipline in its own right, rather than as a domain that is ancillary to the many academic disciplines. While teaching looks easy and is widely regarded as easy, the image of teaching as transmission and the perspective of technical rationality mask the many ways in which challenging and engaging teaching represents a highly disciplined view. When extended to teacher education, the perspective of teaching as a discipline sheds powerful light on longstanding frustrations reported by those learning to teach. We argue for the conclusion that teaching is a discipline and that teacher education is the home of that discipline, with self-study as one of the central methodologies for making explicit the knowledge inherent in teaching seen as a discipline.

Researching teaching for understanding : the students' perspective

Abstract This paper explores high school students’ perspectives of their learning in ascience unit which was taught using a Childrens Science approach. Through the use of a questionnaire and interviews, this research examines how the students understood and responded to the changed demands on their learning as a result of the change in teaching style. Although the students appeared to be actively involved, interested and self‐directed in their learning, they were not convinced that this was an appropriate way forthem to approach their learning in future. It appears as though the time and effort associated with accepting more responsibility for learning is not matched by the value received from doing so in schools.

Is teaching a discipline? Implications for teaching and teacher education

The background to this paper is based on the ongoing need to place more attention on the importance of teaching. The aim in so doing is to lead to a better valuing of teaching which, in the case of this paper, is through an exploration of the notion of teaching as a discipline. There are differing views about that which constitutes a discipline and considering teaching as a discipline is a provocative way of focusing on the complex nature of that work in order to make clear that teaching is much more than ‘simply doing.’ Through a review of the diversity of views of disciplines – and education as a discipline – as described in the literature the paper considers the consequences of conceptualizing teaching as a discipline which are significant not only for teaching itself but also for teacher education. The paper concludes that if teaching is to be considered a discipline, then teacher education itself needs to be understood and practiced as a much more scholarly activity. This paper works through some of the arguments that arise as a consequence of thinking about teaching as a discipline and challenges the teaching and teacher education communities to conceptualize their work in ways that will engender a great sense of valuing of that work.