Training for Pedagogical Decision Making

Abstract

The University of Virginia program focuses on creating a reasonable blend of the available empirical research on teaching and the knowledge that comes from other sources such as the wisdom of practice. The authors describe how new methodological and technological developments are used to enhance the pedagogical knowledge and skills of preservice teachers. Of particular interest is howthe UVa preservice curriculum interfaces with the curricular focus of the Virginia Beginning Teacher Assistance Program.reservice and inservice teachers must be able to make sound, professionally defensible, instructional decisions.In this paper, we describe the process of encouraging preservice and inservice teachers to speak the same language, that is, to draw on the results of research on effective teaching and to concentrate on common problems they can be expected to face in their classrooms. Second, we describe briefly how others have tried to unravel the complexities of applying teaching knowledge to decision making and how we are beginning to translate such work into professional programs for teachers at the University of Virginia.There are several critical attributes of a professional. According to Schein (1972), a professional is a person who is engaged in a full-time, serviceoriented occupation; who has a strong motivation for the work; who possesses specialized knowledge gathered over a prolonged period of training -knowledge specific to an area of expertise; who bases decisions on general principles and the objective needs of clients; who develops professional associations for the setting of standards; and who demands autonomy of his or her own performance. Like Schein and others, we have been persuaded that a professional is someone who decides how to apply his or her specialized knowledge and skills to solve particular problems and does so with a reasonably high degree of self-determination.Translating this view of professional behavior into teacher preparation programs is difficult because the knowledge upon which teachers can base their decisions is still limited. This knowledge is documented in encyclopedias of educational research and handbooks of research on teaching, but the knowledge is not organized to facilitate training. The situation is complicated further by the fact that the language of teaching and teacher education is so multifarious that it makes communication about many teaching concepts difficult at times and often incomplete.In this paper we describe a kind of teacher education that involves helping teachers learn how to use some commonly recognized teaching principles by creating training activities that require active participation in simulated and live situations. By encouraging this interaction, we hope to equip teachers to learn from their own experiences in classrooms.

The ABCs of pedagogy for clinical teachers

“…Our effort to define a fundamental core of important basic pedagogical principles began with a detailed literature search of textbooks, journal articles and Internet sites which purport to address basic pedagogy 1,6 , 7,10 , 11–36 . From these sources, one of the authors (PM) generated a large list of pedagogical concepts, items and principles.…”

Reinventing Student Teaching

“…In programs designed to foster consonance, teacher education is generally faulted for not preparing prospective teachers to make sound professional decisions using the language and concepts of research on effective teaching (Anderson & Enz, 1989;McNergney, Lloyd, Mintz, & Moore, 1988). In this conception, the goal of teacher educators is to prepare students who are skilled situational decision makers (McNergney et al, 1988) and reflective classroom practitioners (Arends, 1988) who make what other professionals would recognize as justifiable educational judgments.…”

“…In this conception, the goal of teacher educators is to prepare students who are skilled situational decision makers (McNergney et al, 1988) and reflective classroom practitioners (Arends, 1988) who make what other professionals would recognize as justifiable educational judgments. In many programs, these goals are achieved by creating a high degree of consonance between theory and practice and by providing coordination between the language and messages conveyed by the university and the school (Berg, Murphy, Nagel, & Malian, 1989).…”

“…Examples include the Arizona State University/Maricopa County &dquo;Teacher Residency Training and Research Project&dquo; (Anderson & Enz, 1989), the University of Maryland's &dquo;Clinical Classroom Program&dquo; (Arends, 1988), the California State University system's &dquo;Clinical Supervision Initiative&dquo; (Berg et al, 1989), and the University of Virginia's preservice curriculum (McNergney et al, 1988). The University of Virginia's preservice program, for example, dovetails with statewide efforts to build a common curriculum for all teachers.…”