Higgins and Leat (2001) have attempted to map the various models of teaching and teacher development and found that although the mapping process failed, it reinforced an
understanding that the models are not mutuall exclusive. the represent different perspectives, generated b different contexts and insights. (Higgins & Leat, 2001: 60) Some of these models seek to describe, for example, the difference between expert and novice teachers, stage models of development, or the types of knowledge deemed necessary for teaching; others are more explanatory, for example socialisation and
enculturation as an explanation for teacher development and effectiveness, or the impact of teachers beliefs and images on development.
Turner-Bisset (2001:2). has discussed what she calls the multiplicit of paradigms, which claim to be good wa s of conceptualising teaching . These, along with a useful summar of each, are listed as: teaching as a common-sense activity; teaching as an art; teaching as a craft; teaching as an applied science; teaching as a system; teaching as reflective practice; and teaching as competence. More detailed accounts can be found in, for example, Schön (1987), Elliot (1993), Cooper & McIntyre (1996), and Calderhead & Shorrock (1997). Turner-Bisset acknowledges that these paradigms do not alwa s manifest themselves in pure or discrete form, whether at the level of teachers professional work, or at the level of national trends and policies. However, they can be detected in various writings about teaching. (2001:2). There are also elements of similarit between paradigms, for example
Chapter 3: Learning to teach
46 teaching as craft can be said to have led to the teaching as competence view held by
government and portrayed in the first of the circulars (DFE, 1993) designed to provide a clear framework for Initial Teacher Training. The continuing influence of this paradigm can be seen in subsequent publications (DfEE, 1998a; TTA, 2002). The model adopted for developing these competences could be said to be the apprenticeship model, as evidenced by the increasing amount of time student teachers are now required to spend in the
classroom. Criticisms of this model include that of John (1996) who suggests that, because the knowledge, understanding and skills of good teachers are not [necessaril ] visible to the apprentice, she/he focuses on personal characteristics of the teacher instead warm, friendly, and enthusiastic with the result that they place undue emphasis on the
development of these qualities, rather than knowledge bases required to teach. The influence of these paradigms can be seen in the two contrasting models of
professionalism (or professional knowledge) put forward by Fish (1995) (table 3.3). While other models could clearly be proposed, these deliberately contrasting ones serve to
illustrate how the way in which teaching is conceptualised can affect what counts as professional knowledge. Here the technical-rational model has elements of the teaching as common-sense, craft, system and competence paradigms, while the professional-artistry model has elements of the teaching as reflection and teaching as art paradigms.
Professional-artistr seems to be similar to the new paradigm that Turner-Bisset proposes that of teaching as a knowledge-based profession, where knowledge encompasses concepts, facts, processes, skills, beliefs, attitudes and values (Turner-Bisset, 2001:159) and in which teaching knowledge is not static but constantly under revision.
As table 3.3 shows, each model puts forward a view of, for example, what counts as professional activity, and what constitutes quality in teaching. Each will, in turn, lead to a model of teacher education: the technical-rational giving rise to the competency-based approach to Initial Teacher Training and the professional-artistry view underlying the reflective practitioner philosophy of Initial Teacher Education. In the former, practice in the instrumental sense is all important. In the latter, what is important is an approach to teaching and learning to teach which enables teachers to work at their practice, modif it and keep it under critical control (Eraut, 1989, p.175) (Fish, 1995:50). The term
Chapter 3: Learning to teach
47
The Technical-Rational view The Professional-Artistry view
Follows rules, laws, schedules; uses routines, prescriptions
Starts where rules fade; sees patterns, frameworks
Uses diagnosis/analysis to think about teaching Uses interpretation and appreciation to think about teaching
Wants efficient systems Wants creativity and room to be wrong Sees knowledge as graspable, permanent Sees knowledge as temporary, dynamic,
problematic
Theory is applied to practice Theory emerges from practice
Visible performance is central There is more to it than surface features Setting out and testing for basic competences is
vital There is more to teaching than the sum of the parts Technical expertise is all Professional judgement counts
Sees professional activities as masterable Sees mystery at the heart of professional activities
Emphasise the known Embraces uncertainty
Standards must be fixed; standards are measurable; standards must be controlled
That which is most easily fixed and measurable is also trivial professionals should be trusted Emphasises assessment, appraisal, inspection,
accreditation
Emphasises investigation, reflection, deliberation
Change must be managed from outside Professionals can develop from inside Quality is really about quantity of that which is
easily measurable
Quality comes form deepening insight into one s values, priorities, actions
Technical accountability Professional answerability
This is training This is education
Takes the instrumental view of learning Sees education as intrinsically worthwhile Table 3.3: Two models of professionalism (Fish, 1995:43)
While Fish is unequivocal in her assertion that teaching should be viewed as professional artistry, Higgins and Leat (2001:60) believe that being aware of the full range of models of teacher development, and the assumptions that underlie them, enables a more informed and deliberate selection appropriate to context or person. In this context, Higgins and Leat would view the multiplicit of paradigms (Turner-Bissett, 2001) in ITE positively. Perhaps this accounts for the number of ideologies, or orientations that Calderhead and Shorrock (1997) say are evident in Initial Teacher Education courses in the UK. They provide a summary of conceptual orientations in Initial Teacher Education (derived from Zeichner, 1983 and Fieman-Nemser, 1990):
Academic orientation the emphasis is on subject expertise; liberal arts education background is a crucial part of teacher preparation
Chapter 3: Learning to teach
48 Practical orientation teacher as craftsperson; apprenticeship models of learning
to teach
Technical orientation behaviourist view; favours micro-teaching, competency view
Personal orientation emphasises the importance of relationships; favours personal development through experimentation and discovery
Critical enquiry orientation schooling is a process of social reform; promotion of democratic values; social context of learning is important; teachers are seen as agents of change.
Because ITE often reflects aspects of all five orientations, it leads to courses that employ a range of types of learning experiences for student teachers knowledge accumulation, performance learning, practical problem-solving, learning about relationships and the process of assimilation which arguably provides them with mixed messages about pedagogy. Indeed, how teacher educators themselves conceptualise pedagogical knowledge has been largely under-researched (Higgins and Leat, 2001). Teacher educators own beliefs and the wa s in which the impact on course design is implicit rather than explicitly acknowledged and, from personal experience, it is a matter for
individual reflection rather than for course team discussion. This may seem a rather strange state of affairs for ITE departments or schools of education, but it is possibly the product of a number of factors including external influences on courses, the enormous pace of change within ITE over the last decade, and the subsequent workloads of course tutors. However, it is clear that the variety of models of teaching described would, if providing theoretical underpinning, lead to a variety of different course designs and roles for universities, schools & tutors, and potentially enormous philosophical and practical tensions within these courses. This is usefull explored b Klein (2001) who recognises that pre-service teachers are faced with enormous conflicts and contradictions in courses where tutors
appeal to hearts and minds while students lived realit of learning their subject is ver different (2001: 263). In the English ITT context an example of this might be where the government imposes a curriculum set around competences & standards (practical
orientation), some tutors teaching reflects a sociall critical perspective on the curriculum (critical enquiry orientation), and yet other tutors and school mentors may adopt a style that reflects a mixture of practical and personal orientations. The question of whether it is
Chapter 3: Learning to teach
49 more effective to devise ITE courses on the principles of a common, agreed ideology or to take a more eclectic approach selecting horses for courses will be revisited in chapter 4.