Abstract
This paper draws on case-study research that focused on teaching observations conducted as part of vocational teachers' initial teacher training (ITT) in further education (FE) colleges in England. It analyses the post-observation feedback discussion, drawing on a rich sociocultural tradition within work-based learning literature. It argues that the feedback discussion provides a learning space that is particularly important for vocational teachers who cross boundaries from vocational contexts to learn to become teachers. To maximize learning from observation, vocational teachers need time and opportunity to develop their practice with others who mediate their learning and development.
Highlights
Learning through practice with others is an essential aspect of the development of expertise in workplaces and there is a rich sociocultural tradition that provides analytic and theoretical frameworks to develop our understanding of the processes involved
This paper focuses on an element of the teaching-observation process in further education (FE) initial teacher training (ITT) – the post-observation feedback discussion – and analyses its contribution to the development of vocational teachers’ practice
The sequences varied in order and in the intervals between them but, as part of this sequence, all the case-study observations featured a post-observation feedback discussion and included a written account or report of the observation provided by the observer
Summary
Learning through practice with others is an essential aspect of the development of expertise in workplaces and there is a rich sociocultural tradition that provides analytic and theoretical frameworks to develop our understanding of the processes involved. These signal the interrelationship of social practice and individual capacity in the development of expertise (see, inter alia, Billett, 2001; Engeström, 2004; Felstead et al, 2005; Fuller and Unwin, 2010; Lave and Wenger, 1991; Winch, 2010) At their heart, these sociocultural traditions embrace a paradigm shift in the study of learning provoked by Lave and Wenger’s (1991) ethnography of workplace practices.Their influential thesis on learning contrasted with the traditional or standard paradigm of learning that was concerned with understanding learning at the level of the individual and rooted in psychological theories of learning. Sfard (1998) named this approach, metaphorically, ‘learning as acquisition’ In this characterization, learning is a product with visible, identifiable outcomes that takes place once knowledge acquisition is assessed as a change in the property of the individual. It is argued, is a psychological process and essentially goes on in an individual’s head (Hughes et al, 2007)
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