Chapter 6: College Teaching and Learning

"Teaching has not improved because teacher educators, frankly, are limited in their pedagogical abilities…"
Howey, 1996
"…our teaching of teachers is frankly, often mind blowingly boring."
Moon, 2007

The first quotation is from a researcher on teacher education looking at teacher education programs in the USA in 1995. There is some evidence that this holds true for teacher education in other parts of the world as well. While the rhetoric of Learner Centered Education is pervasive, even in Teacher Colleges, the practice of teaching continues to be traditionalist in its approach (Kanu, 2007), relationships between student teachers and teacher educators tend to be formal and hierarchical, pedagogy is focused on the transmission of knowledge (Stuart and Tatto, 2000, p. 510), a narrow set of strategies tend to be implemented (CHANGES2, 2006), and reforms have not kept pace with the reforms being promoted in primary schools. As has been discussed elsewhere in Professional Learning Communities in the Teachers' College, there are numerous reasons put forward to explain the lack of change in teachers' colleges.

Most authors argue for a change in the practices of teacher educators; faculties of education at universities and teachers' colleges must become models of good pedagogy. This chapter provides some practical ideas for implementing more experiential, participatory and student-centered approaches in the college classroom. It follows the chapters on Learning to Teach, LCE and Curriculum, and it builds on the principles, theories and approaches in those chapters.

The chapter does not necessarily follow the structure of an essay. At the risk of sounding somewhat fragmentary, it exhorts teacher educators to attend to the gaps between the rhetoric of reform and actual practices within teacher education programs, emphasizes the need for a safe environment within which reform ideas can be implemented, and provides some practical participatory methods that teacher educators can use in their classrooms to support LCE.

Pedagogical Practices of Teacher Educators: Gaps between Rhetoric and Practice

"a secure environment for learning allows student teachers to try out new ideas and ways of thinking and expressing themselves"

In Zambia, a series of classroom observations to understand curriculum implementation at the teachers' colleges revealed that "…only a few tutors were skilled at using dialogue and generative techniques of classroom interaction," and the range of teaching methods used was narrow (CHANGES2, 2006. P.16). The MUSTER studies of teacher education in Ghana, Malawi, Lesotho, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago concluded in 2003 that even though the college curricula promote active pedagogical techniques such as project work, field trips, and group work, the predominant mode of teaching in teachers' colleges remains teacher-centered, direct instruction. This was manifested in student teachers being "told about how to handle primary classes, and occasionally shown, as when the tutor did a demonstration lesson, or showed a video, but very seldom did they actually experience the kind of student-centred methods that were preached" (Lewin & Stuart, 2003, p. 76, emphasis supplied).

The evidence suggests that teacher educators' classroom practices are not always aligned with the methods promoted by reform proposals. The problem of lack of alignment between rhetoric of reform and practices in teacher education classrooms cuts across different national contexts. Since improvement in teacher education is contingent upon its alignment with the fresh LCE based proposals, the quality remains static. As Howey (1996) puts it:

Teaching has not improved because teacher educators, frankly, are limited in their pedagogical abilities, and no major pressures exist to change the nature of their teaching. Fundamental problems of [teacher educator] pedagogy, underestimated by most and ignored by many in the teacher education literature, are nonetheless manifest everywhere. (Howey, 1996, p. 21)

Previous chapters have presented major ideas that teacher educators are encouraged to articulate in professional learning communities and networks in order to improve their practice. This chapter is about practice. Beginning with an emphasis on theories of adult learning below, this chapter will go over some practical ideas about the kinds of activities that teacher educators can use in their classrooms.

