Seeing Teaching With New Eyes: Studying Learning Teaching as an Interpretive Process (L-TIP) Implementation in an Urban Teacher Preparation Program (Poster 5)

• In Event: The Way Education Is Can't Be How You Teach: Learning Urban Teaching as Interpretative Process

Abstract

Purpose. This poster articulates the results of a study on the implementation of Hollins’ (2011) theory of learning teaching as an interpretive process (L-TIP) across multiple teacher preparation programs situated in urban settings after engaging together with a program redesign using this framework at a Midwestern urban-serving university. In particular this poster focuses on the ways in which teacher candidates moved from simplified to more nuanced understandings of teaching as they engaged in a coherent teacher preparation program designed based on Hollins’ theory of learning teaching as an interpretive practice and a corpus of tools that structurally supported that program.
Perspective. Cochran-Smith (2003), argued that efforts to reform both urban teaching and teacher preparation frequently fail to comprehend the “unforgiving complexity of teaching” (p. 3). Educational reform in urban contexts tends to conceptualize teaching as a linear process of enacting particular strategies that result in increased student achievement as measured by high-stakes standardized tests (Dunkin & Biddle, 1974). Such a conceptualization ignores the complex, recursive nature of both teaching and learning to teach (Cochran-Smith, 2003; Strom, 2015). For the purposes of this study, we draw upon Hollins’ (2019) articulation of teaching as a science-based profession involving specific sets of technical skills, a body of conceptual and procedural knowledge, and the habits of mind necessary to make instructional decisions based upon the needs and values of students and communities. Such skills include, but are not limited to curriculum design, lesson planning and adjustment, assessment, and supporting students’ psychological or socioemotional development (Hollins, 2011).
Methods. Informed by a naturalistic, phenomenological paradigm, comparative case study methods were employed (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Researchers acted as participant observers (Yin, 1994). Sources of data included over 40 hours of interviews, including focus group interviews with 20 total participants, and candidate artifacts related to teaching as an interpretive process. Holistic coding (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014) and constant comparative analysis ( Lincoln & Guba, 1985) were utilized to develop themes.
Findings. This study revealed two major findings:
Participants moved from conceptually naive to nuanced understandings of teaching as they progressed through the L-TIP-framed teacher preparation program.
Conceptual and structural coherence in the teacher education program helped facilitate those nuanced understandings
Significance. Recognizing the failure of dominant theories of teaching and learning teaching to guide teachers and teacher educators toward the facilitation of learning for all students, Strom (2015) called for teacher education researchers to consider “new lenses and tools [that can] turn our attention to the processes through which outcomes are produced” (p. 330). Hollins’ theory provides the necessary lens to produce and implement such quality tools. Candidates in this study delved deeper into the “unforgiving complexity of teaching” (Cochran-Smith, 2003, p. 3) in their analysis of readings, observations, and interpretations of developing professional practice. Results of this study reinforce the importance of conceptual and structural coherence in teacher preparation program design to create lasting impact on the skills, knowledge, and habits of mind of teacher candidates.

Authors

• Connor Warner, University of Utah

• Ekaterina Strekalova-Hughes, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Rhianna K. Thomas, New Mexico State University

• Clare V. Bell, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Julia T. Atiles, East Tennessee State University