Toward Expert Thinking: how curriculum case writing prompts the development of theory-based professional knowledge in student teachers

Authors: Hammerness K.; Darling-Hammond L.; Shulman L.

Source: Teaching Education, Volume 13, Number 2, 1 August 2002 , pp. 219-243(25)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

The present paper explores what, and how, student teachers may learn about theory and practice from writing cases, and examines some pedagogical features that may contribute to these results. Drawing on data collected from our course "Principles of Learning for Teaching", including student cases from outline to final drafts and students' course reflections, we found that students' successive case drafts demonstrated a development from naïve generalizations to sophisticated, theory-based explanations of the issues at play in their cases. In particular, we suggest that students' cases demonstrated some of the moves that Berliner (1986, 1991) identified as characteristic of more "expert" thinking about teaching. We propose that reading theory in context with writing cases, that sharing cases with peer readers, that specific, theoretically grounded, and concrete feedback from instructors, and that providing multiple opportunities for revision may have been most useful in helping student teachers learn to think like a teacher.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2002-08-01

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