Teaching as Clincal Practice

Conundrums and Complexities in Teaching and Teacher Education
While there is much debate by academics, practitioners and the popular press around the quality of teachers, teacher education and what constitutes ‘good’ teaching, there is no argument that teaching is one of the most challenging and complex professions. Over the last two decades, researchers have increasingly debated the topics of what the most effective way to educate teachers is and what teachers need to know about teaching. Levine (2006) describes two divergent understandings of teaching being those who believe teaching is a profession and those who believe it is a craft. A profession such as medicine or law requires extensive studies in specific areas before individuals are allowed or accredited to practice alone. On the other hand, a craft or trade can be learnt through on the job training as well as minor studies. The differing views about teaching and its category are just two of the challenges, which confront researchers in the fields of teaching and teacher education. Once this first major question was identified and researched with no conclusive answer, it would have been too easy to sit down, open a bottle of wine and ponder the conflict between the two opinions. However as the King said, to the White Rabbit in response to the question “Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?”, “Begin at the beginning” (Carroll, Ch 12, 1865). This paper discusses the complexities and conundrums contained within a sample of teaching and teacher education research.

Thinking and acting as a teacher, learning as a student
The majority of teaching students come to the role of teacher after fourteen years or more of being a student and seeing the practice of teaching from a very different perspective. Hammerness et al explore the concept of new teachers requiring the ability to unlearn what they had learnt about teaching from their time as students and to think about teaching in “ways quite different from what they have learned from their own experience as students.” (p 359) In this way the prospective or beginning teacher must act as a teacher and ‘think like a teacher’ at the same time they are learning “the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for effective teaching” (Hammerness et al p 360)

Practical and theoretical knowledge
Acquiring practical knowledge occurs during day-to-day work experiences in the performance of tasks. This type of knowledge can also be gained in the course of daily life. Gholami states that practical knowledge in teaching is that knowledge which supports and guides teachers’ practice and that it refers also to knowledge teachers have developed as a result of their teaching experiences. Shon (1983) says that practitioners are “often unaware of having learned to do these things” and they “do not have to think about them prior to or during their performance”. Theoretical knowledge focuses on understanding why one technique works where another has failed, it teaches through the experience of others. It is the knowledge of a subject’s ideas and principles acquired from resources and books on a subject, rather than applying or knowing how to apply the principles in a given situation.

Conundrums and Complexities in Teaching and Teacher Education

Educational academics and experienced teachers
Experienced teachers who become teacher educators draw on a wide range of focused practical, which may include subject matter, students’ social and emotional needs, student learning and understanding and instructional process requirements. (Meijer, Zanting and Verloop) Knowing in Action is a phrase conceived by Donald Shon in “The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action”. He describes how professionals, such as teachers and others carry out actions spontaneously without thinking about them either before they act or while they are performing the task. He also claims that not only are professionals unaware of all their actions when these actions are drawn to their attention they are generally unable to describe the ‘knowing’ or theory which underpins the action. Shon believes the “competent practitioner knows more than they can describe.” (p 8) Therefore, it may be difficult for practicing classroom teachers to describe why they do many of the things they do in the classroom. On the other hand educational academics or researchers who go into the field of teacher educators may have had limited or no experience in a classroom, although they have theoretical knowledge about subjects. These academics may have little or no knowledge about the complexities within the school and classroom environment. (Swennen & Van de Klink) Swennen and Van der Klink argue that both the experienced teacher and the academic teacher educators are thrown in at the deep end rather than having opportunities to study how to teach teachers. They also believe that neither the practicing classroom teacher nor the academic have enough knowledge to support learning teachers as their role is one of complexity that requires both practical skills and academic understandings.

Effective, efficient and innovative teachers and teaching
Researchers do not appear to have a clear or conclusive description of effective teaching. CrippsClark and Walsh believe that “current models of effective teachers are limited because they fail to give sufficient emphasis to many important aspects of effective teachers and fail to integrate these components into a coherent whole”. They went on to say the common characteristics of effective teachers were strong subject and content knowledge, appropriate pedagogical skills, the ability to build strong relationships with and care about students, and a sound knowledge of the context in which they taught. Gay (2004) (in Hammerness et al) has suggested effective teaching is a creative act, which is responsive to student backgrounds and needs. Equally, there appears to be no clearly identified definition of what is an efficient teacher. Although it would seem that efficiency is about teaching procedures or skills in the shortest time possible. In his conference paper Wankut talks about the items new lecturers need to learn to be efficient the elements are associated with the basics of teaching such as mission statements, schools’ goals, handling mail, prioritising and being organised such as arriving to lectures early to setup the environment. He goes on to suggest new staff members should “First, learn some of the basics of teaching before you start. On-the-job training is simply not an efficient way to learn to teach.” From

