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

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appeared to understand the relationship between price and demand. John provided a fuller explanation to Q4. John was able to use pupils' responses to the questions posed on the worksheet to help pupils develop an understanding ofthe relationship between price and quantity demanded. Of significance was his reference to the economic concepts of 'scarcity and choice', to which he constantly drew pupils' attention. He then went on to ask pupils to think back to the section on drawing graphs that they had recently learnt in Mathematics and Human and Social Sciences. Pupils were asked if it were possible to represent the relationship between price and quantity on a graph. Five or six pupils indicatedthat they could. Extract from lesson observation report: John then proceeded to hand out a blank graph to pairs of pupils. These were copies of the blank templates that the TEMS group had worked with during the workshops. Pupils were requested to work in pencil. Working in pairs, pupils had to plot the graph from the demand schedule for Jay. Many pupils were surprised by this move, saying that they did not know what to do or how to do it. John explained that he could show it to them, but wanted to see if they could remember by using their knowledge of graphs in Mathematics and Geography to draw the graphs. He was supportive and encouraging and indicated that it was 'fine to make a mistake'. Some pupils received John's open approach to learning and experimenting with graph drawing with some anxiety. Pupils who seemed to remember some of their knowledge of graphs began earnest discussions with their partners. John had adapted this approach to teaching from ideas for teaching that had surfaced in the TEMS group. A similar approach was used with the TEMS teachers when this topic was dealt with. Extract from lesson observation report: r was quite struck by the amount of discussion this 'discomfort' of not knowing what to do but trying to do it anyway, appeared to generate. There were numerous requests for help, to which the teacher firmly, but in a supportive manner asked pupils to think through the issues themselves. He said that in the next five minutes, he was not to be aSked any questions and proceeded to sit at his table. A pupil quickly enquired whether she could look 177
at her maths books to which the teacher replied that they could only do that after five minutes. There was a buzz of activity from all quarters of the class. The noise levels began to rise considerably (louder than I've heard in any other lesson I've observed). The teacher seemed undisturbed by it. (I found this quite remarkable, as my experience at this school thus far had been that teachers were quite strict about high noise levels especially in their presence). As I looked around, I saw many children attempting their graphs. Some pupils were not prepared to risk their first attempts on the blank graph paper that the teacher had given to them but preferred to draw up their own for a first attempt. A few pupils simply sat and stared at their worksheet, wondering what was going on, anxious at not knowing where to start from/ what to do. After about five minutes, the teacher received a reminder from several pupils that five minutes were up and wanted to look at their maths books. The teacher allowed this, and said that he was going to give them another five minutes and that they really had to try their best, again signalling that it was okay to make a mistake - but he wanted them to at least try out the graph. He moved around the class, looking at pupils' work, but not offering comments or assistance from the now almost pleading pupils. He smiled and nodded approvingly at some of the attempts. After about five minutes John called the pupils to attention. There was much quiet moaning amongst the pupils. He explained that sometimes it was good for them to work out things for themselves and mentioned that he had seen some interesting graphs as he walked around. He then drew a blank graph on the board (X and Vaxes) and began by asking pupils where point zero would appear on the graph. All pupils appeared to agree that it was at the point where the axes met. He asked pupils if they could remember what the vertical axis was called, explaining and indicating which one was the vertical axis. He did the same for the horizontal axis thus establishing X and V-axes. He then referred to the demand schedule pointing to the fact that the table had two columns and that each column could be represented on a separate axis. He explained that to draw the graph for Jay's demand for coke, the V-axis would be used for 'price' (P) and the X-axis for quantity (Q) and proceeded to label the 'axes' price and 'quantity'. He proceeded to calibrate the vertical axis in multiples of R2 from zero to RlO, and the X-axis in multiples of two going up to twenty. By then, many pupils had stopped looking at the board and were busy studying their own graphs. John wanted to proceed, but could sense a quiet buzz (pupils whispering to each other about their graphs). At this point the teacher stopped his explanation and asked whether the class wanted to proceed on their own. Several pupils eagerly wanted to try it on their own, while some did not. A few did not respond but looked around at other pupils and the teacher. He looked around and at his watch and decided to allow pupils to proceed to plot the graph on their own. Again there was some protesting from some pupils who appeared uncertain. John walked around and helped individuals. 178
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
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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 and 190: John: Now I want you to remember wh
Page 191: John succeeded in drawing on the sp
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.
Page 241: 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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