TY - JOUR
T1 - A Frog in a Well Shaft
T2 - Lessons from China on Learning to Teach
AU - Spalding, Elizabeth
AU - Wang, Jian
AU - Lin, Emily
AU - Butcher, John
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2009, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2009/6/1
Y1 - 2009/6/1
N2 - Understanding the interplay among experience, beliefs, and contexts of teaching in preservice and inservice teachers' learning to teach is crucial to improving teacher quality for diverse populations. This study examined the impact of a summer camp English teaching experience in China on the ideas and practice of two White, middle-class female teacher education students with varying backgrounds and experience. Data sources included surveys, interviews, and classroom observations. The study found that when teachers approach new experiences as learners, they are more likely to adopt constructivist pedagogy. In addition, the study found that professional experience and credentials are not necessarily good indicators of how well teachers will perform with students whose cultures are different from their own. Rather, context, personal history, identity, and the disposition to view teaching and learning as reciprocal and recursive processes are interconnected factors that significantly influence teacher development.
AB - Understanding the interplay among experience, beliefs, and contexts of teaching in preservice and inservice teachers' learning to teach is crucial to improving teacher quality for diverse populations. This study examined the impact of a summer camp English teaching experience in China on the ideas and practice of two White, middle-class female teacher education students with varying backgrounds and experience. Data sources included surveys, interviews, and classroom observations. The study found that when teachers approach new experiences as learners, they are more likely to adopt constructivist pedagogy. In addition, the study found that professional experience and credentials are not necessarily good indicators of how well teachers will perform with students whose cultures are different from their own. Rather, context, personal history, identity, and the disposition to view teaching and learning as reciprocal and recursive processes are interconnected factors that significantly influence teacher development.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057162757&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/1547688X.2009.10399568
DO - 10.1080/1547688X.2009.10399568
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85057162757
VL - 5
SP - 113
EP - 134
JO - New Educator
JF - New Educator
SN - 1549-9243
IS - 2
ER -