understanding teacher learning in the new context: a constructivist perspective
DESCRIPTION
Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective. 1. Introduction. Shift in research paradigms; Conceptualizations of teacher learning; The constructivist perspective ; A survey study. Questions . What is the nature of teacher learning? - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist
Perspective
![Page 2: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
1. Introduction
• Shift in research paradigms;• Conceptualizations of teacher
learning;• The constructivist perspective;• A survey study
![Page 3: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Questions • What is the nature of teacher learning? • How should teachers react to the contextual changes in understanding their professional development? • In what way does the context affect and motivate teachers’ professional learning?
![Page 4: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
2. Understanding Teacher Learning from the
Constructivist Perspective • 2.1 Conceptualizations of teacher learning in the previous studies• 2.2 The constructivist perspective of teacher learning
![Page 5: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
2.1 Conceptualizations of teacher learning in the previous studies
![Page 6: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
a) Teacher learning as skill learning;b) Teacher learning as a cognitive process; c) Teacher learning as personal construction; d) Teacher learning as reflective practice. (Richards and Farrel, 2005: pp.6-7)
![Page 7: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
2.2 The constructivist perspective of
teacher learning
![Page 8: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
2.2.1 Philosophical basis of
Constructivism
![Page 9: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
1) Dewey’s educational philosophy;2) Piaget’s theory of humans’ cognitive development; 3) Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory.
![Page 10: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
2.2.2 Constructivist assumptions of
learning
(Fisher, 1991: p.15)
![Page 11: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
1) Reality: is constructed as experience;
![Page 12: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
2) Knowledge: is constructed as a product of social and individual
assumptions and is mediated and developed
through language;
![Page 13: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
3) Meaning: is constructed both
internally and socially as processes of mental
representations;
![Page 14: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
4) Process of knowing: is an ongoing process of interpreting present
events from within the observer’s existential
framework;
![Page 15: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
5) Person: behavior is indeterminate, constrained by recursive relations between self and the environment.
![Page 16: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
The constructivist learning cycle
(Roberts, 1998: pp.23)
![Page 17: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
1. filters new information
6. revises mental representations
5. maintains the meaning 4. confirms or disconfirms
3. matched with her prior internal representations
2. constructs the meaning
![Page 18: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
2.2.3 Constructivist implications
for Teacher learning
(Pope, 1993: p.20-21)
![Page 19: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
1) The world is real but individuals vary in their
perception of it;
![Page 20: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
2) An individual’s conception of the real world has integrity for
that individual;
![Page 21: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
3) Teacher use personally pre-existing theories to explain and
plan their teaching;
![Page 22: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
4) Teachers test these theories for fruitfulness and modify them in the
light of such testing.
![Page 23: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
a) Teacher and reality • Teachers actively construct and re-
construct their knowledge by maintaining or revising their existential mental representations of the ‘reality’;
• The ‘reality’ of teachers is chiefly constructed through their experience of teaching;
• Different teachers will have different understandings of the same ‘reality’.
![Page 24: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
b) Teacher and knowledge• The way how teacher’s knowledge
is constructed depends on how the teacher interprets the ‘reality’;
• Once the interpretations are internalized into the existential framework of teachers, it will surely change the content of their knowledge.
![Page 25: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
c) Teacher and the changing context
• The ‘reality’ is changing; • Teacher learns only when their
reflection induces them to change their understanding of the ‘reality’;
• The new understanding invites them to modify their behavior in their interaction with the ‘reality’.
![Page 26: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
3. Teacher learning in the New Educational
Context: Evidence from Chinese EFL
Teachers
![Page 27: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
3.1 The Emergence of a New Educational Context in China
![Page 28: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
The changes in the educational context
1) The social and economic status of teachers has been greatly upgraded in the past decade;
![Page 29: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
2) The movement of Professionalism
presents new questions to teacher education;
![Page 30: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
3) Curriculum innovation;
![Page 31: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
4) The spurt of technology.
![Page 32: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
3.2 The Survey Study
![Page 33: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Method• The subjects • The instrument • Categorizing the questionnaire• The administration
![Page 34: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
1) sensitivity to educational reforms;2) awareness of institutional changes;3) use of new teaching technologies;4) perceptions about contextual changes; 5) motivation to professional learning; 6) preferences to the means of learning.
![Page 35: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
Teaching age
1-10 years
10-20 years
20 years above
number 51 26 15Professional title
Assistant teacher
lecturer Associate professor
professor
number 30 34 26 2Academic degree
doctor master bachelor College graduate or other
number 56 36
Table 1: personal information
![Page 36: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Findings (1)• Most of the subjects are well
aware of the reforms concerning college English teaching.
![Page 37: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
Findings (2)• English teaching time has been
reduced in the past several years;• The textbooks they use have been
changed more frequently than before;
• The students they teach are more motivated and autonomous than before in their English learning.
![Page 38: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
Findings (3)• New electronic techniques are not
much employed by this cohort of teachers, indicating quite a lot of teachers are sticking to the traditional “chalk-and-blackboard” way of teaching.
![Page 39: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
Findings (4)• Most teachers (85 /92) believe that
contextual changes are affecting their professional activities;
• The most affected aspect is that they are facing more serious challenges in their professional knowledge and abilities;
• The next one is that they are forced to change their traditional teaching methods.
![Page 40: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
Findings (5)• Pressure mainly comes from heavy teaching load (59) and incompetence in scientific research ( 51 ) ; • Half of the subjects (49, 53%) claim that they are professionally knowledgeable, while the other half (43) thinking they are not;• 91 of the subjects in the answer to Question 14 expressed the hope to continue their professional learning through a certain way.
![Page 41: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
Findings (6)• Only half of the subjects have got
chances of learning before;• These teachers improve their
teaching competence mainly through self-study and reflection.
• They chose off-site advanced studies as the most preferred way to continue their professional learning .
![Page 42: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
Implications• Both the society and the
institutions should help teacher get adjusted to the changing context by providing them with as many as possible learning chances and supports.
![Page 43: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
4. Conclusion
![Page 44: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
• Any changes in the societal context will
inevitably affect teachers’ beliefs about their
professional status and prospect;
![Page 45: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
• Any alterations in the institutional factors will
also affect teachers’ professional beliefs and
decisions;
![Page 46: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
• Teacher learning is by nature a process deserving plan,
design, and execution in the interaction with both the
societal and the institutional contexts.
![Page 47: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
• High awareness of the contextual changes and
effort in actively constructing new knowledge are valued; inertia will be a threat to the professional development of teachers.
![Page 48: Understanding Teacher Learning in the New Context: A Constructivist Perspective](https://reader036.vdocuments.us/reader036/viewer/2022062501/56816861550346895ddeb17b/html5/thumbnails/48.jpg)
Thank you !