Classroom theory, thinking, and action

Abstract In this study, ethnographic and process-tracing methodologies were used to explore the nature of a teacher's theory of action and the relationships between that theory and interactive thinking and specific teaching behaviours. A grade 12 English class in an all-boys school provided the context. The study shows that: (i) the teacher held an elaborate, complex, and occasionally problematic theory of action designed for this specific context; (ii) the structure of lessons and the teacher's general patterns of teaching behaviour adhered closely to her theory; and (iii) many teaching behaviours were shaped by her interactive thinking which contained virtually no reference to her theory of action.

[1]  J. Nias.  Seeing Anew: Teachers' Theories of Action. , 1987 .

[2]  H. Munby.  The place of teachers' beliefs in research on teacher thinking and decision making, and an alternative methodology , 1982 .

[3]  Freema Elbaz.  The Teacher's "Practical Knowledge" Report of a Case Study , 1981 .

[4]  Walter Doyle,et al.  4: Paradigms for Research on Teacher Effectiveness , 1977 .

[5]  M. Lampert.  How Do Teachers Manage to Teach? Perspectives on Problems in Practice , 1985 .

[6]  P. Marland,et al.  Models of Teachers' Interactive Thinking , 1986, The Elementary School Journal.

[7]  J. Greeno,et al.  The cognitive skill of teaching. , 1986 .

[8]  C. Argyris.  Reasoning, learning, and action : individual and organizational , 1982 .

[9]  Robert J. Yinger,et al.  Examining thought in action: A theoretical and methodological critique of research on interactive teaching , 1986 .

[10]  Hugh Munby,et al.  Metaphor in the thinking of teachers: An exploratory study , 1986 .

[11]  Freema Elbaz,et al.  Teacher Thinking , 2018 .

[12]  Gail Mccutcheon,et al.  THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRACTICAL THEORIES OF TEACHING , 1986 .

[13]  Gerald G. Duffy.  A Study of Teacher Conceptions of Reading. , 1977 .

[14]  D. Jean Clandinin,et al.  Classroom Practice: Teacher Images in Action , 1986 .

[15]  Anna De Fina,et al.  The ethnographic interview , 2019, The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Ethnography.

[16]  L. S. Schulman.  Paradigms and research programs in the study of teaching , 1986 .

[17]  Magdalene Lampert,et al.  Teaching About Thinking and Thinking About Teaching , 1984 .