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What We Say Versus What We Do

The following is an extract from Askell-Williams, H. (2004). Teachers' and learners' knowledge about teaching and learning. Unpublished PhD thesis, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. Reproduced with permission.

Stigler and Hiebert (1999) videotaped and obtained questionnaire responses from teachers in Year 8 mathematics lessons across the US, Japan and Germany. They noted that when it came to implementing new curriculums and ideas, teachers:

can misinterpret reform and (only) change surface features - for example, they include more group work; use more manipulatives, calculators and real-world problem scenarios; or include writing in the lesson - but fail to alter their basic approach to teaching mathematics. (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999, p. 106)

For example, recent work by Entwistle, Skinner, Entwistle, and Orr (2000), Northfield and Gunstone (1997), (Feiman-Nemser, 2001), and Whitebeck (2000) suggests that pre-service teachers hold emotionally charged beliefs, consciously constructed conceptions and innate self-ability attributions or beliefs about teaching that are drawn from their relevant life experiences. Such prior knowledge is powerful and can be resistant to change.

An analysis of the relationship between teachers' beliefs and strategies is provided by the 'espoused theories' and 'theories in use' propositions of Argyris and Schön (1974). Argyris and Schön undertook the task of identifying, through observation and successive refinement, teachers' theories in use. A teacher's day-to-day teaching practices may be based upon tried and true methods that work, or fit the teaching culture of the school. At the same time, however, the teacher's teaching practices may differ from his or her espoused values when holding discussions with, for example, staff, the principal, friends or parents (Day, 1999a; Jakubowski & Tobin, 1997). Argyris and Schön labelled these two approaches 'espoused theories' and 'theories in use' and pointed out that teachers may not be aware that any discrepancy exists. If teachers subscribe to 'new' teaching objectives, but basically hold on to 'old' or 'comfortable' strategies that worked for previous objectives, students may only respond to the latter.

Russell (1997) attempted to address the issue of intentions matching behaviours in his own teacher education classes, stating: 'I see little hope of influence from what I say in class or what teacher candidates read in books' (p. 34). Rather, Russell suggested that the learners in his classrooms formulated their knowledge from their past exposure to teaching. He proposed that it was important for teachers to a) cause their practices to catch up with what they say and write, and b) make their beliefs influence their practices. Loughran (1997) also addressed the issue of merging teachers' beliefs with their practices, calling upon current pedagogy and conventional wisdom to advise teachers to 'practise what they preach' (p. 62).

Despite what I thought was important about teaching, if I did not teach in ways that reflected my beliefs, my student-teachers' ideas about what was important to learn and how to apply themselves to learning about teaching would be shaped more by my practice than my philosophy. (Loughran, 1997, p. 57)

The case of Marsha, described by Tobin, Tippins, and Gallard (1994), illustrated a discrepancy between the demands of classroom behaviour management and Marsha's view that the teacher is a facilitator. This suggests that a teacher can simultaneously harbour more than one belief system about his or her role.

In a specific context, one set of beliefs might apply to a given role, but in another a different belief set might 'drive' behaviour. Thus a teacher (eg Marsha) might hold a particular belief and not allow it to influence her actions because contextual factors made it seem inappropriate. (Tobin et al., 1994, p. 59)

An example of a failure to transfer metacognitive strategies from personal learning to teaching contexts was given by Thomas and Barksdale-Ladd (2000). In that study, student teachers received intensive training in strategies for reading, including reading for meaning and checking comprehension. Consequently, the teachers improved their own strategic approaches as well as their ability to write about, and talk about, those approaches. However, participants reverted to more traditional graphophonic decoding teaching strategies when their roles changed from student to teacher. Thomas and Barksdale-Ladd concluded that participants 'appeared to operate under two definitions of the reading process witnessed through what they did and what they attempted to teach their tutees' (Thomas & Barksdale-Ladd, 2000, p. 67).

It is only when teachers engage in reflection and investigate their theories in use that they become aware that what they say and think may not be what they do (Day, 1999a; Day, 1999b). At that point, teachers are faced with the dilemma of devising strategies that enable them to more effectively translate their espoused theories into theories in use. Without sufficient time, support from their surrounding culture and access to high-quality staff development, such translation will be extremely difficult (Blumenfeld, Marx, Patrick, Krajcik, & Soloway, 1997; Day, 1999a; Day, 1999b; Gitlin & Haddern, 1997; Silins, 1996). This issue was extended by Jakubowski and Tobin (1997), who pointed out that even when teacher reflection does occur, it appears to be mostly about teaching actions and practices, rather than the thinking that precedes them. Also, school communities and teachers themselves need to value non-class contact time as a legitimate part of teachers' jobs in order to allow teachers time for personal and professional growth (Blumenfeld et al., 1997; Day, 1999a; Day, 1999b).