Adult Learning (Andragogy)

As adults, student teachers learn differently from primary or even secondary learners. All student teachers come to class with a wealth of prior knowledge and experience. They also come with skills for learning. Most have had some experience with college subjects through their own schooling or their interests outside of school. Many student teachers are parents, have had extensive child-minding experience, and have been teachers in the context of the home and community. Some have had paying jobs; many have skills of organizing, communicating and production, and increasingly many student teachers have computer and internet skills. Awareness of this in teaching and learning demands that student teachers' experiences, knowledge and opinions are valued and play a central role in the development of new knowledge, skills and attitudes. Rather than ignore prior knowledge and experience, teacher educators should view it as a basis for developing opportunities to make meaning of new concepts and skills. Furthermore, understanding principles of andragogy, or adult learning, can help make teacher education more effective.
According to Knowles, Holten and Swanson (1998, cited in Fidishun, undated) the principles of adult learning (also known as andragogy) can guide the teaching and learning as well as curriculum of adult education, including teacher education. These principles of adult learning are:

• Adult learners are driven more by internal motivation than young learners.
• Adult learners need to know the reasons for learning something and how learning it will be useful to them.
  Adult learners are more able to be self-directed learners than young people if given the right amount of support.
• Adult learners prefer to have a sense of agency in their own learning and can resist attempts by teachers to force new knowledge and information on them.
• Adult learners tend to feel more comfortable about learning when they have a sense of control over what they are learning and how.

For more effective teacher education, it is important that principles of adult learning theory become integrated into the approaches of teacher educators. This means curriculum and instruction at the college should build on the prior knowledge and experiences of student teachers. It should also consider that through the apprenticeship of observation, some unlearning will have to be done by student teachers as they let go of some ideas about teaching and learning that may be unhelpful when trying to learn more participatory methods. Adult student teachers should understand educational theory and practice rather than simply be told what to do. By understanding theory, they gain a better understanding of why particular educational strategies should be used. Involving student teachers in planning lessons and offering choices on what and how to study affords student teachers control over their own learning.

Creating a Safe and Supportive Classroom Environment

Classrooms and other learning spaces should provide a safe and supportive environment for student teachers to learn, share ideas and grow. This is true for adults and children. In the context of the teachers' college, where many student teachers are given more freedom and responsibility for their own learning, a secure environment for learning allows student teachers to try out new ideas and ways of thinking and expressing themselves.

A safe and supportive environment should not be interpreted as one devoid of challenges. It may be important to intellectually challenge the student teachers, but it is also equally important that solutions to these challenges expressed by student teachers are not subjected to ridicule, sarcasm, or insult. A safe environment is one in which students have no social obstacles in the way of addressing the problems posed to them.

LCE cannot be implemented without creating a safe environment. If you recall, the reform approaches advocate a shift from teachers' role as a transmitter to facilitator of knowledge. Such role can only be constituted in a socially safe and supportive environment.

Teaching within a Pedagogical Milieu

As teacher educators, how you teach matters as much as what you teach. There is payoff for using the same teaching practices in the college classroom that student teachers will later be expected to understand and adapt in their own teaching. Using a variety of methods, making the methods explicit to student teachers, reflecting on those methods in the college classroom, and giving student teachers opportunities to adapt and practice those methods is what might be called teaching within a pedagogical milieu. Student teachers form beliefs about good teaching from their experiences. The teacher education program would be more meaningful if the prospective teachers attending them were made to experience the pedagogical choices expected of teachers in their future teaching. To enable such experiences, teacher educators might:

• Name, describe and discuss the methods used in the college classroom.
• Point out aspects of teaching methods that might be difficult or need preparation prior to the lesson.
• Ask student teachers to reflect on the methods being used. The idea of reflective practice will be taken up in more detail in Chapter 8. Here, it suffices to note that reflection is a thinking process aimed at becoming aware of one's own professional actions in order to critique and improve them. It may involve, but is not limited to, raising questions such as: What did you think about the methods used in this class today? What aspects of the methods did you like? What didn't you like? What are the strengths of the method? What are the weaknesses of the method? How is the method learner-centered? How was your participation? Was there full or partial participation? How might the method be adapted for another topic? Do you think it is easy to use? What kinds of preparation are needed to use this method?
• Give student teachers opportunities to adapt and practice the methods (give assignments that include adaptation of the method to primary learners, ask student teachers to demonstrate the methods in the context of the subject being taught, or ask for peer review and reflection of the methods being practiced by student teachers.)

