RESEARCHING - THE TEACHING BY Sudhanshu Bhushan & Rebecca Phillips

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RESEARCHING - THE TEACHING

BY

Sudhanshu Bhushan & Rebecca Phillips

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RESEARCHING THE RESEARCHER

RESEARCHING THE TEACHER

AND HIS/HER 

TEACHING

AND SO IT’S TIME TO

RESEARCH THE TEACHING

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Chapter 1 Researching Teaching for Understanding

Section One: Researching Teaching through Pedagogy 

Researching Teaching for Understanding

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INTRODUCTION 

As a  teacher in academic world I was often concerned about thinking of interesting ways of teaching my students. However, the rush and bustle of Business School life quickly taught me that most things were urgent and immediate. It was important to be ready to move  at the end of a lesson, there was a constant need to respond quickly to events, and time was always a resource that was in short supply. Therefore, attempting to genuinely engage students in their learning was more an idealistic goal than a common achievement. To realize the goal meant attempting to balance the constant (non-direct teaching) demands of school while attempting to know more about how students learnt and how particular teaching strategies genuinely impacted on students' learning outcomes. This tension between the nature of teachers' work and the time, energy and expertise necessary to inform practice through research, I believe, is a constant dilemma for teachers. 

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Much of my knowledge about teaching and learning was tacit and therefore implicit in my actions as I was rarely required (or encouraged) to make it explicit through articulation—to myself or to others. In retrospect I sometimes wonder what I thought researching teaching might have meant or what it might have involved. However, I do not think I would be exaggerating to say that I thought researching teaching was something which was the domain of others (academics) far removed from the actual classroom, sadly reinforcing the stereotype so well described by Schön (1983) of the swampy lowlands of practice and the elevated highlands of theory. I also think that my view then was perhaps not all that different from many of my colleagues and was probably a part of the ongoing tension inherent in teachers' work. 

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The idea that researching teaching required some form of study at a distance from real classrooms was perhaps superficially influenced by an understanding of research as a form of knowledge and an approach to practice which was far removed from the work of teachers. Such a view would see schools as simply being a data source which, following data collection and analysis, could lead to conclusions which might be reported—but not necessarily in a form that would be particularly accessible or helpful to teachers in their everyday classroom practice.  I was reminded of this view of researching teaching when I read  a author  (Rebecca Midgley) and  wrote to her – she then invited me to collaborate with her when she was herself struggling to 'make sense' of her experiences during (and following) her return to school teaching from corporate world. In my discussions and correspondence with Rebecca   following points came up : 

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For many years I have pondered the way in which teacher knowledge and experience has been regarded by teachers and other educationalists. I have repeatedly heard comments such as, 'I am only a teacher' when teachers introduce themselves at the start of a new course; 'It is only about me and my teaching' when sharing their experiences, and; 'It is only in my classroom in my school', which indicates that teachers feel their knowledge and experience does not extend beyond their own situation. I find myself thinking the same way about the story of my experiences in the business education  classroom…many teachers have learned to rely on educational ideas coming from outside the profession.

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Policy and curriculum ideas have generally been produced by others, with teachers the first targets of the change process. Teacher ability to adapt ideas to suit particular contexts have been part of the rhetoric but it has been rare to have the introduction of new ideas associated with the time and support needed for teachers to implement new approaches with understanding. Teacher personal opinions have had little place in the introduction of most educational change. Teacher knowledge and experience is rarely regarded as a sound basis for shaping educational change. Teacher knowledge has been regarded as idiosyncratic and difficult to analyse and be understood in any generalizable way.

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While teachers may acknowledge external knowledge as having higher status than their own knowledge, they are quick to point out that educational theories and ideas are often irrelevant in assisting them to address day-to-day teaching concerns. After returning to business school teaching I can identify closely with the teacher feelings about the educational knowledge that matters.

