Representing the epistemic nature of teachers’ practical knowledge : The case of class teachers’ general pedagogy

The present study addressed the epistemology of teachers’ practical knowledge. Drawing from the literature, teachers’ practical knowledge is defined as all teachers’ cognitions (e.g., beliefs, values, motives, procedural knowing, and declarative knowledge) that guide their practice of teaching. The teachers’ reasoning that lies behind their practical knowledge is addressed to gain insight into its epistemic nature. I studied six class teachers’ practical knowledge; they teach in the metropolitan region of Helsinki. Relying on the assumptions of the phenomenographic inquiry, I collected and analyzed the data. I analyzed the data in two stages where the first stage involved an abductive procedure, and the second stage an inductive procedure for interpretation, and thus developed the system of categories. In the end, a quantitative analysis nested into the qualitative findings to study the patterns of the teachers’’ reasoning. The results indicated that teachers justified their practical knowledge based on morality and efficiency of action; efficiency of action was found to be presented in two different ways: authentic efficiency and naïve efficiency. The epistemic weight of morality was embedded in what I call “moral care”. The core intention of teachers in the moral care was the commitment that they felt about the “whole character” of students. From this perspective the “dignity” and the moral character of the students should not replaced for any other “instrumental price”. “Caring pedagogy” was the epistemic value of teachers’ reasoning in the authentic efficiency. The central idea in the caring pedagogy was teachers’ intentions to improve the “intellectual properties” of “all or most” of the students using “flexible” and “diverse” pedagogies. However, “regulating pedagogy” was the epistemic condition of practice in the cases corresponding to naïve efficiency. Teachers argued that an effective practical knowledge should regulate and manage the classroom activities, but the targets of the practical knowledge were mainly other “issues “or a certain percentage of the students. In these cases, the teachers’ arguments were mainly based on the notion of “what worked” regardless of reflecting on “what did not work”. Drawing from the theoretical background and the data, teachers’ practical knowledge calls for “praxial knowledge” when they used the epistemic conditions of “caring pedagogy” and “moral care”. It however calls for “practicable” epistemic status when teachers use the epistemic condition of regulating pedagogy. As such, praxial knowledge with the dimensions of caring pedagogy and moral care represents the “normative” perspective on teachers’ practical knowledge, and thus reflects a higher epistemic status in comparison to “practicable” knowledge, which represents a “descriptive” perception toward teachers’ practical knowledge and teaching.

Surveying the field: Primary school teachers’ conceptions of the literacy capabilities of recently graduated primary school teachers

In 2015, ALEA National Council provided funds to support the implementation of a research project which was undertaken by a group of teacher educators and researchers from a range of universities across three Australian states. Stage one of the project, which is reported on here, examined primary school teachers’ perceptions of the personal and professional literacy capabilities of recently graduated primary school teachers. This stage of the project also examined primary school teachers’ perceptions of the impact of initial teacher education on the personal and professional literacy capabilities of recently graduated primary school teachers. The project team, led by Associate Professor Beryl Exley (Queensland University of Technology), included Chief Investigators Dr Eileen Honan (The University of Queensland), Associate Professor Lisa Kervin (University of Wollongong), Associate Professor Alyson Simpson (University of Sydney) and Dr Muriel Wells (Deakin University), with Dr Sandy Muspratt as the Statistical Analyst and Lesley Friend as the Research Assistant with primary responsibility for the publication of the online survey.

Recontextualising policy discourses : a Bernsteinian perspective on policy interpretation, translation, enactment

This paper contributes to critical policy research by theorising one aspect of policy enactment, the meaning making work of a cohort of mid-level policy actors. Specifically, we propose that Basil Bernstein’s work on the structuring of pedagogic discourse, in particular, the concept of recontextualisation, may add to understandings of the policy work of interpretation and translation. Recontextualisation refers to the relational processes of selecting and moving knowledge from one context to another, as well as to the distinctive re-organisation of knowledge as an instructional and regulative or moral discourse. Processes of recontextualisation necessitate an analysis of power and control relations, and therefore add to the Foucauldian theorisations of power that currently dominate the critical policy literature. A process of code elaboration (decoding and recoding) takes place in various recontextualising agencies, responsible for the production of professional development materials, teaching guidelines and curriculum resources. We propose that mid-level policy actors are crucial to the work of policy interpretation and translation because they are engaged in elaborating the condensed codes of policy texts to an imagined logic of teachers’ practical work. To illustrate our theoretical points we draw on data; collected for an Australian research project on the accounts of mid-level policy actors responsible for the interpretation of child protection and safety policies for staff in Queensland schools.