Some Participatory Methods

This section provides some examples of the types of activities that could be included in college classrooms across subjects. The methods are based on the principles of adult learning, constructivist learning, progressive and transformative education, and the premise that modeling of these methods and having student teachers participate in and reflect on these methods will foster improved understanding and classroom practices of student teachers. Many of the methods described here are even used in colleges today, yet may not be fully utilized as learner-centered techniques.

Group Work

"Group work prepares us for team work."

Where is learning located? Who learns? Is learning an attribute of individual or a group? We learn as an individual, but we cannot make that learning visible without expressing it in a social context. Making learning visible also involves expression, reasoning and justifying one's conjectures about a problem situation to one's peers. So, while we learn some things as individuals, it requires a group to solidify what we have learned. You must have experienced the ways in which your understanding is made more robust in the process of explaining something to someone other than yourself. This is just part of the reason why working in groups may be important. The other part is the fact that we live in a world in which societies and economies are run collectively by the actions of many individuals. The individual needs to learn to work in a group in order to be prepared for a society that requires working in large and small teams of people. Group work prepares us for team work.

Thus, for most of the reasons given above, group work has become the default LCE method for teacher educators. Good group activities are usually developed around problems that cannot be solved by individuals and require division of labor among more than one individual. While group activities can certainly be opportunities for student teachers to generate new ideas, solve problems together, critique and analyze issues as a group, group work has often been found to have inconsistencies between the espoused LCE method and the actual practice within the group. For example, Stuart (1999, p. 19) notes that in Ghana 'students discuss in groups,' but then the book then lists all the points they 'should come up with.' In other words, there is a transmission of knowledge model within an apparently constructivist teaching method. In Namibia, where LCE had been in place for several years at teachers' colleges, Storeng (2001) found that teacher educators' implementation fell short of its intended participatory purposes as this quote from a teacher educator suggests, "Lecturers just give group work, while students discuss private thing" (Storeng, 2001, p.77).

To ensure that group work does not become "a way for teachers to escape their educational responsibilities … through meaningless group work that recycles ignorance" (Dahlstrom, undated, p. 39), teacher educators should use group work for more than the recall of information and reproduction of knowledge transmitted by the teacher.

Student teachers working in groups benefit from the exchange of ideas, discussion, dialogue, debate and multiple perspectives of participants. Expressing one's opinion, sharing knowledge, and challenging each other's assumptions and beliefs all move student teachers to new levels of knowledge. Assigning student teachers to work in groups in order to recall knowledge does not take full advantage of the learning potential of a group.

Good group activities provide a balance between providing student teachers with something challenging and giving them enough support. Support to groups from the teacher educator can help the group stay on track, provide them with new insights, clear up misconceptions and provide suggestions and guidance. Too much direction can be as unhelpful in terms of learning as no support to the group at all. Some questions to ask yourself when designing group activities are listed below.

• What other qualities of good group work can you come up with?
• What is the best size group for this activity to ensure full participation by students?
• Do I want students to recall knowledge? If so, group work may not be the best method.
  How do I expect every student teacher to participate?
• What kind of instructions shall I give so that all understand the assignment?
• What kinds of responses, outcomes or ideas do I expect to come out of the group? What are the aims of the group work?
• What prior knowledge and experiences do the student teachers bring to this activity? Am I challenging them to generate new ideas or concepts?
• How might I expect to provide them with support?
• Is there enough time allocated for the group activity?
• Do the student teachers have the appropriate materials and resources for the assignment?
• Will group work be assessed? Will participation in the group be assessed? Will the group product be assessed? How?