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From the perspective of an educational researcher I had to come to terms with the teacher knowledge I was gaining. It was extremely powerful but closely linked to a particular class of students in particular contexts. It was difficult to analyse and communicate to others. My day-to-day concerns did not seem to fit with the diverse range of ideas and theories I had in my background. Teaching made me feel that my growing knowledge was limited, like the teachers who made the comments at the start of this section…For me, the return to teaching was often a confusing and unsettling experience…The dailiness of teaching and its unpredictability appeared to dominate my reflections…My attempt to analyse and communicate my understanding of teaching and learning at the end of the year was only partly successful…Very vivid and significant teaching episodes should have been a basis for understanding but it was difficult to separate my own responses and the missed opportunities from any coherent description of progress…On reflection, my frustration during the year was in trying to analyse the day-to-day teaching experiences in a way that might lead to consistent improvement in classroom interactions.

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I was also struggling to find ways of communicating my 'teacher knowledge'. I was experiencing the earlier observations made about teachers and their knowledge, yet feeling that I should have been able to better understand and use my experience. I would argue [now] that teacher knowledge has different characteristics in the way it is developed and used. (Loughran and Northfield, 1996, pp. 134–5) 

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Rebecca’s  reflections on her experiences reminded me of the importance of researching teaching in ways that are both accessible to teachers and useful in their work and this is difficult if research is something done to teachers rather than with them—or by them. In essence, if teachers' knowledge is to be better understood, to be helpful, informative and valuable to the profession and the educational community at large, then researching teaching needs to be similarly understandable, useful and valuable to teachers. However, this is difficult to achieve if research is not an important part of teaching and teachers' work. In fact, it is this notion of research being separate from the work of teachers that led Northfield (1997) to develop a compelling argument about the status of teacher-research in his paper 'It is interesting …but is it research?' in which he (in a similar way to the extract above) begins to unravel the thinking which underpins the 'typical' understanding of research in comparison to the type of research that teachers may find helpful and choose to be engaged in. 

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In many ways I would now argue that an important way of conceptualizing research is by considering it to be seeking answers to questions and, in regard to researching teaching, that the questions are those which are important in the teaching and learning environment. Therefore, the approach (method) to the research depends on the questions and the type of evidence (no matter the form: quantitative, qualitative or both) one might consider appropriate and helpful in answering those important questions. 

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Researching teaching, then, is something which may be conducted in a variety of ways and the diversity of approaches needs to be recognized, acknowledged and understood; particularly by teachers as they are (hopefully) the end users—if not always the producers—of the knowledge. However, understanding teachers' perceptions of, and approaches to, research is important and it has been through involvement in the PEEL (Project for the Enhancement of Effective Learning) (Baird and Mitchell, 1993; Baird and Northfield, 1992) and PAVOT Projects (Perspective and Voice of the Teacher) (Northfield, Mitchell and Loughran, 1997) that much of my understanding and appreciation of researching teaching has developed. 

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The PEEL project (which is more fully examined by me in Chapter 4 in this book) highlights the importance of researching teaching for teachers but, importantly, does so with a direct link between the research and teachers' practice. For the past 15 or so years, PEEL teachers have been involved in examining their teaching and its impact on students' learning as they have worked towards answering the question, 'How can we help our students become active (rather than remain as passive) learners?' This research question has spawned numerous projects and has been one of the most remarkable stories of ongoing research and the development of understanding of classroom teaching and learning that I have encountered. What may (by some) be regarded as a simple question has led to the development of a knowledge base and of teaching procedures and strategies which both resonate with, and are accessible to, teachers as they strive to enhance their students' metacognition (Flavell, 1976; White, 1988).

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As a result of the PEEL project, teacher-research projects have been encouraged and developed through PAVOT. Again, understanding what research means and how it is interpreted and used by teachers is important but it is clear that there are a number of important features which have become identifiable through these projects. These features are comprehensively outlined by Loughran and Northfield (1997) but, for now, some of these features include: 

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•The need to recognize that teachers begin with comprehensive 'big picture' aspirations as they begin to study their classrooms. Most frequently, their studies centre on classroom concerns which represent persistent tensions, dilemmas and difficulties. They are reluctant to focus on more narrowly defined areas as they remain aware of the complexity and uniqueness of their classrooms and the way many factors interact in these settings. 

