Making Sense of Experienced Teachers’ Interactive Decisions: Implications for Expertise in Teaching

Abstract

Teachers’ decision making has always been an area of curiosity in many studies related to teachers and teaching. One approach to understanding teachers’ decisions is through the analysis of their reflection-in-action behaviours. This study, based on the premise that one can gain understanding from examining experienced teachers’ classroom performances, focuses on the interactive decisions made by ten experienced language teachers. The study presents the findings of an analysis of similarities in the motivations behind teachers’ interactive decisions, as demonstrated in their verbal reports following the video recorded lesson observations. These findings show that there are both shared pedagogical and affective attributes among participant teachers. These results, and the insight they give into experienced teachers’ decision making are potentially beneficial for all pre-service and practising teachers

Keywords

• Experienced Teachers, Interactive Decision Making, Reflection-In-Action, Expertise, Teacher Education

Making Sense of Experienced Teachers’ Interactive Decisions: Implications for Expertise in Teaching

Öz

-

Anahtar Kelimeler

• -

References

1. Bailey, K.M. (1996). The best laid plans: teachers’ in-class decisions to depart from their lesson plans. In Bailey, K.M.&Nunan, D. (Eds). Voices from the language classroom. USA: CUP.
2. Bartlett, L. (1990). Teacher development through reflective teaching. In J.C Richards & D. Nunan (Eds). Second language teacher education. USA:CUP
3. Brandt, C. (2008). Integrating feedback and reflection in teacher preparation. ELT Journal, 62,1, 37-46.
4. Borg, S. (2006). Teacher cognition and language education: Research and practice. London: Continuum.
5. Bress, P. (2000). What makes a teacher special. English Teaching Professional, 14.
6. Byra, M. & Sherman, M.A. (1993). Preactive and interactive decision-making tendencies of less and more experienced preservice teachers. Res Q Exerc Sport, 64,1, 46El-Dib, M.AB. (2007). Levels of reflection in action research: An overview and an assessment tool. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23,1, 24–35.
7. Farrell, T. (2003). Reflective teaching: The principles and practices. English Teaching Forum, October, 14-21.
8. Gatbonton, E. (1999). Investigating experienced ESL teachers’ pedagogical knowledge. The Modern Language Journal, 83, 35-50.

9. Gill, G.K. & Halim, N.A. (2007). Reflection in action: Examining the place, impact and management issues surrounding the integration of reflection in classroom practice.
10. AARE (2006). International Educational Research Conference, Adelaide: Engaging Pedagogies, Papers Collection.
11. Gilroy, P. (1993): Reflections on Schon: An epistemological critique and a practical alternative. Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy, 19,4, 125-142.
12. Ho, S.& Liu, K. (2005). A qualitative study of decision-making of expert and novice teachers in teaching students with intellectual disability. The 17th Asian Conference on Mental Retardation, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
13. Johnson, K. (1992). The instructional decisions of pre-service ESL teachers: New directions for teacher preparation programs. In J. Flowerdew, M. Brock & S. Hsia (Eds). Perspectives on second language teacher education. Hong Kong: City Polytechnic of Hong Kong.
14. Johnson, K. (2010). Expertise in language learning and teaching. ELT Journal, 64,2: 217-2
15. Kryszewska, H. (2007). Expertise in second language learning and teaching. ELT Journal, 61,2, 179-181.
16. Lange, D.L. (1990). A blueprint for a teacher development program. In Richards, J.C. & Nunan. D. (Eds). Second language teacher education. USA:CUP
17. Lee, K.O. (2001). Three ESL teachers' reflections upon their beliefs toward communicative language teaching and classroom practices: A multiple case study, ETD collection for University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Paper AAI3022644. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3022644
18. Leedy, P.D. & Ormrod, J.E. (2001). Practical research: Planning and design. New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.
19. Leng, T.H. (2007). The Role of Reflection in Facilitators’ Professional Development within a PBL environment. HERDSA Conference Papers, Adelaide.
20. Malcolm, I.G. (1991). “All right then, if you don’t want to do that…”: Strategy and counter-strategy in classroom discourse management. Guidelines: A Periodical for Classroom Language Teachers, 13, 2: 1-17.
21. Nunan, D. (1992). The teacher as decision-maker. In J. Flowerdew, M. Brock, and S. Hsia (Eds). Perspectives on second language teacher education. Hong Kong: City Polytechnic of Hong Kong.
22. Patten, C.B. (2003). What makes a good teacher. http://www.ldonline.org/article/5696/ Putnam, J. & Duffy, G.G. (1984). A descriptive study of the preactive and interactive decision making of an expert classroom teacher. The Institute for Research on Teaching, Michigan State University, Research Series No.148.
23. Richards, J.C.& Nunan, D. (Eds) (1990). Second language teacher education. New York: CUP.
24. Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco, CA, JosseyBass.
25. Senior, R.M. (20002). A class-centred approach to language teaching. ELT Journal, 56,397-403.
26. Shulman, L.S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57,1, 1-23.
27. Singh, P. (2008). Reflection-in-and-on- action in participatory action research: Toward assessment for learning. Syst Pract Act Res, 21, 241-251.
28. Smith, D.B. (1996). Teacher decision making in the adult ESL classroom. In D.Freeman & J.C. Richards (Eds), Teacher learning in language teaching. USA: CUP.
29. Smith, T.W. & Strahan, D. (2004). Toward a prototype of expertise in teaching: A descriptive case study. Journal of Teacher Education, 55, 4: 357-371.
30. Tsui, A. (2003). Understanding expertise in teaching: Case studies in ESL teaching teachers. Cambridge,England: CUP.
31. Tsui, A. (2009). Distinctive qualities of expert teachers. Teachers and Teaching, 15, 4, 421-439.
32. Urzşa, A. &Vásquez, C. (2008). Reflection and professional identity in teachers’ futureoriented discourse. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 7, 1935–1946.
33. Westerman, D. A. (1991). Expert and novice teacher decision making. Journal of Teacher Education, 42, 4: 292-305.
34. Westerman, D. A. (1991). Teacher decision making by experts and novices across three stages: preactive, interactive and postactive. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 330 658.