Mireille Falardeau et Michel Loranger Le choix de stratégies ... - CSSE

468 BOOK REVIEWS / RECENSIONS
by other researchers to analyze and make sense of what has occurred. For
example, she demonstrates how Frank Smith’s notion of the learning enterprise
(p. 16) and Mayher’s perspectives on uncommon sense (p. 19) are related to
what she is experiencing in her teaching.
A particularly unique feature of this book is that Newman makes room for the
stories and conversations of others — of students and colleagues. At many points
boxes of print are separated from the body of the text, allowing the other
person’s perspective to enter the conversation. For example, she includes
thoughts from her colleague Ann Vibert on the value of reflecting in her writing
on understanding what her students experience (p. 68). Another example, woven
into the fabric of the text, is a student’s conversation about her attempts to make
sense of the importance of teaching spelling rules (p. 100).
Many of these anecdotal stories and conversations have the potential to
provide important insights and might typically be excluded from a book on
teaching and learning, particularly if not integrated into the main body of the
discussion. By including these personal stories either in a separate or integrated
fashion Newman allows them to become part of the formal conversation about
teaching. She demonstrates that she values the stories and in so doing elevates
their importance in academic discourse.
As Hunt indicates in the Foreword (p. viii), teaching is not a neat process.
Through the thoughts and pedagogical practices presented in the conversations,
Newman generates for the reader an understanding of the complexity of teaching.
All 14 chapters of the book illuminate this. Newman discusses her teaching and
learning in ways that usefully highlight such concepts as engagement (p. 298),
demonstration (pp. 179–180), ownership (p. 285), and teaching as a learning
enterprise (pp. 15–17). Other ideas include, in Chapter 3, for example, the
struggles entailed in setting agendas for learning, specifically related to creating
a reader response situation within the classroom (pp. 146 –155). Chapter 9
describes the process of helping teachers explore critical incident stories as a tool
for turning a reflective gaze on themselves. The notion of teachable moments is
the focus of chapter 11, where Newman makes an important clarification when
she suggests that a teachable moment can involve teaching by telling, if the
information is volunteered in response to what students are actually doing and
if it is likely to prove immediately helpful.
This book, as suggested in the sub-title, is situated within the theoretical
framework of reflective practice. There exists, however, a diversity of meanings
and intentions associated with the theories on reflective practice and it is
therefore important to situate any book within its particular perspective. One
criticism of Interwoven Conversations is that Newman does not clearly define
where the work fits within the reflective practitioner perspective. Given the vast
number of studies that have emerged within a reflective teaching framework,
indicating the diversity of meanings and assumptions, this lack of specification
is unfortunate. One can infer from the references that Newman’s work is closely