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

Some teachers were initially quite nervous about this task. Once they got going in their
groups, they began to settle down and have fun with what they were doing. They had to
capture their drafts on transparency and present it to the group using the overhead
projector ...
... It was interesting to note the roles that were assigned to the different group members.
One male remarked that females had better handwriting than males and should therefore
write out the transparency. Teachers grappled to put their ideas together. Many of the
teachers were meeting each other for the first or second time and were still getting used
to one another. They had to first make sense of the content knowledge and figure out what
was appropriate to their own classes. A teacher remarked that there was no way that she
would be able to teach that lesson in her class.•My class would never manage. Some of them
battle to read. They want to be told every single thing."
Each group nominated a person to present their short learning programme And each
focussed on a different aspect of 'natural resources'. Of note was that teachers drew on
their own experiences to make sense of the new material they were engaged with. John for
example, reflected on how he grew up in Newcastle which in the 70's and early 80's was
regarded as a 'boom town', but once the coal reserves were depleted, the town started to
lose skilled labour and people moved out of Newcastle to find jobs.
Mary, who earlier mentioned that she was nervous about 'speaking in front of a 'lecturer'
came across very confidently in her presentation. She mentioned • It has been a long time
since I've used one of these" (referring to the OHP). Presenters called on their group
members to assist with points that they were not clear about.
Four very different aspects of natural resources were focussed on. These appeared to be
related to what teachers already knew about these concepts. I was hoping that teachers
would see that given the material (content), and working in a supportive environment, they
would be able to develop meaningful learning experiences.
I realised that although teachers taught in schools that were relatively close to one
another, they in fact rarely engaged in 'similar' programmes. Each school appeared to be
'doing its own thing' with each EMS teacher fitting into the school programme. Because each
EMS teacher did not appear sufficiently confident and did not feel sufficiently competent
about teaching EMS, the 'EMS agenda' in the school curriculum was not motivated for
strongly as for example a 'Maths agenda'.
I thanked the teachers and again invited non-participating teachers to become a regular
part of the programme. Research participants again expressed nervousness and anXiety at
the thought of me observing their lessons. I once again tried to reassure them and
indicated that I would take the cue from them as far as the timing of the lesson
observations was concerned.
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