COLLECTIVE IMPROVISATION IN A TEACHER EDUCATION COMMUNITY

COLLECTIVE IMPROVISATION IN A TEACHER EDUCATION COMMUNITY

Self Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices Volume 4 Series Editor John Loughran, Monash University, Clayton, Australia Advisory Board Mary Lynn Hamilton, University of Kansas, USA Ruth Kane, Massey University, New Zealand Geert Kelchtermans, University of Leuven, Belgium Fred Korthagen, IVLOS Institute of Education, The Netherlands Tom Russell, Queen s University, Canada For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/7072

COLLECTIVE IMPROVISATION IN A TEACHER EDUCATION COMMUNITY Edited by Linda Farr Darling University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada Gaalen Erickson University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and Anthony Clarke University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Editors Prof. Linda Farr Darling University of British Columbia Dept. Language & Literacy Education 2125 Main Mall Vancouver BC V6T 1Z4 Canada linda.darling@ubc.ca Prof. Gaalen Erickson University of British Columbia Dept. Language & Literacy Education 2125 Main Mall Vancouver BC V6T 1Z4 Canada gaalen.erickson@ubc.ca Prof. Anthony Clarke University of British Columbia Dept. Language & Literacy Education 2125 Main Mall Vancouver BC V6T 1Z4 Canada anthony.clarke@ubc.ca ISBN: 978-1-4020-9105-6 e-isbn: 978-1-4020-5668-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008934141 c Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com

Dedicated to Murray Ross, Lynda Erickson, and Gillian Rudge, who have supported and encouraged us in this and all our work as teacher educators

CONTENTS Acknowledgements... xiii Series Editor s Foreword... xv CHAPTER ONE: Stepping Lightly, Thinking Boldly, Learning Constantly: Community and Inquiry in Teacher Education Linda Farr Darling, Gaalen Erickson and Anthony Clarke 1. Introduction to CITE: A community of inquiry in teacher education... 1 2. Considering a community of inquiry in 1997... 2 3. Considering the story of CITE in 2006... 3 SECTION I VISIONS CHAPTER TWO: Looking Back on the Construction of a Community of Inquiry Linda Farr Darling 1. Early days... 9 2. From principles to practices... 12 3. CITE takes shape... 16 4. Our report card... 17 5. Perennial tensions... 18 6. Conclusion... 22 CHAPTER THREE: Learning in Synchrony Pamela Essex 1. My introduction to CITE: A community of inquiry for teacher education... 25 2. CITE year 2: Campus, cohorts and the classroom... 27 3. CITE year 3: Navigating as a faculty advisor... 29 4. CITE years 4 and 5: Connecting theory and practice... 36 5. A hiatus and a new view... 37 vii

viii CONTENTS CHAPTER FOUR: Seeing the Complexity of the Practicum Steve Collins 1. Introduction... 39 2. Elements of complexity thinking... 40 3. Ongoing complexity... 48 CHAPTER FIVE: Enjoying Their Own Margins: Narratives of Innovation and Inquiry in Teacher Education Anne M. Phelan 1. Introduction... 51 2. Practices of reform... 52 3. A narrative of innovation... 54 4. A narrative of inquiry... 58 5. Closing by way of return... 61 CHAPTER SIX: In Open Spaces Sylvia Kind SECTION II IMPROVISATIONS 1. Introduction... 67 2. With open minds... 69 3. With open hearts... 69 4. With open eyes... 70 5. With open ears... 71 6. With open hands... 71 7. Leaving traces... 72 CHAPTER SEVEN: Practicing What We Preach: Helping Student Teachers Turn Theory into Practice Rolf Ahrens 1. The problem of useful work... 75 2. Changes in order to increase student teacher involvement... 76 3. The major focus... 77 4. Summary comments... 85