Brainstorming

The term brainstorm refers to the flurry of cerebral energy that comes from lots of minds working together. It usually results from free thinking around a particular topic. In brainstorming, all answers are accepted and written down. No critiques of the suggestions are provided during brainstorming. The idea in brainstorming is to get as many ideas out as possible. Usually this freedom of thought and expression helps new ideas emerge.

Brainstorming is not an appropriate teaching technique when students are asked to recall something, analyze something using a given procedure or come up with an application of a concept or skill. It would be inappropriate to ask students to brainstorm the kinetic theory, because this theory is well defined in textbooks and other resources. It would be appropriate to ask students to brainstorm ways of communicating with parents and community members around issues of circumcision and HIV/AIDS, because there can be different ways of communicating depending on the local context and circumstances.

Fertilizing Classroom Communities with Ideas from Outside

Ideas from outside can take the form of occasionally inviting people working in different contexts. Such guest speakers can be very useful in supplementing classroom facilitation. In addition to bringing specific expertise, speakers offer variety in presentation style which can be a nice change of pace for student teachers. However, utilizing guest speakers requires preparation. First, be sure that you know what guest speakers will talk about and what views they will share. If you spend much of the term working with student teachers on the need to teach HIV education in schools, and a doctor who specializes in treatment of HIV comes to your class and tells your students that they should not talk about HIV to young people, this can have a detrimental impact on the attitudes of student teachers. Even though the doctor is not an expert in education, student teachers might listen to her because of her high status. It is good to have a discussion with the guest speakers well ahead of the class to confirm what the speakers would talk about and ensure their views are in line with those of the college and yourself. Even with proper preparation, there may be cases when guest speakers say something incorrect, misleading or controversial. It is up to you to address this tactfully while the speaker is there or to wait and critique the presentation after the speaker has gone. Controversial speakers can be a good opportunity for opening up dialogue among student teachers. It is helpful, however, if the teacher educator is prepared for what the speaker might say.

It is also helpful to discuss an upcoming guest speaker with the student teachers before the guest speaker arrives. Tell them why the guest speaker is coming, what she will discuss and invite student teachers to start thinking of questions to ask. Be sure to ask the guest speaker to allow plenty of time for discussion with the student teachers.

Guest speakers can offer alternative perspectives of subjects and topics from the local community or beyond. They can also stimulate thought in new ways for student teachers. Ensure that student teachers are prepared for the guest speaker and that they are ready to engage in questions and dialogue with the speaker.

Creating Space for Dialogue

According to Paulo Freire, dialogue is an important tool in developing critical consciousness. What does dialogue have to do with teacher education? True dialogue results in transformation of those engaged in it; it is not unidirectional. In dialogue, all parties are actively engaged in listening, questioning, clarifying, debating, describing and analyzing. New ideas and knowledge are created. The participants are changed as a result of the dialogue. The Freirean sense of the meaning of dialogue moves beyond mutual telling to one of generative meaning-making.

Situated Cognition and Cultural Tools

The use of cultural tools in teaching allows teacher educators to learn within their socio-cultural context and therefore have some mental hooks on which to place new knowledge. Cultural tools could include, song, dance, metaphor, rhyme, role play, music, drama and games.

Information Communication Technology

Using computers, the internet, CD-Roms, DVDs and other media should be common place in teaching at the college level. In resource-scarce contexts, access to computers and the internet may be limited. With improvements in internet speed and access in Africa and the decreasing price of computers, the use of ICT in preparing teachers will take on an enhanced role. Many teacher educators have not fully taken advantage of these media in their teaching, and some are unskilled in their use. It is important to update your knowledge in this area, as it is a rapidly evolving vehicle for communication and learning.

Many student teachers may be more skilled in the use of ICT than teacher educators. You can capitalize on this by having student teachers lead groups and share their knowledge with others, including their teacher educators!

