Only connect

Developing an integrated theory of professional knowledge and practice

What is a profession?

Socially sanctioned occupational group Supported by a public consensus Embodies a promise of service to the community Sustained and dominant labour market position Fiduciary relationship Levels of autonomy from government and regulation Licensing procedures, codes of ethics, and peer

regulation Reliable authority and source of knowledge regarding

its client base

Why professional knowledge? At the heart of this orientation is the image of teaching as

knowledge work. Such work…involves the inter-related use of practical knowledge (routines, procedures, processes) and propositional knowledge (discipline based theories and concepts, pedagogical principles).

Thiessen (2002) The shifts in emphasis in professional development takes

thinking away from individuals and courses to systemic, complex understandings of the ways in which professional knowledge is created and shared.

Knight (2002)

Key questions What constitutes a skilful practice?

How might such skilfulness evolve?

How can professional knowledge support the development of this skilfulness?

Theoretical position My emphasis is on a situated theory of

professional practice To describe and explicate the ‘knowledge pools’

practitioners have at their disposal and how they might connect each to improve their practice

Such ‘pools’ are neither unquestioned nor undisputed.

Focus The fabric of these ‘knowledge pools’ and in the

ways in which they have been and continue to be constructed

Circulation, distribution, production and availability of the knowledge contained within them

Connections between such ‘knowledge pools’ and the improvement of practice

The professional’s perspective All practitioners operate with varying degrees of

knowledge inter-penetration Much of this knowledge is only understood in the ‘flow of

the action’ This leaves much that is poorly articulated, tacit and

embodied A great deal of this knowledge, whether discursively

constructed or based on an unacknowledged re-application of practical schemas, is often limited by the experience of the production practices and contexts that frame it.

Distinctions

• Knowledge and information

• Propositional and procedural

• Tacit and explicit

•Public and personal

• Individual and shared

• Rational and intuitive

Interwoven limits Practitioners’ knowledge is:

grounded in biographically unique experiences bound by the particular habitus used to generate practice situated in time and space partial imperfectly communicated and garnered distributed amongst members

The limitations of practical knowledge Perceived successful performance ‘Neither a sufficient criterion nor a necessary

consequence of understanding’ Based on ‘folk pedagogy’ Competing ‘common sense’ accounts Sequestration of experience One size fits all Style shows Teacher rather than learner centred

Reflective

Exchange

Reading

Listening

Reflection

Tacit

Beliefs

Ethical

Routine

Situated

Tacit

Experiential

Intuitive

Reflective

Theoretical

Research

Convergent

Explicit

Generalizable

Communal

Cultural

Socialised

Tradition

ExplicitPractical

Personal

Proprietal

Internal

Inte

rna l

Propositional

External

Extern

alEmbodiedEmbedded

Concurrent uses of knowledge Teaching is not only about the application or translation of

preferred skills and processes. These skills and processes are aspects of practical

knowledge but have to be combined with relevant forms of propositional knowledge if learning is to be purposeful

Concurrent uses of knowledge require a more interactive and mediating stance where different types of knowledge inform teaching

Opportunities are needed for practitioners to integrate these various forms of knowledge

These opportunities can be both intentional and incidental

Concurrent uses Practically relevant propositional knowledge can be used to: guide planning, teaching and assessment evaluate relative success

improve assessment

Propositionally interpreted practical knowledge can be used to: help make adjustments challenge accepted practices make reflection more meaningful

Propositionally interpreted practical knowledge

The academic profession Expert knowledge

Knowledge worker

Primary identity

Secondary identity

Divisions

Splits between sectors Divided hierarchically Divided by subject Separate subject discourses Unrepresentative Low mobility

Key questions

In what ways can we derive ideas about pedagogical good practices in HE from an analysis of professional knowledge?

How might we gain an improved understanding of our knowledge base and the ways it can be enhanced?

What role can continuing professional development play in encouraging further development of good practices in teaching and learning?

Knowing how and knowing what Procedural knowledge

Propositional knowledge

An orchestration of knowledge Theories of ‘social knowing’ and ‘situated social action.’

The idea of ‘pools of knowledge’ that are:

grounded in biographical experience a result of the particular habitus used to generate practice situated in time and space distributed amongst members imperfectly communicated and garnered.

RELATIONSHIP AMONG COMPONENTS OF TEACHERS’PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE

Procedural-Procedural

Procedural – Propositional Propositional – Procedural

Propositional-Propositional

PRACTCALIntuitiveTacitSituatedBiographicalNon-formalDivergentEthicalRural

PROPRIETALCommunalCulturalSocialisedTraditionSocialTacit / explicitRural

PERSONALReflectiveExperientialConsciousEthicalConstructedBiographicalTacit / explicit

PUBLICGeneralizableResearchTheoreticalExplicitFormalConvergentUrban

ProfessionalKnowledge

Experiential

Representational

EmbeddedEmbodied

Knowledge pools

PUBLIC

PERSONAL PRACTICAL

PROPRIETAL

1

2

3

A

B

C

a

b

c

Knowledge pools

Key questions

In what ways can we derive ideas about pedagogical good practices in HE from an analysis of professional knowledge?

How might we gain an improved understanding of our knowledge base and the ways it can be enhanced?

What role can continuing professional development play in encouraging further development of good practices in teaching and learning?

Critical connections

Collaboration - connections across people

Community - connections between traditions and identities

Inquiry - connections between ideas and principles

Integration - connections across structures and programmes

Strategies Link collaboration, communication, integration and inquiry Focus on core and persistent problems Engage a range of teaching resources - mentors, consultants,

counterparts, support networks Provide structural support Develop unified images of quality teaching through the use of video,

case material, narratives Curriculum coherence New media delivery - videopapers, multi-media representations, e-

learning

Challenges Warranted practice Reflective exchange Complex thinking Implicit theories Scholarship of practice Learning theories Knowledge by acquaintance Knowledge for understanding

Professional knowledge and excellence The current emphasis on professional knowledge is more than a re-

statement of the latest interpretation of skilfulness. It is a new departure from the past and the beginning of a new direction; one that augers an era where teachers - of all types - use knowledge concurrently

Continuing professional development for academics will need to be structured across domains. It will have to be based on a curriculum that encourages complex thinking as well as challenging much of the prevailing wisdom that permeates many departments and faculties. Ultimately, it will have to challenge particular ‘privileged’ forms of teaching which are based on tradition, limited vision, and subordinated to research and scholarship.