Conundrums and Complexities in Teaching and Teacher Education

these accounts, one can conclude an efficient methods of teaching use highly routinised and scripted approaches. Hammerness et al discuss the reduction of variability in teaching through efficiency with the ultimate goal being to increase student outcomes through a larger number of teachers. In a 2009 paper “Innovation in Education” Pak Tee Ng, poses the question about what really is innovation in education. Ng makes the distinction between innovations in schools and innovative schools and holds that “an innovation should create a new value in the education process” As with effective and efficient teaching there is no clearly defined description of what innovation in education is actually. Many research and conference papers discuss information technologies as being innovations; these innovations are different to teachers being innovative. Hammerness et al believe “even the most scripted approach to teaching requires some room for innovation”. (p 364) It is apparent from this that the definition of innovation is much broader than mere technologies within education. Innovation is not an opportunistic or reactionary approach to teaching rather it is adapting the teaching methods “within a set of general constraints” after analysing and evaluating the strategies being used to ensure appropriate standards are met. (Hammerness et al)

Teaching students, teachers and teacher educators
Unlike other professions where trainees, such as doctors, spend much of their time watching, listening and answering questions about cases (Morris); teaching students are involved in teaching, reflecting, deciding, changing, analysing, negotiating, giving advice and giving feedback to students. Teaching students are active participants in their placement learning. The supervising teacher and teacher educator are less active as they observe, listen and give feedback to the teaching student. During teaching students’ school placements there are a number of ‘key players’ who bring different skills and believes to the situation. Ure and Lysk found the quality of the learning in the professional setting is influenced by the professionals and school environment in which the teaching student found themselves. Their study also showed the teaching student learning was also “strongly influenced by the practical demands of teaching and the professional culture of the teachers” (Ure & Lysk, p 9) more that the objectives or philosophies of their university program.

Conclusion
Teaching students, teachers and teacher educators deal with a range of conflicting and yet interwoven aspects of their profession and learning. “Teaching is unforgivingly complex. It is not simply good or bad, right or wrong, working or failing.” (Cochran-Smith 2003) This paper started out with the White Rabbit asking the King “where shall I begin?” and receiving the answer to start at the beginning, the King then went on to say and “go to the very end, and stop”. (Carroll, Ch 12, 1865) Although this paper has come to its end, there is no stop as this is the beginning of exploring the many conundrums and complexities within teaching and teacher education.

Conundrums and Complexities in Teaching and Teacher Education

Bibliography
Alter, Jamie & Goggshall, Jane G. (2009) Teaching as a Clinical Practice Profession: Implications for teacher Preparation and State Policy, accessed on 5 May 2012 http://www.tqsource.org/publications/clinicalPractice.pdf Berry, A. (2007) Tensions in teaching about teaching: understanding practice as a teacher educator. Dorderecht, The Netherlands; Springer pp 7 -20 Carroll, Lewis, (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), (1865) Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland accessed on 5 May 2012 http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/lcarroll/bl-lcarroll-alice-12.htm Clark Cripps, John and Walsh, Julia., (2002), Elements of a model of effective teachers, in AARE 2002 : Problematic futures : educational research in an era of uncertainty ; AARE 2002 conference papers, Australian Association for Research in Education, Coldstream, Vic., pp. 1-11. accessed on 5 May 2012 http://aare.edu.au/02pap/wal02220.htm Cochran-Smith, Marilyn, (2003) THE UNFORGIVING COMPLEXITY OF TEACHING AVOIDING SIMPLICITY IN THE AGE OF ACCOUNTABILITY Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 54, No. 1, January/February 2003 3-5 Accessed from on May 5, 2012 jte.sagepub.com Darling-Hammond, L., & Brandsford, J. (2005). Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and be Able to do: Jossey-Bass. Chapter 10 p 358 - 389 Ferrier-Kerr, J. L. (2009) Establishing professional relationships in practicum settings. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 790 - 797 Ivey Kathy M. C. EFFECTIVE VS. EFFICIENT: TEACHING METHODS OF SOLVING LINEAR EQUATIONS, accessed 5 May 2012 http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED500997.pdf Kirby, Sheila Nataraj., Sloan McCombs, Jennifer., Barney Heather., Naftel, Scott., (2006) Reforming Teacher Education: Something Old, Something New, accessed on 5 May 2012 http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2006/RAND_MG506.pdf Levine, Arthur (2006) Educating school Teachers, accessed on 5 May 2012 http://www.edschools.org/pdf/Educating_Teachers_Report.pdf Lunenberg, M., Korthagen, F., & Swennen, A.(2007) Becoming a teacher educator: theory and practice for teacher educators. Dordrecht; London: Springer. 91 - 102 Meijer, Paulien C., Zanting, Anneke., Verloop, Nico., HOW CAN STUDENT TEACHERS ELICIT EXPERIENCED TEACHERS’ PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE? TOOLS, SUGGESTIONS, AND SIGNIFICANCE, Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 53, No. 5, November/December 2002 406-419 accessed 5 May 2012 https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/11196/10_440_01.pdf?sequence=1 Ng, Pak Tee (2009) Innovation in education: some observations and questions Internationa. Journal Innovation in Education, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2009, accessed 6 May 2012, http://inderscience.metapress.com/content/fp53gl25h4625083/fulltext.pdf Schön Donald A. (1983) The reflective practitioner - how professionals think in action. accessed on 5 May 2012 http://sopper.dk/speciale/arkiv/book49.pdf Ure, C & Lysk, J. (2008) University of Melbourne School Placement Models in Preservice Teacher Education, APERA Conference 2008 Ure, C & Lysk, J. (2008) University of Melbourne School Professional learning in pre-service teacher education: Placement experiences in graduate teacher education programs. http://www.aare.edu.au/08pap/ure08396.pdf Wankat, Phillip C., (1999) Annual Conference Effective, Efficient Teaching Chemical Engineering, American Society for Engineering Education Conference 1999 accessed on 5 May 2012 http://search.asee.org/search/fetch;jsessionid=3gseuauk4km9o?url=file%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%2FE %3A%2Fsearch%2Fconference%2F23%2FAC%25201999Paper77.PDF&index=conference_papers &space=129746797203605791716676178&type=application%2Fpdf&charset=