Disambiguating with Bourdieu: unravelling policy from practice in the teaching of children with English as an additional language

This article explores the use of Bourdieusian analysis for examining how policy and practice interact in the teaching of English and therefore in the development of children’s language and literacy; in particular how Bourdieusian analysis uncovers the ways in which teachers’ practice has been influenced unconsciously by centralised shaping of the curriculum for English in England while the pupil demographic in schools has become more linguistically diverse. Data were collected from interviews with both newly qualified and very experienced primary school (pupil ages 5 – 11) teachers, whose pedagogical norms for the teaching of English were challenged by the arrival of non-English speakers in their classrooms. The discussion highlights how the use of Bourdieusian constructs of field, habitus and capital can disambiguate teachers’ practical classroom decisions from the influences of policy expectations.

A fábrica de professores e a padronização do conhecimento

This paper concern the general subject of teacher career construction, since the period of the initial formation in the teaching course of pedagogy crossing the first effectives experiences of professional performance, until the reflections about the results of the continuous formation propositions. The specifics subject is the formative quotidian in the teacher s life beyond of the traditional stereotypes about individuals and institutions bring up for discussion a micro sociological approach about the professionals uncertainty and the personal hopes, the teacher displeasures and the pedagogical satisfactions. The epistemological reflection about the different formatives experiences, taking as example the Programa de Formação de Alfabetizadores PROFA (Alphabetizers Formation Program) developed by the Secretaria Municipal de Educação of Natal City, consider the ambiguous tension between the knowledge that the teachers acquire in their formation and the concrete teachers practical since those experiences. The study methodology is based in the qualitative comprehensive research, sustained by observations, impressive reflective accounts, and also in the theoretic analyses with contemporary references to the critical pedagogical through and education sociology. I used the autobiographic reflective account by the writer-researcher in her owner academic and professional way. I propose an image of a teacher s factory in such a way for its conformist aspects to the continuity stands as much the internal contradictions of the system. Gears, pieces and manual instructions are the educational components of this factory as ideological, institutional and technical structures to aim at to limit the critics and the changes. However the teachers thinking and acting with their owner creativity to adapted uncontexted professional knowledge s to their pedagogical lives. Under those analogies I propose the problem of this research the teacher s formation and theirs pedagogical practices- and also examine briefly its theoretic-philosophical and methodological basis. From the analysis and interpretation of my owner experiential life as teacher s educator I put the necessity of re-thinking the teacher s formation in terms to rebound more meaningfully in their pedagogical actuation. I believe an important part of the teacher s formation process is the personal wish to learn more about the office, explicitly connected to human convictions and values such as to a positive professional identity. Thus, the teacher able to reflect about your owner educator life can find the best way to help the students to think critically about their culture and history, valorizing creative exits by themselves to face the conformist social stands connected with school education

Educação ambiental em praça pública: relato de experiência com oficinas pedagógicas

Oficinas para professores do ensino fundamental foram organizadas com a finalidade de elaborar uma Proposta de Educação Ambiental em uma praça pública no centro histórico da cidade de Botucatu, no estado de São Paulo. Tais oficinas basearam-se em informações sobre o município e informações botânicas da Praça Rubião Júnior, em Botucatu, no âmbito da Educação Ambiental. O resultado foi uma proposta de Educação Ambiental para a praça com a participação efetiva dos professores, em que foi possível resgatar a história da cidade e seus aspectos sócio-econômicos. Foi também demarcada uma trilha ecológica nessa praça utilizando-se as plantas presentes no local, as quais foram previamente identificadas. O trabalho com os professores durante a oficina mostrou-se de fundamental importância para a formação desses profissionais e também estimulou seu interesse a respeito da história local. Essa abordagem, articulada com a diversidade cultural local, enriqueceu a proposta de E. A. e trouxe benefícios para a prática educativa.

