Open AccessLearning By Teaching: A Cultural Historical Perspective On A Teacher’s Development
Author(s) -
Sue Gordon,
Kathleen Fittler
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
outlines/critical social studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1904-0210
pISSN - 1399-5510
DOI - 10.7146/ocps.v6i2.2142
Subject(s) - transformative learning , pedagogy , facilitator , competence (human resources) , sociology , teacher education , context (archaeology) , engineering ethics , mathematics education , psychology , engineering , social psychology , paleontology , biology
How can teacher development be characterised? In this paper we offer a conceptualisation of teacher development as the enhancement of knowledge and capabilities to function in the activity of a teacher and illustrate with a case study. Our analytic focus is on the development of a science teacher, David, as he engaged in an innovative, collaborative project on learning photonics at a metropolitan secondary school in Australia. Three dimensions of development emerged: technical confidence and competence, pedagogical development and personal agency. We explore the transformative effects of intrapersonal tensions within the teacher’s constitution of his role in the emerging community of enquiry — positioning him in turn as learner, instructor and facilitator. We view the context for David’s actions as a complex and dynamic system and interpret David’s development as arising from his responses to the differences in his emerging roles in the project.