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• Teachers focus on their classroom issues and are conscious that this limits generalizability to other situations (e.g. 'It is only my classroom' and 'No-one else will be interested' are common teacher responses). 

• The complexity and perceived uniqueness of teacher concerns makes communication to others difficult and teachers tend to feel isolated with their concerns. 

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• The primary role of the teacher means that new findings and teaching become interwoven. Teachers feel they need to act immediately on new possibilities and adjust their teaching. The research focus therefore alters, as adjustments are made, and new insights and possibilities emerge. Hence the intertwining of teaching and researching is such that as one alters so does the other so the traditional notion of research of 'holding the problem in place while it is researched' is not really possible as the problem develops, shifts and changes as it is responsive to the continual shifts in the teaching.

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• Teachers have shown little interest in merely studying a problem to clarify it, or prove its existence. As just stated, they want to do something about it. This means that their research almost always includes designing and implementing new approaches—classroom interventions that are intended to achieve change. However, teachers (unlike traditional researchers) have to deal with the consequences of their interventions as part of their daily routine with the class. Negative consequences can affect a class for the remainder of a year. This means that research can be a high-risk activity for teachers and significantly affect their primary role as a teacher.

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• For most teachers, the primary purpose in studying their teaching is to teach more effectively in their own classroom settings. This is a very personal purpose and is one that is usually not part of the research agenda for an academic researcher who is researching other people's classrooms and wider contexts. 

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Therefore, in researching teaching there are a number of important issues to be considered and to be communicated to the educational community. In many ways, the work of PEEL and PAVOT is similar to the development of self-study in education faculties, which continues to grow and gain acceptance in the research community. 

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The S-STEP (Self-study in Teacher Education Practice) SIG (Special Interest Group) of AERA (American Education Research Association) has become a major source of research into the teaching practice of teacher educators with the main intent that such research will inform practice. A most important touchstone for this work is the book by Mary Lynn Hamilton (Reconceptualizing Teaching Practice: Self-study in Teacher Education, 2018) which illustrates a variety of approaches to researching teacher education practice. The wave of self-study research has highlighted interesting parallels with some of the tensions and dilemmas of researching teaching whereby attempts to better align the learning through research and the actions of practice become problematic as the two become more closely intertwined and personal. 

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It is this need to continue to forge stronger links between research and practice that was the genesis of this book. At the first S-STEP Conference at Herstmonceux (UK) in 2008 I was amazed by a presentation of a longitudinal research project being conducted by a group of teachers in Alaska. Not only was their research approach very well organized, and their data collection clear and appropriate, but their presentation took a form that caused me to question some of my 'taken for granted' assumptions about researching teaching. This group of teachers presented their research findings as a play (Austin et al., Chapter 7) and it demonstrated such a clear understanding of their work that it caused many conference participants to reconsider not only their own research positions, but also the manner in which they offered their knowledge to the educational community. 

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The participants in this book have continued this challenge by being willing contributors in a project to demonstrate a diverse range of approaches to the researching of teaching. It is an attempt to highlight the need for all in education to 'reframe' our understanding of our taken-for-granted notions of researching teaching. The book is organized in sections that are designed to illustrate particular themes so that the overall project offers a coherent pathway along a continuum of approaches to methodologies and practices in researching teaching.

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SECTION 1 - RESEARCHING TEACHING THROUGH PEDAGOGY

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The first section is Researching Teaching Through Pedagogy. This section of the book opens with chapter in which his exploration of our understanding of pedagogy illustrates a number of important issues both about pedagogy and how research approaches impact on it. My work with anecdotes illustrates the value of exploring new ways of looking into pedagogy through students' eyes and offers a powerful way for teachers to reconsider their classroom practice and their students' learning.

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Chapter 2 The Language of Pedagogy and Primacy of Student Experience

Chapter 2

Here I  illustrate how an expert pedagogue's approach to, and practice of, teaching can be 'unpacked' and 'defined' in ways that are particularly apt in helping us to understand the complex nature of teaching and learning and the value of being able to describe and analyse teaching. Their analysis sheds new light on teachers' skills in a way that goes far beyond a technical-rationalist approach.

