Teacher Learning in a Community of Practice: A Case Study of ...

Significant changes had thus occurred in John's thinking, attitude and perceptions ofthe
EMS learning area. A comparison ofhis thinking, attitude and perception ofEMS, before
any significant involvement in the TEMS programme with his thinking, attitude and
perceptions after eight months ofengagement in the TEMS programme ensues.
From the above discussion, we see a noticeable development in John's discourse
regarding the new EMS curriculum and the way the way he made meaning ofit.
Profound learning had occurred for John and manifested itselfin significant ways. At the
commencement ofthe programme, John had demonstrated limited knowledge ofthe
EMS learning area, referring to it as constituting 'Life Skills' and basic entrepreneurship.
This narrow conception ofEMS had changed to a more sophisticated understanding of
the learning area. He was able to describe EMS in terms ofits foundational concepts,
namely, scarcity, choice and the economic cycle. He had developed insights into the
scope and breadth ofthe learning area.
Ofsignificance was that John no longer had to rely on his personal everyday knowledge
ofEMS issues as a basis for his lessons. As result ofworking through the Module
workbooks, he had been exposed to, he had engaged with 'new' subject content
knowledge ofwhich he was able to make meaning and teach to his pupils. He had
become competent at moving beyond simply using everyday knowledge and terms in an
arbitrary fashion, but could apply new subject content knowledge to practical issues and
phenomena that his pupils were familiar with, by establishing stronger links to the core
economic problem. Prior to his experience on the TEMS project, John had demonstrated
partial knowledge ofthe learning outcomes applicable to EMS. As the programme
progressed, he became quite adept at linking the learning outcomes in meaningful and
relevant ways to the various topics he chose to teach.
The above discussion provides evidence ofJohn's changing ability to make meaning of
the new EMS curriculum. In the next section we see how this had translated into
classroom practice.
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