CONTENTS ix CHAPTER EIGHT: Social Studies Education in School Dot Clouston, Lee Hunter and Steve Collins 1. Introduction... 87 2. The essence of a primary classroom: Establishing community... 88 3. Establishing a community on campus... 89 4. Social studies methods at the university... 92 5. Conclusion... 99 CHAPTER NINE: Learning by Design: A Multimedia Mathematics Project in a Teacher Education Program Jane Mitchell, Heather Kelleher and Carole Saundry 1. Introduction... 101 2. Multimedia design and technology integration... 102 3. The case study... 105 4. Transfer to other contexts... 113 5. Conclusion... 117 CHAPTER TEN: Teacher Educators Using Technology: Functional, Participative, and Generative Competencies Anthony Clarke and Jane Mitchell 1. Introduction... 119 2. CITE: A context for exploring teacher educators using technology... 120 3. Understanding change: Innovation and resistance... 120 4. Teacher educators using technology: Two narratives... 122 5. Rethinking the use of technology in CITE... 129 6. Concluding word... 134 CHAPTER ELEVEN: Virtually Aesthetic: The CITE Cohort s Experience of Online Learning Anita Sinner and Linda Farr Darling 1. Introduction... 137 2. Methods... 138 3. Analysis of the CITE cohort experience of virtual learning... 139 4. Insights for educational practice... 152

x CONTENTS CHAPTER TWELVE: Learning to Teach Technology: The Journey of Two Beginning Teachers Jennifer Sutcliffe and Sanyee Chen 1. Introduction... 155 2. Planning the DLT program... 156 3. A teaching model... 157 4. Implementing the DLT program... 159 5. Other DLT activities for the term... 163 6. Reflections on our experiences teaching the DLT component in CITE... 165 CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Mid-Course Feedback on Faculty Teaching: A Pilot Project Stephanie Springgay and Anthony Clarke 1. Introduction... 171 2. Mid-course feedback versus end-of-course feedback on practice... 171 3. The study... 172 4. Conclusion... 183 CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Portfolio as Practice: The Narratives of Emerging Teachers Linda Farr Darling 1. Introduction... 185 2. Part one: Portfolio construction as a practice... 187 3. Part two: The practice of twelve preservice teachers talking about their portfolios... 191 4. Part three: Refining portfolios in teacher education... 200 5. A few concluding remarks... 204 SECTION III REVISIONS CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Complexity Science and the CITE Cohort Anthony Clarke, Gaalen Erickson, Steve Collins and Anne Phelan 1. Introduction... 209 2. Cohorts in teacher education... 210 3. Complexity science... 211

CONTENTS xi 4. A reading of CITE as a complex system... 219 5. Concluding commentary... 223 CHAPTER SIXTEEN: The Filter of Laws : Teacher Education and the British Columbia College of Teachers Teaching Standards Anne Phelan, Gaalen Erickson, Linda Farr Darling, Steve Collins and Sylvia Kind 1. Teaching standards in Canada... 227 2. Teaching standards in British Columbia... 229 3. Community and inquiry in teacher education... 232 4. Self-study in teacher education... 234 5. Emerging themes... 235 6. Teaching standards as hypotheses... 243 7. Conclusion... 245 Contributors... 247 Index... 251

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Editors and authors are grateful to a number of people who helped with this collection, and with the CITE initiative. Judy Paley has been our invaluable editorial assistant as well as our team s secretary since the early days. We would also like to thank each individual who has contributed time and talent to help sustain CITE for over ten years (so far). These include our instructors and faculty advisors at UBC, our sponsor teachers and school coordinators in the Richmond School District, and of course, our cohorts of students who are now teachers. We hope our many graduates continue to build learning communities long after they leave this one. xiii

