What factors enhance student teacher understanding of tacit knowledge when working with experienced teachers? Nicola Warren-Lee Background – Ed D research Working with beginning geography teachers on the OU PGCE and Oxford Internship Programme since 2001 Interested in the ways the student teachers learn from their mentors Approaches taken by mentors Different working relationships established between student teachers and mentor Varied nature of the knowledge which student teachers gather whilst in their school settings Perception: some mentor/intern collaborations support a deeper understanding of teaching practices – unveiling embedded experiential knowledge to beginning teachers. Personal observation: this kind of mentoring can promote fast paced learning which can encourage interns to make and justify context specific decisions.

What are interns learning from experienced teachers and how are they learning it? My research focuses on a particular type of teaching knowledge: Embedded experiential knowledge Implicit knowledge Sub-conscious knowledge All of these terms have been used in the relevant literature interchangeably with tacit knowledge

Propositional teaching knowledge Personal (tacit) teaching knowledge Can be spoken, written and agreed upon by an academic or experienced community Eg. Often openly discussed in university and mentor sessions – best practice lesson planning Informal knowledge ‘Knowing in action’ (Schön, 1983) Defined as ‘the cognitive resource which a person brings to a situation that enables them think and perform’ (Eraut, 2000) Understanding tacit knowledge Knowledge which combines propositional and personal allows individuals to handle complex situations where propositional knowledge must be changed to fit individual situations involving the use of tacit knowledge

The relevance of tacit knowledge in teaching Hagger and McIntyre’s –Learning teaching from teachers (2006) ◦ Teachers utilise professional craft knowledge to make their everyday decisions in classrooms. ◦ These decisions are constantly changing and require a multidimensional and simultaneous approach not available via deliberative reasoning. ◦ Hagger and McIntyre’s use of professional craft knowledge emphasises that much of this knowledge is tacit in nature. Tacit knowledge is used by teachers all of the time – this makes it relevant for student teachers to know about and to understand

Research- Key Questions What is tacit knowledge and why might this be useful for student teachers to access? What are the ways in which student teachers can access tacit knowledge from their mentor or more experienced colleagues? What factors encourage student teachers to develop tacit knowledge for teaching use?

Data collection so far Focus group Interviews Survey online ◦ All with geography interns and mentors ◦ Last year’s cohort and ongoing with new group this year ◦ Selected from willing participants – implications for the research

MentorsInterns Varying definitions given One commonality: Learning by doing “knowledge gained through experience” “knowledge you can only gain first hand” Knowledge that is difficult to access “Knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person” Uncertainty over the source of the knowledge “Knowledge that you have ingrained in you that you have gained without knowingly doing so” Tacit knowledge – establishing the ‘object’ of study Definitions - the views of interns and mentors

MentorsInterns Observation Questions Discussion “Interns observing and questioning decisions that teachers make and getting them to fully justify actions. Also by [teachers] making a clear, open show of the decisions they make in the class, however minute they might be” Scenarios Talk Justify decisions Observe Ask questions “Asking them to justify why they have made certain decisions” Ways for interns to access experienced teachers’ tacit knowledge Feedback and initial data suggests:

Usefulness and accessibility? Focus group ◦ Is tacit knowledge useful in learning to teach? ◦ How might you access this knowledge? Emerging themes Uncertainty over what tacit knowledge was - explore Being able to work together-approachability and trust In class interaction Out of class interaction Mentor as a reflective learner * * Highlighted point: Utilising mistakes Elyse:..And also its really good when one or two of the teachers are really open about the mistakes they make, during a lesson and they say ‘ I don’t think I did it right actually’, ‘I should have done it differently, da da da da’. Its really, really good, you know as in that particular situation you know there is an alternative way of doing things. David: I don’t think my mentor or the other teacher would explain why it went wrong they would just say ‘it went wrong’ and draw a line under it and move on to the next lesson.

Further research: Case study of mentor and intern Observed teaching and interview - Aiming to unlock the knowledge in action Student teacher asked Qs including: Why do you do this? How do you get them to...? Why was this useful? Recorded interview reveals that more deliberative judgement and reasoning could be given by the teacher Reasoning not obvious Ben during the lesson. Mentor (Kate) able to recall and justify her choices and actions when reminded of a particular point in the lesson. Specific language used or action took at a particular time during the lesson important in reminding Kate. Prompting her to explain ‘why’ or ‘how she knew’ for example. Appropriate questions a catalyst in unlocking knowledge. How student teachers are supported in thinking about questioning their mentors

Why could tapping into tacit knowledge be useful in the learning to teach process? To go beyond ‘see and do’ Getting more of an insight into why teachers act and respond in the ways they do. Including the teacher’s use of multiple sources of information To increase understanding of context as a major factor in determining teaching decisions. Modelling decision making processes which are context specific Increase understanding of how explicit teaching actions in the classroom may be linked to ‘unseen’ teaching objectives. I have seen heaps of teachers teach, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone reflect on their own teaching like you [researcher] asked him to [do]. This is the first time I have been able to sort of get inside a teacher’s head and get a glimpse of all the things he thought about which influenced what we were seeing as his teaching’ (From a study on tacit knowledge by Ethel and McMeniman, 2000.)

Relevance for ITE Carter Review Qualities of mentoring highlighted: ‘Effective mentors are outstanding teachers and subject experts, who are also skilled in explaining their own practice’