The central question in this thesis is How do participants in the practicum interact in order
to evaluate teaching practice? This question has been posed for several reasons:
1. The practicum is a crucial part of teacher education and teacher socialisation;
2. Little is known about the nature of student teacher learning during the practicum;
3. Much of what happens during practicum interactions is taken for granted, and needs to
be made explicit in order to fully understand how student teachers learn and what it is
important for them to know.
In order to investigate this question this study examines the interactions between student
teachers and their supervising teachers in post lesson conferences. These conferences are
a site in which practicum participants evaluate teaching practice and in which values,
beliefs and knowledge about teaching in the context of the classroom and the practicum
are produced and reproduced. To obtain data on the ways in which participants interact
in post lesson conferences tape recordings of conferences and interviews with
participants have been collected and analysed. Three quite different cases are presented to
show a spectrum of evaluative styles and interactions.
In each case the language of the post lesson conferences is explored. A particular
concern in the thesis has been to consider the ways in which the linguistic choices of the
participants express their subjectivities as well as reflect the cultural and institutional
context in which the post lesson conferences were located. In order to achieve this the
study draws upon theoretical perspectives concerned with social practice, language and
meaning.
Fundamental to any evaluative interaction is its purpose, the relationship between the
participants and the construction of the evaluative criteria. This study has sought to
identify those routines that are a common part of and that underpin the purpose of
evaluative interactions in post lesson conferences. By considering the differences
between the interactions in each case, this research concludes that the degree of symmetry
in the participants' evaluative relationship and the extent to which the evaluative criteria
are made explicit are critical to the authority that student teachers have to negotiate their
understandings, reflect on their practice and take responsibility for their own learning.
The three cases provide a dynamic account of the evaluative process, and a more
comprehensive account than has hitherto been provided in much of the literature. They
also generate suggestions for future research in this important area of teacher education.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219217 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Mitchell, Jane, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Jane Mitchell |
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