3.4 A CONSTRUCTIVIST VIEW OF TEACHING.pptx

1. What do teachers
bring to the
teaching-learning
process?

2. Studies in
effective
teaching
In the first two chapters we examined a number of different ways in
which people have tried to explain how learning occurs.
There have been many different artempts to account for effective
teaching. Once again, some of these fall within a positivist paradigm;
that is, they are mainly concerned with measuring characteristics of
teachers, with correlating information, and with drawing general
conclusions from the results obtained.
These studies have been referred to as process-products studies in
that one of their major concerns has been to identify what kind of
action on the part of teachers is most likely to bring about a desired
result (e.g. good exam grades). We shall first examine some of these
studies of what makes a 'good' teacher, before considering an
alternative perspective.

3. Ericksen describes a study in which the views of learners and
administrators about teachers were analysed. The conclusion reached was
that 'an outstanding teacher should be an inspiring instructor who is
concerned about students, an active scholar who is respected by
discipline peers, and an efficient organised professional who is accessible
to students and colleagues' (Ericksen 1984:3).

4. Good
teachers…?
Match a list of characteristics like those in the
study cited by Ericksen, or describe desirable
ways of behaving, as in Merrett and
Wheldall's positive teaching mode (Merrett
and Wheldall 1990; Wheldall and Merrett
1984).
Rosenshine (1971) and Rosenshine and Furst
(1973) review a number of 'process-product'
studies, in which various forms of teacher
behaviour were connected with measurable
learning outcomes such as test results. From
this they identified nine key factors
contributing to effective teaching:

5. • Altough some attempts have been
made to translate these and similar
findings into guidelines for action
(e.g. Perrott 1982), on the whole
they have proved surprisingly
unhelpful to most teachers seeking
to improve their professional
practice. This is pardy because such
factors are themselves open to a
variety of interpretations (e.g. What
exactly is meant by 'enthusiasm'?),
but also because in the real world
good teachers come in all shapes
and sizes, with a wide range of
different personalities, beliefs and
ways of working.

6. Teachers also come from different
backgrounds and belong to different cultures.
We would, therefore, expect them to work in
different ways that suit their own personalities
and situations. In Bennett's original (1976)
study of effective teachers, for example, one
of the most highly rated teachers
demonstrated very few of the descriptors of
how an effective teacher should behave.
In another study of effecrive teaching, Brown
and Mcintyre (1992) report a study of the
opinions of seventy-five 12- to 13-year-olds in
one city comprehensive school in the UK as to
what made a good teacher. Ten categories
were identified as representing dements of
good teaching:

7. ¿…?
• As a conclusion of their study,
however, these authors found
themselves faced with the
dilemma that although they could
identify such elements of what
they termed professional 'craft'
knowledge amongst teachers, they
could draw no simple conclusions
or generalisations about how this
highly complex knowledge could
be transformed into guidelines for
action.

8. THEN…?
It seems fruitless to atempt to shape oneself into the model of a good
language teacher, as indicated by research, what other routes appear to
be open?
A radical alternative involves an inner exploration of oneself rather than
a search for the outward characteristics of the perfect teacher. Such an
alternative is provided by a constructivist approach to teachers and
teaching.
We shall now discuss briefly the broader issue of what is meant by a
constructivist view of education, before moving on to consider what
light constructivism sheds on what it means to be a good teacher. We
choose to introduce the notion of a constructivist view of education
here for two reasons.
• First, as we shall suggest later in this chapter, one of the many facets
that teachers bring to the teaching- learning process is a view of what
education is all about.
• Second, we wish to introduce at this early stage a number of the
main issues and themes that will be taken up later .in this book, such
as the distinction between learning and education and the
importance of learning to think and solve problems.

9. A Constructivist
view of Education

10. What is Education according to
Glasersfeld?
• Political enterprise
1. Empower learners to think by
themselves
2. Perpetuate in the next generation ways
of acting and thinking
ALL KNOWLEDGE IS INSTRUMENTAL

11. The
problem –
solving
setting
approach
Socrates
Dewey
Montesory
Freire

12. IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

15. 3.4 A CONSTRUCTIVIST
VIEW OF TEACHING

16. Making sense of or meaning from
There is never anyone right way to teach. In
considering what a constructivist approach
offers to teachers.
Teaching, like learning, must be concerned
with teachers making sense of, or meaning
from, the situations in which they find
themselves.

17. Understanding the meaning
of teachers` work
• Investigating the thinking and
planning that teachers do outside the
classroom (Clark and Peterson 1986).
• Ethnographic studies of their
routines, rules and patterns of
teaching.
• Autobiographical accounts of the
understanding teachers bring to their
work. (Ashton-Warner 1980; Connelly
and Clandinin 1990).

18. The struggle
to find
professional
competence
From a practitioner's perspective .. . teaching
is a struggle to:
• Discover and maintain a settled practice,
• A set of routines and patterns of action
which resolve the problems posed by
particular subjects and groups of children.
These patterns, content and resolutions to
familiar classroom problems are shaped by
each teacher's biography and professional
experience. (Louden 1991 ;xi)

19. How do changes relate to teachers'
understandings of their work?
Pay close attention
to the meaning that
teachers make of
the physical
environment of
their classrooms
The syllabus
Particular teaching
practices
Act in accordance
with our
understanding of
these meanings.
TEACHERS´HORIZONS?

