Sources of teachers pedagogical knowledge: an interpretive nanalysis from reports on significant experiences of occupational socialization

Introduction

Teacher’s knowledge construction is a process developed during their personal and professional lifetime. Research on teacher knowledge (Shulman, 1987; Clandinin & Connely, 1987; Grossman, 1900) and on occupational socialization (Lacey, 1977; Lortie, 1975; Templin & Schempp, 1989) has contributed to clarify some contradictions observed on the impact of teacher formal education (Bain, 1990), detaching the importance teachers ascribe to informal sources of knowledge as their teaching practice (wisdom of practice) and occurrences from their anticipatory socialization (Clandinin & Connely, 1986; Grossman, 1990; Pajares, 1992) on development of their thought and action. Within other reasons, the importance teachers recognize to those experiences can be relate to the influence teacher beliefs as on knowledge construction. Because of their "affective coloration" effect (Nespor, 1987) beliefs function as decisive sieves on the selection of information teacher uses to construct his personal knowledge repertoire, and the precocious ones or those developed by personal or direct mediation are the strongest and preponderant is this process (Pajares, 1992).
This study aimed to identify the sources PE teachers pointed out as the most influent on the development of their thought and action, and also to describe the reasons teachers argued for that.

Methods

A multicase study design was used. A qualitative analysis was developed recurring to post-categorization content analysis of PE eight teachers testimony obtained using a focused interview.
Results
Showing the personal and multidimensional dimension of the teacher’s pedagogical knowledge roots, the results underlie the importance of experiences from both anticipatory socialization (e.g., learning through observation, experiences within familiar context) and teaching practice.

Discussion/Conclusion

These results confirm the great influence of the teachers’ informal experiences on the their pedagogical knowledge construction, namely the early personal experiences and/or practical ones. Important inferences about teachers’ formal education curriculum must be taken in order to find ways of revealing and analyze teachers’ anticipatory experiences, and to emphasize the weight of realistic experiences in it.

References

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[3]. Grossman, P. (1990). The Making of a Teacher. New York, Teachers College Press.
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[5]. Lortie, D. (1975). School teacher. Chicago, Chicago University Press
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[9]. Templin, T. J. & Schempp, P. (1989). Socialization in to Physical Education: It’s heritage and hope. In T. Templin & P. Schempp (Edts.), Socialization in to Physical Education: Learning to teach. Indianapolis: Benchmark Press, 1-11.