What Is an Approximation of Practice Across the Teacher Preparation/Beginning Teacher Trajectory?

• In Event: Building a Knowledge Base for Elementary Teacher Education

Abstract

Objective. Building a knowledge base for elementary teacher preparation and its outcomes requires understanding the nature and structure of teacher candidates’ opportunities to learn during teacher preparation, along with the ways in which those opportunities change as teacher candidates move into novice teaching. This paper presents a conceptual and empirical exploration of teacher candidates’ and novice teachers’ opportunities to learn through “approximations of practice” (Grossman et al., 2009).
Theoretical Framework. Based on their study of pedagogy across different relational professions, Grossman and colleagues (2009) identified three key pedagogies, one of which is approximation of practice. They define approximation as “opportunities for novices to engage in practices that are more or less proximal to the practices of a profession,” (p. 2058). In their framework, approximations can vary along a number of dimensions, including the completeness of the practice and the role of feedback from others, including teacher educators.
Grossman and colleagues conceptualized approximations largely within pre-service education. Approximations are intended to help build the foundation upon which beginning teachers achieve fluency enacting ambitious instructional practices as teachers of record. This paper examines how the concept of approximation of practice helps us understand this transition.
Data Sources and Methods. We draw on data from interviews and surveys of approximately 40 first-year teachers across a range of school and district contexts. In 2016-17, teachers were interviewed three times each and one survey. We focused on survey items related to opportunities to learn and enact ambitious teaching practices in elementary literacy and mathematics. We conducted thematic analyses of the interview transcripts and descriptive analyses of the survey responses.
Findings. In earlier analyses (Author, 2017), we found that teacher candidates had multiple opportunities to learn through approximations of practice during their preparation programs. These included approximations that both (a) simplified practice focusing on only a portion of a fuller practice and (b) complexified practice by requiring detailed information about teacher candidates’ thinking and planning. Field experiences during teacher preparation also provided potential opportunities to learn through approximations in the form of co-planning and co-teaching. In the current study, we focused on the opportunities novice teachers had to approximate practices in their first year of teaching. We found that some opportunities, such as participating in rehearsals of a new practice during a professional development experience, clearly fit into the conceptualization of approximation used in teacher preparation. However, other opportunities, particularly those involving a novice teacher enacting a practice in her/his own classroom, fit less clearly into this conceptualization. They constitute a different, but related learning-to-teach opportunity which we conceive as approximations in practice.
Significance. This study offers insights into a conceptualization of teachers’ opportunities to learn ambitious practices. “Approximation” is one pedagogy for providing opportunities to learn in teacher preparation (Grossman et al., 2009), but the role and meaning of approximation in early career teaching require further definition. This study links prior conceptualizations of approximation with the perspectives of first-year teachers to describe the trajectory of approximations of and in practice in early career teaching.

Authors

• Corey Drake, Michigan State University

• Jillian M Cavanna, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Dorothea M. Anagnostopoulos, The University of Connecticut