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Chapter 3 The Genesis of Effective Scientific Explanations for the Classroom

The third chapter in this section I along with  by Ian Mitchell, the co-founder of the PEEL project focus on  full account of the PEEL project and how it has developed interesting ways of researching teaching that are 'teacher-friendly' and 'academically valuable'. Ian puts a compelling case for working with teachers in ways that help to develop a rich understanding of teaching and learning so that it might highlight the difficulties associated with articulating and documenting teachers' professional knowledge-in-action.

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Chapter 4 Bridging the Gulf between Research and Practice

Bridging the Gulf Between Research and Practice

It is almost a platitude to assert that there is a gulf between educational research and teaching practice—that there are a lack of structures to communicate research to teachers; few incentives for, and many barriers to, full-time teachers engaging in research; and that the great majority of published research has little or no influence on teaching practice. There are a number of reasons for this: some research is not intended to directly influence classroom practice and some (sadly too much) is not worthy of influencing teachers' practice—it does not deal with problems that matter to teachers or does not suggest approaches which teachers find useful and flexible.

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However, not all educational research deserves criticism of these kinds; over the past 20 years there has been much research which, when shared with teachers in ways which they find accessible and meaningful, is seen as relevant, interesting and at least potentially useful. Unfortunately, opportunities to connect regularly with relevant research are rare or absent in the working lives of most teachers. 

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Written accounts of research or research-based advice suffer from (at least) two types of problems with respect to their perceived irrelevance to teachers: how the ideas are communicated; and the type of ideas and advice that the academic literature tends to offer. Important aspects of the first type of problem are well known. For example, papers in academic journals are inaccessible to most teachers, both in location and in style of writing; they are littered with references to other literature and to constructs which are unfamiliar and threatening to teachers, and the teacher-reader is dumped into the middle of a conversation whose origins and earlier exchanges are unknown to the teacher, but assumed as familiar by the writer. It is difficult, if not impossible, to form rich meanings in such circumstances.

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The type of idea and advice that one gives to teachers depends in part on how one views teaching. Teaching has elements of a craft, a science and an art, each of these has different implications for attempts to improve classroom practice. Much has been written about the conflict (or apparent conflict) between what student-teachers are told in universities and the teacher culture they find in the practicum. The traditional teacher culture frames teaching primarily as a craft, with new teachers needing craft knowledge about what to do and how to do it in a range of common classroom situations. This culture is suspicious of attempts to turn teaching into a science by grounding practice in empirical research and developing theory which explains and predicts successful practice.

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Much of the research of the 1960s and 1970s that attempted to do this is now seen as simplistic, however, as mentioned earlier, more recent research on learning provides insights and advice that can be of real and substantial value to teachers. Unfortunately what is commonly missing in the accounts in the literature is the craft knowledge needed to make the scientific knowledge work—the classroom wisdom that is so essential for any intervention or change to be successful: How and when is this best introduced? What are inappropriate times and ways of doing this? What do students' initial reactions and attempts look like? Are there common misunderstandings or negative reactions that can be anticipated and avoided? What refinements, extensions and variations can be added later? This wisdom may not be known to the academic writer—it is a type of knowledge that is best generated by teachers operating alone in normal classrooms—but even if it is known it is not highly valued in the race for tenure and promotion and is not included in most papers.

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Improving classroom learning requires both craft and scientific knowledge, but the complexity of classroom teaching means that it also has elements of an art. There are some aspects and examples of skilled teaching that are highly creative and cannot be codified and taught in advance. There are often only very subtle differences between a lesson which was intriguing and inspiring for the students and one which was boring or confusing. As Cochrane-Smith and Lytle (1993) pointed out, teachers in the classroom are constantly reacting to complex events using very complex analytic frames. Consider, for example, a well-planned teaching program with a series of closely linked activities that follows a general sequence as originally suggested in the literature. In the intended program, the third activity flows naturally and logically from the second, but any experienced teacher could easily construct a number of common (and hence likely) scenarios which would require an instant and radical change to activity three.

