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A Canadian pre-tenure teacher educator’s professional
development journey: Her struggles in teaching at the
University level.
Stephanie ChitpinStephanie Chitpin
University of OttawaUniversity of Ottawa
November, 2010November, 2010
International Professional International Professional Development AssociationDevelopment Association
2010 Conference2010 ConferenceBirmingham, UKBirmingham, UK
Abstract
- This paper explores elements of my professional development as a pre-tenured university professor.
- I trace my journey of growth which was aided by peer mentoring.- A brief discussion on literature associated with mentoring.- How mentoring helped me improve my teaching practice
through critical conversations. - It documents my struggles to improve my teaching at the
university level. - I am not presenting it as a model of best practice but,
highlighting how mentoring allowed me to reflect on and improve my teaching practice.
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Literature on Mentoring
– Mentoring is one of the many strategies promoted to create reflective practitioners (Mullen, 2000) ;
– Mentoring requires mentors to build trust with less experienced colleague, help them to reflect upon pedagogical practices and build competence (Moir & Hanson, 2008).
– Learning to teach can be uncomfortable for both the mentors and the mentees.
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Mentoring
– In academic settings, mentoring can occur in the traditional one-to-one or group format.
– Abate and Eddy suggest that “a formal matching process may be less effective than informal matching” (p. 366).
– The traditional one-to-one mentoring may promote a hierarchical power relationship between the mentor and the mentee (Darwin, 2000; Hansman, 2003; McCormack & West, 2006).
– When mentees adopt mentors’ teaching styles and language use without having a full understanding their success at fitting in are likely to be superficial (Maynard, 2001).
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Theories of Mentoring
Among the many theories of mentoring that exist in the literature, “learning by reflecting” and “learning through apprenticeship” will be explored in this paper
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Learning by reflecting
“We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience” (Dewey, 1933, p. 78).
Dewey defines reflection as “active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or practice in light of reasons that support it and the further consequences to which it leads” (p. 9).
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Definitions of Reflection
Lockhart (1994) defines reflective teaching as teachers and student teachers collect data about teaching, examine their attitudes, beliefs, assumptions and teaching practices, and use the information obtained as a basis for critical reflection about teaching
Other definitions take a broader stance and embed the concept of reflection within the social and political contexts of programs, schools and communities (Zeichner & Liston, 1996)
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Learning through apprenticeship
– Some scholars have challenged the theory of learning by reflecting a view of learning to teach as an apprenticeship (Brown & McIntyre, 1993).
– They also draw on Lortie (1975) notion that “craft is work in which experience improves performance” and it “cannot be learned in weeks or even months” (Brown & McIntyre, 1993, p. 18).
– Brooks and Sikes (1997) state that while ‘learning through apprenticeship’ might be useful for “passing on lower-order craft skills” (p. 18) - not be suitable for teaching.
– Shaw (1992) believes that “teacher training would be very flat if it were reduced to on-the-job apprenticeship” (p. 58).
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Learning to Teach
- Juxtaposing different settings to present life as student, classroom teacher, doctoral student and pre-tenured university teacher education professor;
- Description of the Curriculum Design and Evaluation course
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Pre-service teachers’ feedback on the course
The following are samples of comments from pre-service teachers’ evaluations of the course:
– I have found the course to be helpful. I have used the ideas from the readings and assignments/postings in my practicum. Group discussions/work is very valuable. I have gained a lot from the experiences of my instructor and peers.
– I found the course was well structured. I like how we get a chance to apply the assessment concepts and then report back to the group what has worked and what hasn’t. I also like how we can go back to the postings to read the different ways our peers have addressed teaching/learning issues.
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Pre-service teachers’ feedback on the course
– I still believe that I have learned the most in my practicum. However, I entered this course with an attitude that I will not get much out of it because my older brother took the course with [you] the previous year. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that you have changed the contents/assignments/evaluations for the course. I actually have quite enjoyed your course. I find your course has been helpful in preparing me to become a teacher. Thank you.
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Pre-service teachers’ feedback on the course
- I find the modules on “Lesson planning and Differentiated Instructional Strategies” to be the most useful for me. I have printed out the readings of these two modules so that I would use them as references. I find your podcast on Blackward Design to be extremely useful. My associate teacher was impressed with the way I have designed my lesson plans.
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Conclusion
- challenges and dilemmas faced as a pre-tenured teacher educator preparing new teachers;
- teaching is a lifelong task, an autobiographical act;
- learning to teach is a laborious, time-consuming and reflective process
- experiences influence what and how I teach;
- only a small marking on my professional journey;
- acknowledging my not so successful teaching experiences has allowed me to view the future with a different lens
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Acknowledgements
I wish to thank the University of Ottawa for the grant to allow me to pursue this work. I would also like to thank all my mentors, Ben Levin, J.Gary Knowles, Maurice Taylor, Terry Orlick and Christian Blanchette for sharing their own teaching moments and for continuing to inspire me with their teaching ideas.
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