Identifying Patterns of Practice Linked With Student Learning for Effective Initial Teacher Education

• In Event: Redrawing the Map: Toward a Complex Theory of Initial Teacher Education

Abstract

Objectives
As # 1, 2 and 3 show, conceptualizing ITE as a complex system requires a broad, complex and non-linear view of teaching practice that improves outcomes for every child. We conducted a critical complexity review of international research to identify patterns of practice that enhance learning opportunities and outcomes for all children. The identification of such patterns prepares the ground for the next step of the RITE research agenda that seeks explanatory theories about why some teacher candidates (and the beginning teachers they become) enact practices that support the learning of all students, including those under-served by the current arrangements of schooling, and why others do not (Cochran-Smith et al., in press).

Theoretical framework and method
Drawing on the CT-CR framework, we critically reviewed effective teaching frameworks and research syntheses from several international jurisdictions. We selected four for further analysis. These had different research bases and were compiled for different purposes, but all connected to broad and complex conceptions of student learning which aligned with our theoretical stance. Selected were: the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project (United States) (MET Project, 2013), Best Evidence Syntheses (New Zealand) (Aitken & Sinnema, 2008; Alton-Lee, 2003; Anthony & Walshaw, 2007), the Teaching for Effective Learning Framework (South Australia) (Department of Education and Children’s Services, 2010) and the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (United Kingdom) (James & Pollard, 2006). For each, the critical complexity analysis examined: purpose and scope; views of teaching, learning and effectiveness; context and causality; and the empirical evidence used to support identified practices.

Findings
Despite their different origins and purposes we identified common patterns of practice across the frameworks / syntheses that were consistently associated with student learning, including academic, social, democratic and emotional outcomes. The patterns of practice were: selecting worthwhile content; connecting to students’ lives and experiences; creating a learning-focused, respectful and supportive classroom environment; using evidence and inquiry to scaffold learning and improve teaching; and, pursuing professional learning and teacher agency. There appeared to be strong interrelationships between these patterns, which suggest that it would be hard to enact one of these practices without connecting to the others. For example selecting worthwhile learning cannot occur without an understanding of students’ lives and experiences.

Significance
The interrelationships between patterns of practice means that it would be difficult to conceive of a simple linear relationship between any one pattern of practice and children’s learning broadly conceptualized. The fundamental interconnectedness of patterns of practice challenges some contemporary approaches, which reduces effective teaching to a list of discrete practices. To track fundamental conditions and mechanisms within the ITE system that support or constrain teacher candidates’ enactment of patterns of practice that enhance children’s learning, we may need to use retroductive (Danermark et al, 1997) methods consistent with CT-CR and methods from other social science fields such as process-tracing (George & Bennett, 2005) and extended case studies (Anderson et al., 2005).

Authors

• Lexie Barbara Grudnoff, The University of Auckland

• Mary F. Hill, University of Auckland