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Some of these scenarios could involve unexpected management problems, but changes of plan could equally flow from unanticipated student misinterpretation of a task, the revelation of hitherto unsuspected prior views which render invalid some of the assumptions underpinning activity three—a brilliant student question, a request from excited and interested students to extend activity two in a different direction, or an interruption from another teacher which suddenly removes half the class. Incidents such as these should not be regarded by academic writers as bothersome and abnormal sources of noise or error.

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They occur constantly, probably daily, during most teachers' working week and skilled teachers are constantly accommodating them, usually with only a few seconds of available reaction time, while attempting to stay generally on track in a way analogous to a white water kayaker using her paddle to cope with unexpected eddies and rocks as she stays near the centre of the current sweeping her along.  One implication of the artistic nature of skilled teaching is that accounts of research should be rich with short-term contextual detail. From the perspective of teacher-as-artist, the teacher-reader's need for rich classroom detail is much more than just a call for examples, rather it flows from the fact that a decision about whether or not a particular course of action is sensible can only be made in the context of all the other things occurring at that moment.

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SECTION TWO: RESEARCHING TEACHING THROUGH COLLABORATION 

Researching Teaching Through Collaboration  The second section of the book is Researching Teaching Through Collaboration.

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Chapter 5 Researching the Cultural Politics of Teachers' Learning

The first chapter in this section documents my  approach to genuinely working with teachers in researching their practice whilst maintaining a real desire for the research to be an integral part of the change process in schools—a change process (hopefully) driven by teachers. My approach to research clearly demonstrates how working in partnership with schools opens up the possibilities for teachers to use initiatives and opportunities in ways that can be more advantageous and beneficial to the local school community than could realistically be possible by simply implementing bureaucratically mandated 'reform'.

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Chapter 6 Exploring the Labyrinth of Researching Teaching

This chapter illustrates the tensions, difficulties and dilemmas faced by an 'external expert researcher' working in collaboration with a 'teacher-researcher' in an attempt to support teacher-research groups. The chapter illustrates both interesting research and an interesting approach to conveying that to others. The chapter represents two experiences but as one story: 'Maureen was engaged in practice with other practitioners; Peter's practice was engaged with her practice as one of the facilitators. It was not meta-facilitation; just another form of facilitation. Facilitation, we both soon learned, was like stepping into a labyrinth. There were times when we didn't know which way to turn to make sense of what we were experiencing. We were frequently stymied. It was like fighting a monster in the triton-chamber. We felt like Theseus and wanted to call Ariadne to our aid. But there was no Ariadne in our story—only ourselves. If the monster was to be slain, then we had to find a way to do it. Because the monster was of our making, not a wicked king's! The monster was us!'

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Chapter 7 Gretel and Hansel, Research in the Woods: An Alaskan Fairytale in Four Acts

Following on from Peter and Maureen is the work of Terri Austin and her Alaskan Teacher Research Network (ATRN). This chapter highlights how important it is to research teaching in ways that are appropriate for the end users of the knowledge and how valuable it can be to document and disseminate that knowledge in creative and engaging ways. Their play is a fine example of how research and practice can be closely linked, and although reading the play is clearly different to experiencing the performance, it more than adequately illustrates their approach to, and understanding of, researching teaching.

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Chapter 8 Discovering our Professional Knowledge as Teachers: Critical Dialogues about Learning from Experience

The final chapter in this section—one of my student-teachers—document their learning together about teaching and learning about teaching. This chapter also highlights the importance of being able to understand and articulate the specialist knowledge of teaching and how important and valuable this can be for a beginning teacher—and a teacher educator. I illustrate my findings in a way that challenges the stereotype for disseminating research knowledge. As I  state, 'When we began this research, we put our faith in a process with little sense of the possible outcomes. The risk of unknown outcomes is inherent in all research, just as it is inherent in teaching. While many of the details of our teaching may be unique to our personal classrooms, we are pleased to have discussed both the Business education classroom and the Hospitality  teacher education classroom in one piece of research. We will be pleased if others interested in experience-first teaching approaches that value personal learning from experience find meaning for their own teaching or teacher education classrooms.'

