What factors enhance student teacher understanding of tacit knowledge when working with experienced teachers? Nicola Warren-Lee Background – Ed D research.

What factors enhance student teacher understanding of tacit knowledge when working with experienced teachers?

Nicola Warren-LeeBackground – Ed D research

Working with beginning geography teachers on the OU PGCE and Oxford

Internship Programme since 2001

Interested in the ways the student teachers learn from their mentors

•Approaches taken by mentors

•Different working relationships established between student teachers and

mentor

•Varied nature of the knowledge which student teachers gather whilst in their

school settings

Perception: some mentor/intern collaborations support a deeper understanding

of teaching practices – unveiling embedded experiential knowledge to

beginning teachers.

Personal observation: this kind of mentoring can promote fast paced learning

which can encourage interns to make and justify context specific decisions.

What are interns learning from experienced What are interns learning from experienced teachers and how are they learning it?teachers and how are they learning it?

My research focuses on a particular type ofteaching knowledge:

Embedded experiential knowledgeImplicit knowledgeSub-conscious knowledge

All of these terms have been used in the relevant literature interchangeably

with tacit knowledge

Propositional teaching knowledge

Personal (tacit) teaching knowledge

Can be spoken, written

and agreed upon by an

academic or experienced

community

Eg. Often openly discussed in university and mentor sessions – best practice lesson planning

Informal knowledge

‘Knowing in action’ (Schön, 1983)

Defined as ‘the cognitive resource whicha person brings to a situationthat enables them think andperform’ (Eraut, 2000)

Understanding tacit knowledgeUnderstanding tacit knowledge

Knowledge which combines propositional and personal allows

individuals to handle complex situations where propositional

knowledge must be changed to fit individual situations involving the

use of tacit knowledge

The relevance of tacit knowledge in teachingHagger and McIntyre’s –Learning teaching from

teachers (2006) ◦ Teachers utilise professional craft knowledge to make their

everyday decisions in classrooms. ◦ These decisions are constantly changing and require a

multidimensional and simultaneous approach not available via deliberative reasoning.

◦ Hagger and McIntyre’s use of professional craft knowledge emphasises that much of this knowledge is tacit in nature.

Tacit knowledge is used by teachers all of the time – this makes it relevant for student teachers to know about

and to understand

Research- Key Questions

What is tacit knowledge and why might this be useful for student teachers to access?

What are the ways in which student teachers can access tacit knowledge from their mentor or more experienced colleagues?

What factors encourage student teachers to develop tacit knowledge for teaching use?

Data collection so farData collection so far

Focus groupInterviewsSurvey online

◦All with geography interns and mentors ◦Last year’s cohort and ongoing with new

group this year◦Selected from willing participants –

implications for the research

Mentors Interns

Varying definitions given One commonality:

Learning by doing“knowledge gained through

experience”

“knowledge you can only gain first hand”

Knowledge that is difficult to access

“Knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person”

Uncertainty over the source of the knowledge

“Knowledge that you haveingrained in you that you havegained without knowinglydoing so”

Tacit knowledge – establishing the ‘object’ of Tacit knowledge – establishing the ‘object’ of studystudy

Definitions - the views of interns and mentorsDefinitions - the views of interns and mentors

Mentors Interns

Observation Questions Discussion

“Interns observing and questioning

decisions that teachers make and

getting them to fully justify actions.

Also by [teachers] making a clear,

open show of the decisions they

make in the class, however minute

they might be”

Scenarios Talk Justify decisions Observe Ask questions

“Asking them to justify why

they have made certain

decisions”

Ways for interns to access experienced Ways for interns to access experienced teachers’ tacit knowledgeteachers’ tacit knowledge

Feedback and initial data suggests:Feedback and initial data suggests:

Usefulness and accessibility?Focus group

◦ Is tacit knowledge useful in learning to teach?◦ How might you access this knowledge?

Emerging themes Uncertainty over what tacit knowledge was - explore Being able to work together-approachability and trust In class interaction Out of class interaction Mentor as a reflective learner *

*Highlighted point: Utilising mistakes Elyse: ..And also its really good when one or two of the teachers are really open

about the mistakes they make, during a lesson and they say ‘ I don’t think I did it right actually’, ‘I should have done it differently, da da da da’. Its really, really good, you know as in that particular situation you know there is an alternative way of doing things.

David: I don’t think my mentor or the other teacher would explain why it went wrong they would just say ‘it went wrong’ and draw a line under it and move on to the next lesson.

Further research:Further research:Case study of mentor and Case study of mentor and interninternObserved teaching and interview - Aiming to unlock the knowledge in action

Student teacher asked Qs including: Why do you do this? How do you get them to...? Why was this useful?

Recorded interview reveals that more deliberative judgement and reasoning could be given by the teacher

Reasoning not obvious Ben during the lesson.

Mentor (Kate) able to recall and justify her choices and actions when

reminded of a particular point in the lesson.

Specific language used or action took at a particular time during the

lesson important in reminding Kate. Prompting her to explain ‘why’ or

‘how she knew’ for example.

Appropriate questions a catalyst in unlocking knowledge.

How student teachers are supported in thinking about questioning their

mentors

Why could tapping into tacit Why could tapping into tacit knowledge be useful in the learning to knowledge be useful in the learning to teach process?teach process?

To go beyond ‘see and do’

Getting more of an insight into why teachers act and respond in the ways

they do. Including the teacher’s use of multiple sources of information

To increase understanding of context as a major factor in determining

teaching decisions. Modelling decision making processes which are

context specific

Increase understanding of how explicit teaching actions in the classroom

may be linked to ‘unseen’ teaching objectives.

I have seen heaps of teachers teach, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone reflect on their own

teaching like you [researcher] asked him to [do]. This is the first time I have been able to sort

of get inside a teacher’s head and get a glimpse of all the things he thought about which

influenced what we were seeing as his teaching’ (From a study on tacit knowledge by Ethel and McMeniman, 2000.)

Relevance for ITERelevance for ITECarter Review Qualities of mentoring highlighted:

‘Effective mentors are outstanding teachers andsubject experts, who are also skilled in explainingtheir own practice’