SERIES EDITOR S FOREWORD As has been well illustrated in the other books in this series, the notion of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices has been taken up by teachers and teacher educators as they have searched for new ways of better understanding the complex work of teaching and learning. Self-study appears to be attractive to practitioners because a self-study approach to researching practice is largely driven by their questions, issues and concerns. Therefore, one immediate value of self-study is in the way it can inform and almost immediately influence practice. This book, edited by Linda Farr Darling, Gaalen Erickson, and Tony Clarke offers an in-depth investigation of the CITE program (A Community of Inquiry in Teacher Education) and is one of the few examples of that which might be described as an institutional self-study (Loughran, 2005). As such, the book illustrates the level of commitment and concern that these teacher educators have for their teacher education practices and for the learning about teaching of their student teachers. They demonstrate that it is crucial to question the taken-for-granted and that in so doing, to be careful to seek to be appropriately responsive to disconfirming data. At a time when teacher education is yet again under scrutiny (see, for example, Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005) and being called upon to do more with less and to do it quickly these teacher educators illustrate how a sustained approach to innovation and excellence in teaching and learning about teaching is in fact central to good teaching and teacher education practices. The CITE program is remarkable in many ways, but perhaps central to its success is the ongoing collaboration, support and sense of responsibility inherent in the manner in which these teacher educators work and learn together; a critical issue rarely raised by those who consistently seek to define what teacher education should do or what outcomes it must produce. The CITE program illustrates well how, with inquiry as a central focus, that teaching and teacher education is able to respond in appropriate ways to the ever-growing expectations inherent in the calls for educational change. Through serious attention to personal practice and experience, the outcomes of teacher educators (and student teachers ) inquiries enhance our understanding of the complexities of teaching and learning and the importance of valuing a knowledge of practice. xv

xvi SERIES EDITOR S FOREWORD The self in the research on practices central to the CITE program clearly depends on the work of the individuals as different chapters attest. The self is also evident in the strong sense of collaboration and sharing so important to the learning displayed throughout this text and particularly evident in the mult-authored chapters. However, it is at the institutional level that the self in this self-study stands out for me as being particularly distinctive. Although self-study encourages a focus on teaching and students learning, it is not easy to maintain the impetus to do so across a program as a whole much less as a retrospective following ten years work. Hamilton and Pinnegar (1998) stated that: As teacher educators, we recognize that we are teachers. We believe that research on teaching practice by teachers holds invaluable promise for developing new understandings and producing new knowledge about teaching and learning. Formalizing such study of practice through self-study is imperative. The value of self-study depends on the researcher/teacher providing convincing evidence that they know what they claim to know [and to] provide evidence that self-study undertaken with rigor will lead to both reconstruction and reconceptualization of teacher education. (Hamilton & Pinnegar, 1998, pp. 243 244) I suggest that this book by Farr Darling, Clarke and Erickson as part of the series designed to complement the International Handbook of Self-study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices (Loughran, Hamilton, LaBoskey & Russell, 2004) extends the work of self-study in ways that begin to respond to the claims of those who seek more of teacher education. The editors and their authors have worked long and hard to draw together their collaborative learning about teaching and teacher education and by paying careful attention to the totality of their teacher education program they are able to offer insights that are informing and valuable to others equally committed to quality in teacher education. J. John Loughran Series Editor REFERENCES Cochran-Smith, M. & Zeichner, K. (Eds.). (2005). Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Hamilton, M.L. & Pinnegar, S. (1998). Conclusion: The value and the promise of Self-study, in Hamilton, M.L. et al., (Eds.) Reconceptualizing teaching practice: self-study in teacher education (pp. 234 246). London: Falmer. Press.

SERIES EDITOR S FOREWORD xvii Loughran, J.J. (2005). Knowledge construction and learning to teach about teaching. In D. Beijaard, P.C. Meijer, G. Morine-Dershimer & H. Tillema (Eds.), New directions in teachers' working and learning environment. (PAGES 27-4 1) Dordrecht: Springer. Loughran, J.J., Hamilton, M.L., LaBoskey, V.K. & Russell, T.L. (Eds.) (2004). The International Handbook of Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices (Volumes 1 & 2). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.