Increasingly, there are more media produced by Africans, addressing African issues that can be used in teaching. There is skill required in using media, and it is important to prepare ahead of time by viewing the material yourself, making relevantconnections between the media and the college curriculum and developing relevant and engaging activities and questions for follow up. It is important to be prepared, use time wisely and get as much out of the film or video that you can. Here are some tips for using media in teaching:

• Before viewing the media, provide student teachers with an introduction to the film or media. In some cases you may ask them to look for certain things or follow certain characters prior to seeing the film.
• At the end of the media, facilitate when it is fresh in the student teachers' minds. You can use a funnel approach to the discussion by starting the discussion out with broad question to get people's reactions. You might ask, 'So what do you think?' or 'Any reactions?' Let people express their feeling and thoughts. Then get more specific as you go along, getting to connections between the curriculum and the media.

Structure and Timetabling

The way in which college courses are structured and timetabled can have an impact on the quality of teacher education. In some colleges, student teachers stay in one classroom for most of their classes while teacher educators move to the classroom, rather than the student teachers moving to specialized rooms for each class. Many colleges lack enough space for rooms to be allocated (and locked) to one subject area instructor. Science laboratories may be designated for science lessons, but it is rare to see language arts or social studies rooms maintained and arranged by one or two instructors with all of the materials for that discipline. Another reason for the lack of designated rooms is rigid timetabling that keeps student teachers in one room for most of their classes, resulting in teacher educators moving around with their books and materials to meet the students. The use of block timetabling or other creative ways of grouping teaching time and classes are infrequently used, but could be better exploited to improve program quality.

Concluding Notes

As demands are made on teacher educators to prepare teachers for more learner-centered classrooms, the pressure on teacher educators to improve their own practice also grows. Teacher educators can expand their practice in the classroom towards practices that are more consistent with LCE through experimenting with some of the strategies discussed in this chapter. The discussion of these strategies was not meant to be prescriptive. You can develop your own strategies, plan and implement them, and then reflect upon whether they help constantly refine your professional practice in accordance with its goals.

Seminars

Seminar 1. Examining beliefs and practices as teacher educators

Introduction

This seminar is aimed at assisting individuals to reflect on how they view their own strengths and weaknesses in the classroom as well as their beliefs about what good teaching is for future teachers.

Specific Tasks

1. Develop an individual self assessment tool that helps teacher educators at your institution identify their own beliefs and practices as a teacher educator. A self assessment tool might look like the example below. Adapt it to your own context.
   For each of the following statements write true or false as it reflects your views and practices as a teacher educator. When you are finished, discuss your responses to each statement with a group of colleagues. Discuss how your beliefs influence your practice as a teacher educator and give examples.
   

   Statement	T/F
   My job as a teacher educator is to provide as much information as possible to student teachers. This means that I don't have time for practical activities, because I have to 'download' so much information.
   I like to give test questions that surprise student teachers. Often, I provide questions on topics that were not covered in the unit under study. Student teachers should not feel too good about what they know. They can get overly confident.
   I believe more in 'covering' the curriculum than 'uncovering' the curriculum.
   Our status as teacher educators means that we cannot say "I don't know" to student teachers.
   Learner-centered education means that students should find things out on their own and present their findings to other students.
   As a teacher educator promoting learner-centered education, I should not give out information as that is considered 'teacher-centered.'
   Group work and other activities are a waste of time. I need to cover the curriculum.

2. In a study of teachers' colleges in Lesotho, Malawi, Ghana and Trinidad and Tobago, Stuart (2002) found that:

Tutors everywhere are aware of the recommended shift to 'learner-centred' teaching, on which modern primary curricula are supposedly based. They pay lip service to this, in that they teach their students about participatory and active learning methods. But very few of them appeared to be able to put these into practice in the college classrooms. (Stuart, 2002, p. 375)

• What are the reasons that Stuart found in those colleges why learner-centered teaching was not practiced by college tutors?