Argyris and Schön (1974) proposed that, in situations where teachers lack support and/or strategies for change, they may implement a variety of coping strategies such as:

keeping espoused theory in one place and theory in use in another
continuing to speak in the language of one theory while acting in the language of another
becoming selectively inattentive to the information that points to dilemmas (ie ignore it)
suppressing offensive data (eg by bullying potential dissidents)
changing jobs, moving house, sacking someone, or taking it out on one's family
making a self-sealing, self-fulfilling prophecy by using authority to elicit the desired behaviour from others, and causing the rest to be suppressed
changing one's espoused theory to more closely fit one's theory in use
making marginal changes to one's theory in use.

(Condensed from Argyris & Schön, 1974, p. 32-33; Day, 1999a, p. 25; Day, 1999b)

Recently, Day (1999a; 1999b) revisited the propositions of Argyris and Schön and pointed out additional dilemmas that teachers contemplating change might face, such as appearing incompetent while new strategies are practised, the emotional burden of self-confrontation, and the tendency to draw upon existing frameworks to solve problems because opportunities to develop new frameworks through formal or informal training and reflection are not available. In a discussion of barriers to changing teachers' practices, Blumenfeld et al. (1997) addressed the impact of the teacher's environment, which determines or prescribes the implied norms or expectations for degrees of risk-taking and, from another direction, the effect of students whose previous experiences make them reluctant to accept different ways of doing things.

Reflecting on the differences between what we say we believe and what we do is good practice for teachers and other education workers. Bringing the espoused idea closer to what actually happens reduces tension, increases the likelihood of changing the way we work in a way we would like and means we may achieve more, which increases our happiness with our work situation.

References
Argyris, C. & Schön, D. A. (1974). Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Blumenfeld, P. C., Marx, R. W., Patrick, H., Krajcik, J., & Soloway, E. (1997). 'Teaching for understanding.' In B. J. Biddle, T. L. Good, & I. Goodson (Eds.), International handbook of teachers and teaching (Vol. 2, pp. 819-878). Dordrecht: Kluwer.

Day, C. (1999a). Developing teachers: The challenges of lifelong learning. Philadelphia, PA: Falmer Press.

Day, C. (1999b). 'Researching teaching through reflective practice.' In J. Loughran (Ed.), Researching teaching: Methodologies and practices for understanding pedagogy (pp. 215-232). London: Falmer Press.

Entwistle, N., Skinner, D., Entwistle, D., & Orr, S. (2000). 'Conceptions and beliefs about "good teaching": An integration of contrasting research areas.' Higher Education Research and Development, 19, 5-26.

Feiman-Nemser, S. (2001). 'From preparation to practice: Designing a continuum to strengthen and sustain teaching.' Teachers College Record, 103(6), 1013-1055.

Freyberg, P. S. (1980). 'Teacher intentions and teaching decisions.' Educational Theory, 30(1), 39-45.

Gitlin, A. & Haddern, J. (1997). 'Educative research: Acting on power relations in the classroom.' In S. Hollingsworth (Ed.), International action research: A casebook for educational reform (pp. 70-84). London: Falmer Press.

Jakubowski, E. & Tobin, K. (1997). 'Teachers' personal epistemologies and classroom learning environments.' In S. Hollingsworth (Ed.), International action research: A casebook for educational reform (pp. 201-214). London: Falmer Press.

Loughran, J. (1997). 'Teaching about teaching: Principles and practice.' In J. Loughran & T. Russell (Eds.), Teaching about teaching: Purpose, passion and pedagogy in teacher education (pp. 57-69). London: Falmer Press.

Northfield, J. & Gunstone, R. (1997). 'Teacher education as a process of developing teacher knowledge.' In J. Loughran & T. Russell (Eds.), Teaching about teaching: Purpose, passion and pedagogy in teacher education (pp. 48-56). London: Falmer Press.

Russell, T. (1997). 'Teaching teachers: How I teach is the message.' In J. Loughran & T. Russell (Eds.), Teaching about teaching: Purpose, passion and pedagogy in teacher education (pp. 32-47). London: Falmer Press.

Silins, H. (1996). Professional development - Teaching and learning the key competencies in the vocational education and training sector: Research support. (Research report) Adelaide: Flinders Institute for the Study of Teaching.

Stigler, J. W. & Hiebert, J. (1999). The teaching gap. New York: The Free Press.

Thomas, K. F. & Barksdale-Ladd, M. A. (2000). 'Metacognitive processes: Teaching strategies in literacy education courses.' Reading Psychology, 21, 67-84.

Tobin, K., Tippins, D. J., & Gallard, A. J. (1994). 'Research on instructional strategies for teaching science.' In D. L. Gabel (Ed.), Handbook of research on science teaching and learning (pp. 45-93). New York: Macmillan.

Whitebeck, D. A. (2000). 'Born to be a teacher: What am I doing in a college of education?' Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 15(1), 129-136.