TEAN Conference, Aston University, Birmingham, May 2012 How do we create effective teachers? Exploring our pedagogy for initial teacher education in schools and HEIs Dr Elizabeth White School of Education, University of Hertfordshire Sue Field The Graduate School, Canterbury Christ Church University

Liz’s Research Context

Pedagogical Knowledge of Teacher Educators Making tacit professional knowledge explicit to trainees Lunenberg et al. (2007) Teacher and Teacher Education 23, Loughran (2006) Developing a pedagogy of teacher education: understanding teaching and learning about teaching. Routledge. Learning to think like a teacher

It was valuable for [the trainees] to go through the process and then think through how the pupils might respond to it I think what they found particularly useful about the observation was looking at how you went about teaching … Findings – personal beliefs about teacher education Beatrice Amanda What I found was most useful was being put into groups, allocated a topic and then as a group to come up with how you would go about teaching it... I think it is … generating ideas and ways in which to go about teaching that I found most useful

Loughran, J. (2009) Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice 15 (2) “Teaching teaching is about knowing the what, why and how of practice in sophisticated ways and being able to create pedagogical situations that encourage students of teaching to learn about the problematic nature of teaching and to be comfortable in a world of such uncertainty.”

Sue’s study: The trials of transition, and the impact on the pedagogy of new teacher educators (Field, forthcoming) Interviews conducted with six new teacher educators in an HEI, about their experiences of transition All were former teachers, with between 2 and 3 years’ experience in HE None volunteered information about a pedagogy of initial teacher education, or appeared to recognise its relevance All needed prompting to think beyond (curriculum) ‘subject knowledge’, and to consider how they had, or had built up, their knowledge of meta-teaching

Responses to prompts Reflecting upon teaching/deconstructing previous practice (‘why it worked) Instinctive knowledge of theoretical underpinning (of teaching and learning) Implicit understanding of how teachers learn, from previous experience as a mentor - more about common sense than theories Reading (generic texts on teaching and learning) Sitting by Nellie “I think I overestimated how much I needed to upgrade that pedagogy (school teaching), because when it came down to it, it was mainly experience and common sense transferred into a different situation.”

First order to second order practitioners Success as school practitioners Expertise in teaching and learning Wealth of tacit understandings Personal theories, based on reflection in and on action Enthusiasm for curriculum subjects Knowledge of how schools work Often experience of leadership/management (Currency)

Stages of knowledge acquisition

Teaching about teaching In the same way as the novice teacher needs to be sensitive to releasing control in order to manage the complexity of teaching, so too teacher educators need to depart from their well-marked path and approach the edge of chaos in order to re-embrace the creativity, experimentation and risk-taking that so shapes a developing understanding of pedagogy. Loughran 2006

Provocations What do you think helps a student to learn to teach? How would you describe what learning to teach means to you?

Plenary What will this mean to us? How will it influence our practice?

References BERRY, A. & LOUGHRAN, J. (2002) Developing an understanding of learning to teach in teacher education. IN LOUGHRAN, J. & RUSSELL, T. (Eds.) Improving Teacher Education Practices through Self-study. London, RoutledgeFalmer. Boyd, P. & Harris, K. (2010) Becoming a university lecturer in teacher education: expert school teachers reconstructing their pedagogy and identity, Professional Development in Education, 36(1- 2), LOUGHRAN, J. (2006) Developing a pedagogy of teacher education: understanding teaching and learning about teaching. Routledge LOUGHRAN, J. (2009) Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice 15 (2) LUNENBERG, M., KORTHAGEN, F. & SWENNEN, A. (2007) Teacher and Teacher Education 23, McKeon, F. & Harrison, J. (2010) Developing pedagogical practice and professional identities of beginning teacher educators, Professional Development in Education, 36(1-2), MURRAY, J. & MALE, T. (2005) Becoming a teacher educator: evidence from the field. Teaching and Teacher Education 21, Murray, J. (2006) The findings of the ESCalate study on teacher educators’ induction into Higher Education. [online] ESCalate. Available from TAYLOR, A. (2008) Developing understanding about learning to teach in a university-schools partnership in England. British Educational Research Journal, 34,