Bibliography: Alter, Jamie & Goggshall, Jane G. (2009) Teaching as a Clinical Practice Profession: Implications for teacher Preparation and State Policy, accessed on 5 May 2012 http://www.tqsource.org/publications/clinicalPractice.pdf Berry, A. (2007) Tensions in teaching about teaching: understanding practice as a teacher educator. Dorderecht, The Netherlands; Springer pp 7 -20 Carroll, Lewis, (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), (1865) Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland accessed on 5 May 2012 http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/lcarroll/bl-lcarroll-alice-12.htm Clark Cripps, John and Walsh, Julia., (2002), Elements of a model of effective teachers, in AARE 2002 : Problematic futures : educational research in an era of uncertainty ; AARE 2002 conference papers, Australian Association for Research in Education, Coldstream, Vic., pp. 1-11. accessed on 5 May 2012 http://aare.edu.au/02pap/wal02220.htm Cochran-Smith, Marilyn, (2003) THE UNFORGIVING COMPLEXITY OF TEACHING AVOIDING SIMPLICITY IN THE AGE OF ACCOUNTABILITY Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 54, No. 1, January/February 2003 3-5 Accessed from on May 5, 2012 jte.sagepub.com Darling-Hammond, L., & Brandsford, J. (2005). Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and be Able to do: Jossey-Bass. Chapter 10 p 358 - 389 Ferrier-Kerr, J. L. (2009) Establishing professional relationships in practicum settings. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 790 - 797 Ivey Kathy M. C. EFFECTIVE VS. EFFICIENT: TEACHING METHODS OF SOLVING LINEAR EQUATIONS, accessed 5 May 2012 http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED500997.pdf Kirby, Sheila Nataraj., Sloan McCombs, Jennifer., Barney Heather., Naftel, Scott., (2006) Reforming Teacher Education: Something Old, Something New, accessed on 5 May 2012 http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2006/RAND_MG506.pdf Levine, Arthur (2006) Educating school Teachers, accessed on 5 May 2012 http://www.edschools.org/pdf/Educating_Teachers_Report.pdf Lunenberg, M., Korthagen, F., & Swennen, A.(2007) Becoming a teacher educator: theory and practice for teacher educators. Dordrecht; London: Springer. 91 - 102 Meijer, Paulien C., Zanting, Anneke., Verloop, Nico., HOW CAN STUDENT TEACHERS ELICIT EXPERIENCED TEACHERS’ PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE? TOOLS, SUGGESTIONS, AND SIGNIFICANCE, Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 53, No. 5, November/December 2002 406-419 accessed 5 May 2012 https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/11196/10_440_01.pdf?sequence=1 Ng, Pak Tee (2009) Innovation in education: some observations and questions Internationa. Journal Innovation in Education, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2009, accessed 6 May 2012, http://inderscience.metapress.com/content/fp53gl25h4625083/fulltext.pdf Schön Donald A. (1983) The reflective practitioner - how professionals think in action. accessed on 5 May 2012 http://sopper.dk/speciale/arkiv/book49.pdf Ure, C & Lysk, J. (2008) University of Melbourne School Placement Models in Preservice Teacher Education, APERA Conference 2008 Ure, C & Lysk, J. (2008) University of Melbourne School Professional learning in pre-service teacher education: Placement experiences in graduate teacher education programs. http://www.aare.edu.au/08pap/ure08396.pdf Wankat, Phillip C., (1999) Annual Conference Effective, Efficient Teaching Chemical Engineering, American Society for Engineering Education Conference 1999 accessed on 5 May 2012 http://search.asee.org/search/fetch;jsessionid=3gseuauk4km9o?url=file%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%2FE %3A%2Fsearch%2Fconference%2F23%2FAC%25201999Paper77.PDF&index=conference_papers &space=129746797203605791716676178&type=application%2Fpdf&charset=