At the time, the lesson was characterised by the observer as being predominantly
travelling, but that this was more evident in the introduction than the main activity phase. On detailed analysis of the post-observation interview it seems that David was confused about which theory(ies) of teaching he was drawing on and that he used a mixture of transfer:
Chapter 8: David
166 Also in the plenary trying to just, to feed in a few ideas for it to sink in (lines 60-61) shaping:
I was also trying to get them to think that prevention would be better than cure (lines 157-158)
Yes, so in a sense I was contriving it to get towards that (line 169) and travelling:
a , e ab d a be e e e e b e
a e a a ? , I a d ec e ab a e than one
strategy for improving it. (lines 154-157)
but thought he was using travelling and growing approaches.
I would say that I was going more along the growing travelling or the growing I ca ea dec de be ee e . (lines 499-501)
I s e e d c be e a e e a d e e e ( a
activity) would have been the growing theory. (lines 506-508)
Aside from this, something that came through strongly in the interview was that David, while clear about what the purpose of the lesson was, had not thought through clearly how he would help the children achieve his objectives. In the introduction he used ideas as they occurred to him during teaching:
O , a e a ca e ead (line 210)
Well, it just occurred to me (line 214)
Ye , I ad ea a ed a a (line 237)
The main activity phase of the lesson was largely unstructured and free flowing and D
I a a d c e b I d d t want to contrive it to get to that point
Chapter 8: David
167 Interviewer: Why not?
Beca e I a ed ee a e d c e . I d d a e ce what they thought (lines 142-147)
So while he had, in his own mind, a clear idea of what he hoped the children would
understand as a result of the lesson, his understanding of the growing theory seems to have
, , , ,
spontaneously from the
. I , D
/ . T , D
assertion that:
I was trying to develop the thinking that I was telling you about (line 176)
there was little evidence of their having learnt anything new from the session. David himself realised this, hence falling back on giving them information from time to time (as explored above) because he was at a loss to know what other strategies to use. On further reflection during the interview he recognised that his teaching style had not really reflected the growing theory but that
a e a e e I a a e d e e
about me trying to develop their thinking skills, this [growing theory] is sort of e e I d e, I e, a e e, e be. O e e be. (lines 515- 517)
This was clearly a source of frustration to him.
I e ee e [ ] e ec e e
prompted and so e d e e e, e a e e e a e b c e e e e e e e. A d a e e I d e be b I
a be I be e I e e e. B a e e I d a
go through that [points to transfer theory] e e e. I d a e a ed in the transfer theory. (lines 528-533)
Chapter 8: David
168 8.3.3 Values evident in teaching.
This desire to reach an ideal in his practice was mirrored in the discussion about his views on the nature of knowledge and education ideology. The researcher categorised the lesson as reflecting a largely liberal progressive ideology, although there was some evidence of
D . D
A d e e, I e e c a c ca . K ed e ea ec ed ,
, e e d e a a a d e e . Y ca ec a
, e e e a d e e . (lines 539-542))
However, the lesson did not appear to be planned in such a way that would enable pupils to develop a view of knowledge that is partial, problematic and viewed differently by
different groups in society. The interviewer therefore probed more deeply:
Interviewer: There was a subtext of that [socially critical approaches], but would you say that was the main focus of what they were doing?( line 544)
I a e a c e e , , b a a d b e . I suppose in a sense I was thinking well that will be my extension. If they were really getting on with it then I would have liked to have moved on to developing the
e b e a de de (29/06/00 lines 546-558)
The frustration of achieving a style that reflects his own conception of knowledge (he consistently selected the socially critical category as representative of his conception) is clear; he knows what he would like to achieve but does not know what that looks like in practice.
[that] a e be a b a d be e e e ead , I ready for it, and s I e a ead a d I eed narrow the focus down more. (lines 551-553)
Chapter 8: David
169 8.3.4 Summary of teaching episode 1.
1. His conception of geography as a complex set of interactions that have a strong values dimension is reflected in his teaching BUT this is not, at this stage of his development, very helpful to him.
T D
I a e a e a I e c .
2. Although David describes himself as a humanistic/welfare geographer, it is the environmental persuasion that appears to be more evident in his teaching. This is perhaps due to the nature of the unit. However, when there were opportunities to raise welfare-related issues (e.g. the distribution of power in decision-making about the environment), he was aware of this and attempted to incorporate it into his teaching.
3. Although enquiry skills were identified as a learning objective, they were not evident in his teaching
4. The use of structure in the form of key concepts to organise pupils thinking was not
, .
5. In terms of the pedagogy required to put his conceptions into practice, this is where the mismatch lies. His teaching reflects a view that control for learning lies with the teacher, and he appears to be using an apprenticeship model of learning to teach. This was evident in his justification for the approaches taken for example, an over-reliance on the strategy of teacher- I
The fact that he is trying to put what he claims to be his conception into action seems to be unhelpful to him as a teacher or to the pupils as learners. There is perhaps a need to rethink his conception to incorporate pedagogical content knowledge. Certainly a diary entry made six months after the observation, when revisiting the data, records
T (D ) /
Chapter 8: David
170 framework) this appears to be because his conception of teaching and learning over-rides his conception of geography. Or is it because his conceptions of teaching and learning are at odds and it is the apprenticeship model he falls back on because he does not yet have the
? (R D 25/01/01).