• As college tutors, do you practice learner-centered methods in your classes? Explain. Do you see any similarities in what Stuart found at colleges of education and your own practice? Explain.

Suggested Reading

Moon, B. (2007). Keynote Presentation to the 12th Cambridge International Conference on Open and Distance Learning. New Hall, Cambridge.

Stuart, J. (2002). College Tutors: a fulcrum for change? International Journal of Educational Development. 22 (2002) 367-379.

Seminar 2. Principles of adult learning

Introduction

Understanding principles of adult learning and applying these principles to college teaching can have a positive impact on student teacher learning and teacher educator effectiveness and satisfaction. To understand adult learning in more depth, read the suggested article and carry out the specific tasks with some colleagues.

Specific Tasks

Read the article by Fidishdun on adult learning and hold a discussion with colleagues. Here are some guiding questions:

1. Summarize the demographics of the students at the college in chart form. Some characteristics of the student body that you may want to summarize are:
• a. % male, % female
• b. Average Age
• c. Age Range
• d. Average number of years as a teacher prior to college
• e. Average number of years as a teacher prior to college
• f. % Married
• g. Average number of children of those who are married
2. How would you characterize the way that teacher educators view student teachers? What examples can you give that shows this characterization? Is the way teacher educators view student teachers consistent with principles of adult learning? Explain.
3. Which principles of adult learning are applied in your teaching? Give examples. Is there any way that principle could be strengthened? Explain.
4. Which principles of adult learning are not applied in your teaching? How can you explain that? Do you think it is worthwhile to consider trying to apply those that you do not now apply? If so, how might you apply them?

Suggested Reading

Fidishdun, D. (undated) Andragogy and Technology: Integrating Adult Learning Theory as we Teach with Technology. Malvern, PA: Penn State Great Valley Graduate School of Professional Studies.

Seminar 3. Teaching within a pedagogical milieu

Introduction

Make a plan with a colleague to emphasize teaching within a pedagogical milieu in one of your classes. Either team teach, or one teach and the other observe, especially for aspects of teaching within a pedagogical milieu. Some questions for reflection after the lesson might be:

1. What methods were used in the class?
2. Were those methods made explicit to the student teachers? How?
3. Did the student teachers have a chance to ask questions, make comments or reflect on the methods used? If so, how did they perceive the methods?
4. Were student teachers asked to apply or adapt the methods to primary lessons? If so, how was this structured?
5. What were the weaknesses in the lesson in terms of teaching within a pedagogical milieu? How might the lesson be strengthened in this regard?
6. What were the strengths of the lesson in terms of teaching within a pedagogical milieu?
7. Is it possible to teach within a pedagogical milieu all the time as a teacher educator? Explain.

Seminar 4. Expanding classroom teaching practices

With a colleague or group of colleagues, read through the list of teaching activities in Appendix A. Discuss the following:

1. Add other activities to the list that you or your colleagues use.
2. Discuss those activities that are listed that you were unaware of. Research those methods in your college library, internet or by asking local primary teachers or in-service teacher trainers about them.
3. Which of the methods in the chart do you use in your classroom?
4. How often do you use group work? How would you describe group work in your classes? Offer examples of your group work for your colleagues to discuss. Some possible discussion questions could be:
• a. What is the purpose of having student teachers in groups?
• b. How big are the groups? Is the group size appropriate for this activity? Explain.
• c. How are the groups formed? Why was that formation of groups used?
• d. Who participates in this group activity? Are all expected to participate? If so, how?
• e. What kind of interaction is expected in the group?
• f. What kinds of outcomes are expected of the group?
• g. Are there any hidden curriculum items in the group work? If so, explain.
• h. Are students fully engaged in the group work? Explain.
• i. Was the group work a good use of teaching time? Explain.
5. How would you characterize the variety of methods that you use?
6. Do you think it is important to expand your methods? If so, how might you expand the types of methods you use in your classroom? How might student teachers benefit from you expanding your methods?

References