Teachers can change: a Kellyian interpretation

Abstract

‘Without Unceasing Practise nothing can be done. Practise is Art. If you leave off you are lost.’ (William Blake, inscription on The Laocoon) This article explores Kelly's theory of personal constructs and its application to teachers of composition. People are best understood in terms of the ways they anticipate events. These bases of discrimination are bipolar constructs that are open to revision. Kelly explains that members of a group are similar because they use the same constructs to order events. However, in order to enter into a relationship with others, they need first to subsume the others' personal constructs. When teachers of composition were construed as Kellyian psychologists, they were found to construe other people as denying them classroom autonomy and to see themselves as not very effective instructors. Explanations for the survival of their construct systems were provided. Conceptual change may depend upon the centrality and interconnect‐edness of the constructs and upon the strength of t...