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

EMS learning area. She appeared to be confident in her ability to do so. Her attitude
towards embracing new EMS knowledge can be attributed to the fact that she was an
Honours graduate who was contemplating Masters study. She had a history ofongoing
learning.
From the above extracts taken from Debbie's initial interview, we see that Debbie, like
Shirley in the previous section, had attempted group work. Group work is often equated
with learner centeredness, one ofthe design features ofCurriculum 2005. Debbie
appeared to struggle with this approach. The issue ofadopting the 'form' oflearner
centredness without adequate'substance' also presented as a problem for this new EMS
teacher. While Debbie may have regarded her knowledge ofEMS as 'good' in the initial
interview, an analysis ofher utterances and the first observation ofher lesson revealed
partial or inadequate subject content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of
EMS.
In the final interview, Debbie had the following to say about her changed classroom
practice. From the transcripts it becomes evident that Debbie's content knowledge and
pedagogic content knowledge had changed significantly. She also ascribed her
development to increased participation in the TEMS community and the support ofthe
TEMS community members.
Extract from Debbie s final interview:
MM:
Debbie:
...What changes if any, have you experienced in your classroom practice over
the past months?
Oh, I've really begun to look at my teaching differently. I tell you, for the
past 15 years, I've baSically been working on my own. Only in my first year,
you know the old EX-HOD system, when first years had to be confirmed
before we became permanent; that was the only time that anyone had really
helped me with my teaching. Although we had subject meetings, at the end
of the day, you do your own thing, you basically struggle away on your own. I
think, in the workshops, listening to how others approach topics, and all that
stuff we did on group work, questioning and assessment really helped me look
at my teaching differently now. There's so much, there's so much more now,
so many different ideas and ways, you know. Like that handout on using
research as a teaching tool and also the problem solving method, I thought
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