"Most Teachers Don't Know How to Help Kids Learn how to Learn"

Instinctively, I have to say this quote is true from my own perspective as a new teacher. I certainly feel unprepared to not only control a classroom but also teach lessons, not that I'm supposed to feel ready at this point.

While perhaps easily dismissed, I would like to give an anecdotal example. My friend's brother began teaching in an inner-city school this semester. It is also his first year of teaching. Compared to his colleagues he seems to be much more successful in his job, even though he is newer to the profession and took an unrelated job for a couple years before coming to teaching. How could this be? It is my belief that perhaps he thinks about teaching strategies, or it could be superior training. Whatever the case, something special is in him that is allowing his students to develop.

To explain how some teachers, like my friend's brother, are more successful than others, I would like to look at an article entitled, "Beyond Knowledge: Exploring Why Some Teachers Are More Thoughtfully Adapted Than Others." In the most broad sense, this article really stresses that knowledge isn't enough. (This really reminds me of the very salient example given in class about the Calculus teacher that sat in his office and made the course an independent study essentially. He may be smart, but he isn't TEACHING anything.)

The first category discussed in depth is the "Teachers' Beliefs and Personal Practical Theories (PPT's)."

A belief, in its most broad sense, is accepting a statement as true. What you choose to do about this belief is up to the individual, but in the case of teachers, this can impact the classroom. However, are beliefs and knowledge the same? According to a 1992 study, it was "suggested that although teachers may conflate knowledge and beliefs, the distinction is that beliefs are more personal, whereas knowledge is based on objective facts" (Duffy 3). With that, I hope you understand that beliefs do not necessarily mean creationism being taught in schools, but simply a fact that may not have as much evidence as others, although it could be considered very professional e.g., theories, philosophical differences, &c.  With certain beliefs teachers bring to the classroom, some may "be more thoughtful than others" while some "may be more likely to resist [standardized curriculum] (3). However, was the teacher taught this in their teacher education program? Perhaps they were strict about paper-pencil assessment solely. This is where teacher freedom comes into play and their beliefs (and knowledge from teacher education courses) come into play with makes some teachers more successful than others.

The second category is simply named "Vision," which is "a teacher's personal commitment to seek outcomes beyond the usual curricular requirements" (4).  What I have taken the vision of a teacher to be is how a teacher can bring forth the best in their students, and inspire what ability they have to come out. But vision can also mean "ideal classroom practice" or the "purpose, direction, and momentum" of how a teacher will teach (4). Truly, these ideas are similar, but the importance of vision when it comes to the difference of teachers capabilities is that some will adapt to situations better than others.  For example, a teacher may think of their students as young adults, who need to be taught ethics, so she gears her lessons towards mortality; another teacher may view his students as critical thinkers and thus focus on critical thinking problems (4). Both of these teachers visions are good goals to strive for, and are teaching actual life skills, but not instilling strict knowledge in them.  I find this connects rather well to the beliefs distinction, as one teacher may find ethics for their students more important, but another critical thinking skills. Again, all are important, but they vary classroom formats drastically.

The third category is a sense of "belonging," where beliefs and visions are combined to form a sense of "a teaching context" (4-5). This teaching context is simply a feeling a teacher holds, it could be good, in where the teaching thinks their beliefs are worthy for teaching scenarios, or negative where they think they are not matching for teaching situations. As you may imagine, those who feel better when it comes to belonging perform better, and vice versa (5). A study in 2006 illustrates the importance of vision in teachers. In this study, "the teacher candidates who did not make connections between their personal visions of teaching and the context did not continue as teachers" (6). The teachers who quit were unhappy that there was not room in the schools for teacher development (typically). With that, this article postulates that in order to better prepare teachers, we should ready them for the possible "tension between their individual perspectives and educational contexts" in order for their visions to be truly realized in the classroom so creative ideas can be expounded upon (6).

The final category is "Identity," or simply "the influences that shape individuals across their lives and contexts," although these identities are "always in flux" (7). There are primarily two categories currently being studied for identity, one being "how White Privilege affects the...knowledge teachers construct about their students' abilities" and the other is based on teacher's abilities where "these studies explore how teachers...must negotiate the competing discourses of [the ]university... [world] that [affects] professional decisions" (7). This second view  is what we'll look at now. In order to shape better teachers, teachers must be willing to "respond to the myriad [of] forces that shape them" so they can create ways to respond to student's inquiries. (7). By this, I mean a teacher should surely use their identity learned in teacher education programs or from mentors, but at the same time they should take advantage of the best practices, but also not be inflexible if a considered "lesser practice" may work better for a student in a certain situation, whatever that may be.  

I truly found this article (and the debate itself) truly interesting. To find out more information, you can find the Duffy et. al article here: http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/B_Faircloth_Beyond_2010.pdf

If you have trouble with opening the document, I'd be happy to email you the PDF. I look forward to any responses I may receive.