Dichotomy in thinking, dilemma in actions: Researcher and teacher perspectives on a chemistry teaching practice
✍ Scribed by Lyman L. Lyons; Patricia K. Freitag; Peter W. Hewson
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 54 KB
- Volume
- 34
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-4308
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This article is a case study of the thinking and actions of Mr. Corrigan, an experienced high school chemistry teacher. We explored Corrigan's ideas on teaching science by conducting two types of interviews, and wrote a case summary for Corrigan to read that compared his ideas with our classroom observations. We described his practice as centering on structured classroom and laboratory time, and contrasted it with his emphasis on students' exploratory thinking in the interviews. Corrigan's reflections on the case summary revealed a set of tacit conceptions of teaching science centered on the necessity of having a highly organized classroom and laboratory to ensure students' content understanding and success on tests and in college. We felt Corrigan faced a dilemma in that he values both his control of learning activities and the students' learning through exploration. Corrigan was confident in his practice and did not see much of a dilemma, and felt he was attending to both aspects of his thinking in an adequate fashion. Corrigan's reflections on the case summary are presented as a commentary on our perspective of the relationship between his thinking and actions. Working with Corrigan revealed to us the complexity of characterizing a teacher's thinking and its relationship to actions, and the value of the insight researchers gain from discussing their conclusions with the teacher.