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

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In the above extract John tried to establish how prices are detenn.ined. He introduced the concepts 'cost price' and 'selling price' by using pupils' understandings ofthese terms. He elected to discuss the mathematics aspects ofcalculating selling prices from cost prices using percentages, during the Mathematics lesson. He was able to make distinct links between Mathematics and EMS. John had 'forced' his pupils to engage in a discussion ofthe need to do market research before deciding on prices. The technique of 'forcing' pupils to speak to each other was a suggestion that came from a participant in a one ofthe TEMS workshops in response to teachers' concerns about the level ofpupil involvement in large classes. John, with fifty-four pupils in his class, made effective use ofthis technique. In the discussion that ensued, the class was able to establish that there was a need to carry out some fonn ofmarket research. John, however, chose not to introduce the term 'market research' at that point. In our post lesson discussions, he argued that it was not the focus ofthe lesson, and that introducing too many new concepts too quickly may not have been sound practice. He said that it was a concept that he would pick up on at a later stage. In the extract that follows, John began to focus the lesson on establishing how the behaviour ofa single person determined how prices were set. John: Let's take one person; let's take Soma as an example. Soma's friends will know that she likes to eat chips (potato chips in packet). Sometimes she doesn't bring lunch (meaning sandwiches) to school but she eats chips. About how much do you get a week for chips Soma? Pupil (Soma): (Rather uncomfortable to be the centre of attraction) - About RIO sir, but I don't only spend all on chips sir; I also buy other things. (Glares at a boy that giggles at her). Pupil: Sir, Soma needs to put on weight. (Class laughs). John smiles, gently cautions the boy and goes to the board and develops a table of pOSSible quantities of chips that Soma would have bought at different prices. 175
John succeeded in drawing on the spending behaviour ofone ofhis pupils to establish a pattern ofpurchasing that was likely to occur. He developed a table that reflected that more packets ofchips would be purchased at lower prices and fewer packets at higher prices. He then went onto to refer to the concept 'demand' by saying that at each price, the quantity that would be demanded would be different. The word 'quantity' was written on the board. John helped pupils brainstorm the meaning ofthe word, eventually coming to the conclusion that it meant the amount or the number ofitems. John appeared to be much more relaxed in this lesson and tolerated and dealt with distractions in a firm yet reassuring manner. The lesson proceeded with John handing out a worksheet. The worksheet presented the definition ofthe term 'demand', and a demand schedule for an imaginary pupil's (Jay) demand for coke. Extract ofworksheet and lesson observation notes: Jay receives a pocket allowance of R20 a month. Price of a can of Quantity demanded coke R2 8 R3 6 R4 4 R5 3 R6 2 Questions: 1. Study Jay's demand table for Coke to help you answer the questions 1.1 How many cans of coke will Jay buy in a month if the price was R2 each? 1.2 How many cans will he buy if they were R4 each? 1.3 Why would he buy more if the price were lower? Write a short explanation. 2. When the price of coke is low, will consumers demand a larger or smaller quantity? 3. When the price of coke is high, will consumers demand a larger or smaller quantity? 4. Try to explain the relationship between price and demand to your partner. Think about scarcity and making choices (write it down). Pupils were allowed 10 minutes to work out their answers. John moved around the class entertaining queries (eg. meanings of the words 'consumers': relationship'). Most pupils needed help with q4. They appeared to understand the relationship, but struggled to write it down. After about 12-15minutes, John called for answers from the pupils. Most pupils 176
Page 1 and 2:
Teacher Learning in a Community of
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ABSTRACT Conceptualising teacher le
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DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated
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DECLARATION I, Suriamurthee Moonsam
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ASSOCIATED CONCEPTS UNDER STUDY WIT
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Observation ofJohn's teaching after
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A SYNTHESIS OF THE STUDy...........
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TEMS RNCS EMS GET DoE INSET ELRC SA
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In describing the subject-pedagogy
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teachers lacked content knowledge r
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acknowledges the importance and pec
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some formal Mathematics teacher edu
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study, the coordination functions w
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It foregrounds the fact that the co
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school. Higher education opportunit
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frame models for projecting future
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teacher education by the state, (as
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schools, classrooms, management and
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Although the Teacher Audit indicate
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One ofthe first curriculum reform i
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entrenched design feature of C2005,
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In Chapter Five, I set up a narrati
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LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION
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As indicated in the previous chapte
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This view is supported by Putman an
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Learning is social in nature (Putma
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Constant reflection on and understa
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Teachers drew on their membership i
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The above arguments about the lack
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change. She highlights the importan
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Differences in the cultures oflearn
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persons and is not considered solel
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and offers insights into how learni
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America. Goodson (1992) and Calderh
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learned meaning and value for them
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'accommodation' and intimates that
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staffroom and a 'pragmatic' teacher
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Davisson (1984), Lumsden and Scott
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directive in that it guides choices
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economic discourse, the economics p
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• Understand and promote the impo
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2.7 CONCLUSION This chapter began b
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(Walford 2001; Anderson 1999). With
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• It places value on the research
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The main research question in this
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Lave and Wenger emphasise the centr
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3.3.2 The Work ofWenger (1998): Com
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agree with the way it takes place o
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Figure 3.3: Refined intersection of
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eflecting. The ability of a communi
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object to something that in reality
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practice is not just an aggregate o
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system or institution and the influ
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3.3.2.4 Learning Practice has to be
