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Learning to teach in higher education : a descriptive case study

Several recent theoretical frameworks describe the process of learning how to teach in higher education in terms of change over time (Shulman, 1986, 1987; Sherman, Arminstead, Flower, Barksdale, & Reif, 1997; Ramsden, 1992; Sprague and Nyquist, 1989). The existing research on changes in teacher thinking, feeling, and practice focuses almost exclusively on teachers at the elementary and secondary levels; research concerning these concepts in higher education is rather scant Researchers have studied a complex array of issues from various perspectives using a variety of methodologies. This study followed a pre-structured case methodology (Miles, 1990) and describes in rich detail the process involved in learning to teach in higher education. The two participants in this study were graduate students in Linguistics in their final year of doctoral studies. They were followed for one semester while each taught an undergraduate course in linguistics. Data sources included-five semi-structured interviews, course documents, field notes, and videotapes of classroom activities. The trustworthiness of data and subsequent interpretations were established through attention to Lincoln and Guba's (1985) elements of trustworthiness. The learning process they incurred while learning how to teach was documented for each using pattern coding techniques (Miles & Huberman, 1984). A change process network was created for each participant to display the findings. Findings were then compared with theoretical frameworks and research approaches in the current literature. The findings of this study demonstrate the complexity of the process of learning to teach and the usefulness of the proposed frameworks and research approaches in describing and explaining the process. Furthermore, by being able to characterize this learning process, faculty developers can be more informed as to how best to intervene to maximally facilitate this process.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.34728
Date January 1997
CreatorsGryspeerdt, Danielle.
ContributorsAmundsen, C. (advisor)
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageDoctor of Philosophy (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001615740, proquestno: NQ44444, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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