Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

Teacher Thinking for Democratic Learning 743
with the similar experience. These institutional inequities serve to diminish teachers’ capacity
to innovate and reform schools. Consequently, a recognition of the diverse backgrounds and
experience must be attached to real resources for teachers and students.
The critical link between teaching and learning is defined as personal agency, shaped by a
range of structures—curriculum, resources, and policy. Understanding the relationship between
structures and agency, Giddens (2000) explains, is the basis for informed and democratic decision
making. Exploration of these links must be lead through the field of psychology in teacher
education so that teachers can study their own motives and thinking and consciously engage in the
development of democratic practices for the direct improvement of curriculum provision. In such
environments, decision making will serve the interests of students, teachers (and communities)
and lead to improved learning outcomes for students. As a consequence, the social and cultural
impact of improved working, teaching, and learning conditions leads to the development of shared
leadership, stronger relationships, and changed practices.
Similarly, the ability to act is also shaped by knowledge and experience: knowledge of self,
others, and the contextual influences. Teachers as agents of change make choices. They will act to
change and disturb the curriculum, or to reinforce the existing curriculum. It is the way in which
this agency is exercised, that determines the curriculum which is delivered and the impact it will
have on student learning outcomes. Through teachers’ study of their behavior and cognition,
they will be better informed and prepared to respond to the prevailing social pressures so that
professional and personal reflection leads to significant and meaningful change for students. This
new direction for educational psychology, that of teacher self-study, connects teacher cognition
to social improvement, strengthens reflective inquiry, and opens the way for a better teaching and
learning practice.
FURTHER READING
Cherednichenko, B. F. (2000). A Social Analysis of the Teaching of Thinking Skills in Victorian Primary
Schools. PhD thesis, University of Melbourne.
Eisner, E. (2001). What Does It Mean to Say a School Is Doing Well? Phi Delta Kappan 82(5), 367–372.
Fullan, M. (1991). The New Meaning of Educational Change. London: Cassell Educational.
Giddens, A. (2000). Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Schon, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books.
Teese, R. and Polesel, J. (2003). Undemocratic Schooling. Camberwell, Victoria: ACER.