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new possibilities for meaning. Brok
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These characteristics indicate that
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engage with one another and acknowl
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A structural model ofa community of
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who were regarded as peripheral. A
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Ideally I would have wanted teacher
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they represent key ingredients in s
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that the Wenger framework presents
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more useful and effective than part
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3.6 CONCLUSION This chapter provide
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• While my professional input int
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• Cycle ofhypothesis and theory b
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observer played themselves out. A c
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organised events and linked communi
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In keeping with ethnographic princi
Page 139 and 140: In this qualitative study, my inter
Page 141 and 142: collection. He questions whether co
Page 143 and 144: physical context, the complex body
Page 145 and 146: completed, final text: rather, they
Page 147 and 148: the teacher over classroom events (
Page 149: 'connoisseurship'. I realised that
Page 152 and 153: In this study, the criteria for the
Page 154 and 155: In Chapter One I described the sequ
Page 156 and 157: tactic by indicating to research pa
Page 158 and 159: On the occasions that I delivered b
Page 160 and 161: "Confidentiality involves a clear u
Page 163 and 164: were cordial and professional. The
Page 165 and 166: CHAPTER FIVE HOW HAD TEACHER LEARNI
Page 167 and 168: individual participants changed dif
Page 169 and 170: He received his schooling under the
Page 171 and 172: school regularly updated the books
Page 173 and 174: gone on to become really wealthy. I
Page 175 and 176: John noted that in planning the cur
Page 177 and 178: Significant changes had thus occurr
Page 179 and 180: just transfer it. For example, bank
Page 181 and 182: Extract from the lesson: John: Pupi
Page 183 and 184: schoolwork as 'economic work'. This
Page 185 and 186: John: Now we are not looking at thi
Page 187 and 188: cardboard and drawing or sticking i
Page 189: John: Now I want you to remember wh
Page 193: at her maths books to which the tea
Page 196 and 197: issues that his pupils were raising
Page 198 and 199: 5.5 JOHN'S CHANGING PROFESSIONAL ID
Page 200 and 201: to achieve their joint enterprise o
Page 202 and 203: 5.6 JOHN'S INCREASED PARTICIPATION
Page 204 and 205: John regarded the close interaction
Page 206 and 207: As stated earlier, because the 'con
Page 209 and 210: CHAPTER SIX USING WENGER'S CONSTRUC
Page 211: 6.2 SECTION ONE AN ANALYSIS OF TEAC
Page 214 and 215: understanding it at all. I just don
Page 216 and 217: In the final interview that took pl
Page 218 and 219: MM: Shirley: learning outcomes and
Page 220 and 221: the little things like we started i
Page 222 and 223: understandings and conceptions ofth
Page 224 and 225: Extract from Mary's final interview
Page 227 and 228: Teachers were able to describe the
Page 229 and 230: The essential differences between D
Page 231 and 232: Debbie's school, Eden Primary was l
Page 233 and 234: what he's saying. And in that lesso
Page 235 and 236: they were excellent, really good. I
Page 237 and 238: Extract from first lesson observati
Page 239 and 240: out of the material that they had.
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largely recall, repetition or were
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Third extract from Debbie's second
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From the above extracts and discuss
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with a new set ofsubjects. Without
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was three kilometres away from the
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In the next extract, Ben referred t
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for making bread. The difficulty an
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T: P: T: P: T: P: T: Look again. Is
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stemmed from a discussion at the TE
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Key to the table A = Good/substanti
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was doing the budget and where they
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ofher school and the TEMS community
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Extract from Beth's final interview
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fox the invitations and arrange for
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Table 6.6: Teachers' learning in te
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CHAPTER SEVEN AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHE
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As we saw in Chapter Six, the core
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who did or did not want to become f
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The following extract offers a narr
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difficulties (ibid.). In the above
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A community moves from the potentia
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Cindy began the workshop with a tho
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oundaries" (Wenger et al 2002:97).
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7.4 AN ANALYSIS OF THE TEMS GROUP A
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necessary to learn what they needed
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Figure 7.2: Brokering relationships
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the group. Wenger (1998) notes that
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knowledge ofothers. It is therefore
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MM Shirley MM: Mary: MM: Mary Have
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The following extract from a worksh
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MM: Shirley: How many EMS workshops
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Table 7.2: Criteria for the emergen
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Soudien, a leading South African ac
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hand, adopts a 'narrow' perspective
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As mentioned earlier, Wenger's work
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literature review revealed that the
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Another important feature ofWenger'
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'Identity' namely, 'learning as bec
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(Hargreaves 1995). Teacher professi
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for the purposes ofprofessional dev
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teacher growth. CPD in Africa subsc
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knowledge of subject content is ser
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South Africa, due cognisance must b
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8.3.7 An arena for engaging and con
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the provision of appropriate profes
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level conceptual thinking". They wa
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Collaboration within teacher learni
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has for teacher learning in a South
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Bourdieu, P. (1986) The Forms ofCap
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Department ofEducation (2002) Revis
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Homan, R. (2002) The principle of i
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Mattson, L. (2000) Teacher identiti
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Smylie, M.A., Bay, M. & Tozer, S.E.
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Westheimer,1. (1998) Among schoolte
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APPENDIX 2 INTERVIEW SCHEDULES (INI
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2. What information have you been g
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APPENDIX 3 EXAMPLE OF JOURNAL ENTRI
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APPENDIX 5 EXAMPLE OF INDEPENDENT O
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