A situative metaphor for teacher learning: the case of university tutors learning to grade student coursework

Abstract

Boyd, Pete and Bloxham, Susan (2013) A situative metaphor for teacher learning: the case of university tutors learning to grade student coursework. British Educational Research Journal, 40 (2). pp. 337-352.Downloaded from: http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/1501/ Usage of any items from the University of Cumbria's institutional repository 'Insight' must conform to the following fair usage guidelines.Any item and its associated metadata held in the University of Cumbria's institutional repository Insight (unless stated otherwise on the metadata record) may be copied, displayed or performed, and stored in line with the JISC fair dealing guidelines (available here) for educational and not-for-profit activities provided that• the authors, title and full bibliographic details of the item are cited clearly when any part of the work is referred to verbally or in the written form AbstractIn the continuing concern about academic standards in the higher education sector a great deal of emphasis has been placed on quality assurance procedures rather than on considering how university tutors learn to grade the quality of work produced by students. As part of a larger research project focused on how tutors grade student coursework this paper contributes by offering a new metaphor for such tutor learning based on a socio-cultural perspective. The research project used think aloud protocols recorded as university tutors graded student coursework and this was followed by semi-structured interviews. The voluntary participants consisted of twenty five lecturers in four contrasting domains, humanities, art & design, medicine and teacher education, in two teaching-led and one research intensive universities.Analysis of the interview data helped to develop and evaluate a metaphorical framework that helps to understand the work and learning of the lecturers. Grading, writing feedback, second marking and moderation are important situated professional learning opportunities for tutors to debate and reach agreement on the academic standard demonstrated by student coursework. The metaphor positions learning to grade student coursework as a complex interplay between the vertical domain of public knowledge and the horizontal domain of tutors' practical wisdom. The metaphor developed in this paper is proposed for critical consideration and wider use by academics, teachers, academic developers and teacher educators as an aid to better understanding of teacher' professional learning.

Personal understanding of assessment and the link to assessment practice: the perspectives of higher education staff

“…It could be argued that it has acted as a generative tool that enabled the exploration of the interplay between practical wisdom about assessment and public knowledge, as conceptualised by Boyd and Bloxham (2013). The approach used in this study has obvious practical implications for academic development in terms of supporting staff to discuss and develop their understandings of assessment and their assessment practices, thus generating professional learning about assessment.…”

“…They report that thinking about assessment became more sophisticated through practical experimentation with formative assessment strategies, but such revised thinking did not necessarily lead to changes in subsequent practice. Boyd and Bloxham's (2013) recent critique of the way in which the relationship between theory and practice is commonly represented is of specific relevance to assessment. Based on their research of university teachers learning to grade student work, they examine the metaphor of the 'gap' between theory and practice and argue that abstract knowledge on the one hand and practical, socially situated ways of working on the other are closely integrated.…”

Learning conversations: teacher researchers evaluating dialogic strategies in early years settings

“…The sustained nature of the project, the collaborative sharing of practice by teachers, the presence of an intermediary in the form of the university research-mentor, the support of institutional leaders, the critical engagement with the research evidencebase, and above all the enquiry-based approach, all point to the alignment of the project with the recommendations, based on review of the relevant research evidence base, for effective continuing professional development for teachers (Cordingley 2008). The metaphor for teachers' professional learning as 'interplay' appears to be useful in conceptualising the current project because the teachers engaged not only with their own practical wisdom but also with the vertical knowledge domain in the shape of the research evidence-base used to build the analytical framework (Boyd and Bloxham 2014;Boyd 2014). The case for classifying such projects as either rational-linear or interactive seems rather fragile (Nutley, Jung, and Walter 2008), not least because the style of facilitation by intermediaries and the level of engagement and ownership by teachers appear to be critical, but these seem likely to vary according to the local situation.…”

“…Teachers' professional learning may be usefully viewed as an 'interplay' between practical wisdom and public (published) knowledge (Boyd and Bloxham 2014;Boyd 2014). Practical wisdom foregrounds 'ways of working' in particular classrooms and educational workplaces, and the situated and social knowledge held by teams of teachers.…”

“…Public knowledge is hierarchically organised through review and publication processes and foregrounds learning theory, research evidence, professional guidance and policy. The metaphor of 'interplay' helps to capture the power relations within the engagement of teachers with the vertical and horizontal dimensions of knowledge (Boyd and Bloxham 2014;Boyd 2014). This issue of power is important because the research mentor in the current study was acting as an intermediary, broker or boundary spanner in the knowledge mobilisation process (Cordingley 2008;Levin 2013).…”