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SECTION THREE: RESEARCHING TEACHING THROUGH CONTEXT 

The third and final section of the book is Researching Teaching Through Context. In this case, the contexts are the content of Hospitality studies, business student-teacher education, assessment and reflective practice.

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Chapter 9 Teachers' subject Subcultures and Curriculum Innovation: The Example of Technology Education

Chapter 9  explores issues associated with teaching particular content (technology) and the difficulties that can be inherent in implementing curriculum change; particularly if the change is outside one's specialist content field. My examination of teachers teaching technology brings to the surface the importance of helping teachers recognize the difference between their teaching intents and their teaching actions, hence researching teaching has important and immediate lessons for teaching.

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Chapter 10 The Impact of Teaching Experiences on Student-Teachers' and Beginning Teachers' Conceptions of Teaching and Learning Science

Chapter 10  outlines a comprehensive study into the development of student-teachers learning about business teaching. In this chapter, I  apply a research method that uses repertory grids 'as a tool for gaining information about the developmental process that leads to the identification of conceptions'. Through this research project, I  demonstrate  how student-teachers' conceptions of business problem and their conceptions of teaching itself may actually be at odds in their practice. Through this project, the importance of researching teaching in teacher education programs is raised in a way that highlights the importance of synthesizing our existing research knowledge in ways that genuinely inform teacher education practice.

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Chapter 11 Researching Formative Assessment

I and Jeff we worked together to research formative assessment. Assessment is one of those areas of teaching that is so important to teachers (in particular) as it has such an influence on what teachers and students 'see' as directing actions in a teaching and learning environment.   We noted  that, 'as researchers, [we] valued both the research and development strands to enable us to document teachers' tacit knowledge and practice. Although we have both secondary and tertiary teaching experiences ourselves, we enjoyed being surprised and amazed at the unanticipated data and the complexity of the formative assessment process as it emerged in the data analysis. Hence, both the teachers and the researchers gained from having one aspect of teachers' knowledge and professional practice articulated, described and theorized.'

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Chapter 12 Researching Teaching Through Reflective Practice

The final chapter examines reflective practice and its importance in the development of teachers' professional knowledge. I  outline the nature of reflective practice and the value and purpose of researching this field of teaching knowledge so that teachers' career development and professional knowledge development might be better articulated and linked. As Jeff  so thoughtfully argues, 'a necessary condition of effectiveness as a teacher is regular reflection upon the three elements that make up teaching practice: the emotional and intellectual selves of the teacher and students; the conditions which affect classrooms, schools and students' learning and achievements; the experience of teaching and learning.' My  examination of reflection is an appropriate way of reconsidering some of our goals and aspirations for researching teaching.

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SECTION FOUR: CONCLUSION 

Chapter 13 Changes in Research Since 1969

We  close the book with a personal view of how we see researching teaching develop in our  time as a professors of business education. We reflects on our involvement in researching teaching and how methodologies and practices have shifted over the years and the importance of this shift for the development of our understanding of the complex nature of teaching and learning.

This book has been organized to specifically offer a diverse range of approaches to researching teaching in the hope that it will help to highlight the importance of knowing about the intricacies of teaching in ways that might not be so evident through more traditional forms of research. I have also specifically chosen forms of documentation that might similarly challenge our taken for granted ideas about dissemination and presentation of research findings. I trust reading this book will be as interesting for you as it has been for all of us involved in this project.

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RESEARCHING TEACHING AREAS

List of SOME RESEARCH VARIABLES   

1.  Categories of explanations with types and/or characteristics 

2.Properties of content that influence teaching procedures 

3. Factors that may influence teachers' explanations 

4. Some cognitive strategies that result in quality learning 

5. Questions on TEACHING CASES  

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6. Case writing tips 

7. Principles of teaching for quality learning 

8. Distribution of participants' descriptors across categories 

9. Frequency per category 

10. Planned formative assessment

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11. Interactive formative assessment 

12. A model of formative assessment 

13.Types of reflection related to concerns and contexts 

14. Interrelated dimensions of teacher development 

15. The organizational life cycle 

16. Schematized learning hierarchy

52 – THANK YOU !!