Using the Case Story Method in a Teacher Education Practicum: Affordances and Constraints

Abstract

It has now been established that novice teachers feel a (Veenman, 1984) or praxis (Flores & Day, 2006) when the ideals that they formed during their initial teacher education are often challenged or changed by the realities of classroom life as they begin to teach in a school (Farrell, 2008). Novice teachers can be better prepared for the reality shock only if the pre-service education that they receive is in line with classroom reality. There is no doubt that the learning opportunities that pre-service teachers have during their departmental studies need to be comprehensive enough to provide them with solid foundations and circumstances for relating theoretical knowledge with practical skills. When learning to teach is considered, practicum lies at the heart of pre-service teachers' knowledge building experiences and professional development (Tang, 2004), as pre-service teachers observe real teaching/ learning contexts, carry out reflective tasks, and practice micro and macro Thus, practicum has the potential to provide opportunities for for the reality shock. However, the related literature indicates that, in most cases, practicum is far from sufficient to link theory with practice and the expectations of pre-service teachers are barely met (Korthagen, Lougran, & Russell, 2006; Seferoglu, 2006).There has been a consensus within teacher education programs on preparing teachers who can learn from teaching, as well as learning for teaching. However, there has been much less discussion about what goes on within the black box of the program inside the courses and clinical experiences that candidates encounter (Darling-Hammond, 2006, p.11). Given that much of the contact with real classroom life takes place during practicum, what goes inside practicum-especially the methods that are applied-deserves close attention due to its potential to minimize the reality shock that novice teachers may feel when they begin their teaching career. Researchers and teacher educators are in the position of examining the impact of the methods they employ in practicum and looking for alternative methods and techniques that may be incorporated into practicum to better prepare pre-service teachers.Case-based methods have been employed by teacher educators for representing the simulations of real classroom situations to improve pre-service teachers' professional learning (Harrington, 1995; Merseth, 1996; Schulman, 1992). The popularity of using case-based methods has resulted in different implementation of cases. Cevik (2011) categorizes these into four groups: (1) teacher candidates must record and analyze their own teaching practices (Rich & Hannafin, 2008; 2009); (2) teacher candidates must analyze cases that exemplify knowledge and skills of teaching (Kim & Hannafin, 2009); (3) teacher candidates must study cases to solve authentic teaching problems (Powell, 2000; Santagata & Angelici, 2010); and (4) teacher candidates must develop and analyze their own reflective narratives (Ackerman & Maslin-Ostrowski, 1995; Hsu, 2004; Youngs & Bird, 2010).The case story method, a combination of the case study method with story writing or story telling (Ackerman & Maslin-Ostrowski, 1995), is one of the case-based methods put forward as a pedagogical tool to improve teacher education. The case story method has been situated in reflective learning theory that rests on the works of Dewey (1933; 1938), Kolb (1984), and Schon (1983). In this theory, reflection is defined as learning that rests on gaining new insights into the self and/or practice (Mezirow, 1981). Dewey (1933) postulated that an experience-an interaction between an individual and his environment-should be more than participation in activities. Thus, the act of experience does not necessarily lead to learning. Reflection is the key needed for channeling the experience to learning. Kolb (1984) proposed an experiential learning model that illustrates the four phases of learning from observation: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. …