Source: Professional Development in Education, Vol. 37, No. 4, September 2011, p. 483-497.
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)
This article describes the experiences of a new teacher educator in a Graduate Teacher Programme in UK university.
The author has examined some of her beliefs about teaching, in order to establish her own professional identity.
The author has researched different ways that more experienced teacher educators use modeling in their sessions, from watching ‘lectures’ on Teachers’ TV, reading relevant literature and through professional conversations (Schuck et al. 2008) within the School of Education.
The author has found it a particularly helpful tool for personal professional development.
The author has reflected on her practice in the light of discussions with more experienced practitioners, watching two of these practitioners in action on Teachers’ TV, and reviewing relevant literature.
The author reflected on her ‘retrospective identity’. The author examined how she learnt at school and the sort of school teacher that she was.
The author then reflected on her 'prospective identity’. She examined the sort of teacher educator that she aspired to be (Swennen et al. 2008).
This analysis of her pedagogy as a school teacher helped the author to articulate her own practice and relate it to educational theory.
Through the process of enquiring into the effectiveness of modelling, the author has a better perceptual framework of her own teaching and has been able to implement strategies to make her thinking more explicit.
The author has reflected on how she has been developing a dialogue with her students about how they learn, so they can experience the effects of her teaching strategies and understand why she is using them.
The author plans to encourage her students to make some of their own thinking explicit to their pupils, so that pupils become more aware of how they learn, as this is increasingly a focus in school, towards developing independent learners.
References
Schuck, S., Aubusson, P., and Buchanan, J., 2008. Enhancing teacher education practice through professional learning conversations. European journal of teacher education, 31(2), 215–227.
Swennen, A., Volman, M., and van Essen, M., 2008. The development of the professional identity of two teacher educators in the context of Dutch teacher education. European journal of teacher education, 31 (2), 169–184.