As possíveis influências das experiências da prática na cultura docente dos futuros professores de matemática

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Os primeiros contatos de professores de línguas estrangeiras com a prática de Teletandem

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Acolhimento no estágio: entre modelos e possibilidades de formação docente

Pós-graduação em Educação - IBRC

Practical metallurgy and assaying : a text - book for the use of teachers, students, and assayers

UANL

Grammar practice activities : a practical guide for teachers.

Recurso para el profesor que desee combinar la enseñanza de la gramática con una metodología comunicativa. El objetivo de esta publicación es ayudar a los alumnos a dominar los usos gramaticales más importantes que les permitan transmitir significados eficazmente y de manera aceptable. Contiene una colección de actividades prácticas de gramática adecuadas para una amplia variedad de niveles y edades. Acompaña al libro un CD-ROM que proporciona PDFs de todo el material fotocopiable.

The dyslexia checklist : a practical reference for parents and teachers.

Guía para padres y maestros que puede ayudar a comprender mejor a niños y adolescentes con dislexia y otras discapacidades basadas en la lectura. El libro transmite la investigación más reciente disponible y esta lleno de estrategias prácticas, apoyos e intervenciones. Estos instrumentos pueden adaptarse por maestros y padres para fortalecer las necesidades y las habilidades de los estudiantes con discapacidades de lectura y escritura en todos los niveles de edad. Lleno de recomendaciones e información sobre una variedad de temas, contiene juegos para fortalecer la alfabetización de los niños y los conocimientos lingüísticos. Ofrece sugerencias para mejorar las habilidades en el vocabulario, la comprensión, la composición y la expresión escrita, ortografía, matemáticas. También contiene información sobre los derechos educativos de los estudiantes con dislexia.

Inspired English teaching : a practical guide for teachers.

Este manual se centra en un examen más detallado de los planes de estudio, porque las escuelas que trabajan para mejorar su oferta para los superdotados tienen la necesidad de una orientación más detallada en determinadas áreas. Diseñado principalmente para el maestro de primaria, está estructurado en seis capítulos en donde se analiza lo que las escuelas deben estar tratando de lograr y por qué, destaca el hecho de que la capacidad lingüística se reconoce a menudo a una edad temprana del niño y los logros significativos que pueden ocurrir antes de que éste llegue a escuela, mira las matemáticas en la escuela primaria y considera lo que representa ser dotado en matemáticas y cómo la escuela podría reconocer matemáticos dotados, considera la ciencia y su papel en ayudar a los niños a desarrollarse como pensadores sofisticados, explora el papel de las TIC como herramienta de aprendizaje.

Meeting special needs in mainstream schools : a practical guide for teachers.

Se ofrece información sobre la identificación de los tipos de necesidades educativas especiales, ya que la mayoría de los niños con estas necesidades se encuentran en las escuelas ordinarias, y sugiere estrategias para facilitar a los profesores el desarrollo de las habilidades requeridas para que puedan: identificar a los alumnos con necesidades educativas especiales; saben donde conseguir ayuda; proporcionar un apoyo positivo y objetivo; estar familiarizados con el código de prácticas para NEE; aplicar registros y seguir los planes de enseñanza individualizada.

Autistic spectrum disorders : practical strategies for teachers and other professionals.

El espectro autista, a veces también se conoce como trastorno generalizado del desarrollo, se caracteriza por presentar la persona déficit en la interacción social, la comunicación y en la restricción de actividades e intereses. Se han identificado seis áreas principales en las que los niños con este trastorno tienen más dificultad en las escuelas: comportamiento, aprendizaje y pensamiento, conversación, experiencias sensoriales y motoras, lenguaje y comunicación y habilidades sociales. Este manual ofrece ayuda a los adultos interesados en identificar, comprender la razón de esta conducta particular y da consejos prácticos para cambiar, moderar o administrar estas dificultades dentro de escuelas normales. Tiene recursos fotocopiables.