20. What does it mean to be a language
teacher?
When confronted by new problems
and challenges, a teacher struggles to
resolve them in ways that are
consistent with the understanding she
brings to the problem and this process
leads in turn to new horizons of
understanding about teaching.
Personal experiences,
Traditional ways
It continues to grow with every new
experience.

21. Teaching is not as the passing on of a parcel
of objective knowledge (Salmon 1988:37)
The differences between teachers, therefore, are not simply a question of whether
they are good or bad, competent or incompetent, because every teacber is unique.
Teachers do not just act as gateways to knowledge
Teachers experience an engagement with their learners out of which further
constructions emerge.
Teacher and learners reshape their ways of understanding, their knowledge
structures and tbe meanings that tbey attribute to events and ideas as a result of
this interactive process.
They also continually reconstruct their views of each other..

22. THEREFORE…
A skills-based approach with its
emphasis upon how to perform
effectively, which seeks to find
commonalities between good
teachers.
A constructivist approach to
teaching:
Emphasises the fact that no two
teachers and no two teaching
situations are ever the same.
Both the content of any lesson and
the way in which it is offered are
part of the person of each
individual teacher.
The need is for teachers to become
more self-aware with regard to
their beliefs and the ways in which
they make of the world, particularly
with regard to their views about
education and how those views
themselves come to be shaped.
At the same time, they need to be
aware also that they themselves are
being construed by their learners
and that their words, their actions
and their interactions form part of
every individual learner's own
construction of knowledge.
An important component of a
constructivist approach to
education is for teachers to become
aware of what their own e Ie s an
views of the world are, which leads
us into the notion of the reflective
practitioner.

23. 3.5 The teacher as
reflective
practitioner

24. Act
consistently
in
accordance
with your
expressed
(or
'espoused')
beliefs.
If teachers are to be effective in whatever approach they decide to take, it
seems reasonable to expect them to act consistently in accordance with tbeir
expressed (or 'espoused') beliefs.
if there is discrepancy between a teacher's expressed beliefs and the ways in
which that teacher acts professionally, then learners are likely to receive
confused and confusing messages.
In an effort to improve teachers' self-awareness in this respect, some
educational theorists have fostered the notion of critical reflection (Boud,
Keogh and Walker 1985).
The intention here is to enable to become reflective practitioners (Schon 1983),
thereby they subject their everyday professional practice to ongoing critical
reflection and make clear their own particular world view by means of such
consideration.

25. REFLSchon (op. cit.) draws the distinction between reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. He
contends that each individual's knowledge is mainly tacit and implied by the ways in which they act,
such that 'our knowing is in our action' (Schon 1983:49). We do not necessarily have to think about
how to act appropriately as teachers in any situation before we do so. When we 'think on our feet'
or make spontaneous decisions about how to act, then we can be seen as reflecting-in-action,
which in turn gives rise to the application of 'theories-in-action'. It is such theories, according to
Schon, rather than externally imposed knowledge or theories from elsewhere, which underpin each
professional's own unique way of working.
ECTION IN ACTION VS REFLECTION ON ACTION

26. A reflective teacher needs a kind of educational technology which does
more than extend her capacity to administer drill and practice. Most
interesting to her is an educational technology which helps students to
become aware of their own intuitive understandings, to fall into
cognitive confusions and explore new directions of understanding and
action.

27. A REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER
• Schon outlines some ways in which teachers-as-reflective-practitioners act. Firstly, the
curriculum must be seen as an inventory of themes of understanding and skill to be
addressed rather than a set of materials to be learned. Each student has to be treated as
an individual, 'a universe of one' (Schon, op. cit.:333). act
• A reflective teacher needs a kind of educational technology which does more than
extend her capacity to administer drill and practice. Most interesting to her is an
educational technology which helps students to become aware of their own intuitive
understandings, to fall into cognitive confusions and explore new directions of
understanding and action. (Schon op. cit.: 333)must be seen as an inventory of themes of
understanding and skill to be addressed rather than a set of materials to be learned. Each
student has to be treated as an individual, 'a universe of one' (Schon, op. cit.:333).

28. HOW ABOUT
THE
INSTITUTIONS?
An institution congenial to reflective
practice would require a learning
system within which individuals
could surface conflicts and dilemmas
and subject them to public enquiry, a
learning system conducive to the
continual criticism and restructuring
of organisational principles and
values. (Schon op. cit.:336)

29. How to do it?
In considering the implications of taking such an
approach, Smyth suggests that critical reflection
can be fostered by asking a number of guiding
questions:
• What do my practices say about my
assumptions, values and beliefs about teaching?
• Where did these ideas come from?
• What social practices are expressed in these
ideas?
• What views of power do they embody?
• Whose interests seem to be served by my
practices?
• What is it that acts to constrain my views of
what is possible in teaching?

30. Remember
Reflective practitioners and
non reflective practitioners
are not two fundamentally
irreconcilable groups, but
are, rather, professionals
working at different points
in different ways to achieve
common goals.
'Not to examine one's
practice is irresponsible; to
regard teaching as an
experiment and to monitor
one's performance is a
responsible professional
act.’
To be an effective teacher
in our own terms we need
to look both inwards and
outwards.
We then need co construct
a particular identity of the
kind of teacher that we
want co be and co seek to
reproduce this in our day-
co-day activities, in our
actions and in our
interactions in the
teachinglearning arena.