TEACHER AS PRACTITIONER
EDST 3000 (9-12.00pm)
By
Dr. John Kambutu
www.uwyo.edu/kambutu
www.uwyo.edu/ted
http://www.uwyo.edu/edstudies/TPAC/index.html
Fall, 2011
Today

Introductions


Name, history behind it…, and anxiety level at the moment and
why? Recent Wow experience.
Syllabus

Course Structure/School experiences

Course culture/norms

Who’s a practitioner?
TEACHER AS PRACTITIONER
EDST 3000- A PTSB general course
Themes and Outcome
Instructional strategies (theories and practices)… 15-20 page
paper
Planning for instruction… Lesson plans
Practicum experiences…. Teaching DVD & Other documentation
Classroom Management…. Management handbook
*College Mission* Creating Competent, Democratic Professionals
Theory and Practice
Theories (ideas/principles) of teaching are constant
But
Practice (application of theories) is age, grade and
content dependent
Public Schools
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•
•
•
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Be professional (before time, affirming talk/no gossips, conduct, dress, name tags,
sign in, communicate).
Familiarize with school environment (mentor, classroom, culture, dos & don’ts,
school structure, ask questions)
Who is a teacher? (Watch mentor schedule, decisions, student/teacher interaction,
teacher/administrator interaction)
Is teaching a profession?
Effective teachers (Decision making, teaching strategies, classroom management,
Guiding learning & growth)
What did you see?
What areas didn’t you understand?
•
•
Overall (What does all this mean to you? Questions).
Remember you’re a visitor not an employee.
College of Ed. Mission (Preparing Competent, Democratic
Professionals)

Who is a competent educator?

Has professional skills, knowledge & dispositions (p.7)

Who is a democratic educator?
 What types of democracies are you aware of?

Types:
Social Democracy


In a social democracy, people consider the “Other”
Examples:


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Thus, members seek to:

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Fairness, respect, justice, kindness, equality, equity, etc.
Learning is the foundation:
Understand other points of view
Explain their point of view
Sharing and understanding feelings
Collaboration to establish alternatives
“Only dead fish swim with the flow” ~ Sara Palin, 2009~
Democratic Space (Sirotnik, 1990)

In a social democracy, the focus is on:

Knowledge: What do I want to learn or what did I learn?
 Inquiry: What questions do I have or what questions does this
reading, etc. raise?
 Competence: How has knowledge gained helped me become a
better person?
 Compassion & caring: How is the knowledge gained helped
me become compassionate & caring
 Social Justice: How will I promote justice & fairness for all due
to the knowledge gained?
Thus, public schools are schools for publicness (Goodlad, et al. 2004).

School for Publicness
 Children
learn what it means to be a public (p.35)
 Thus:
 Teachers must:
 Create a democratic learning space
 Certain unalienable rights…among these.. and others in the “Bill
of Rights”
 Practitioners
TEACHER AS PRACTITIONER
 Who
A
is a practitioner?
professional (p. 4 on teachers.)
 Characteristics:
 Code
of conduct (organizations)
 Mastered his/her craft (pedagogy)- p 7.
 Speaks the language of the craft
 Is a decision makerIdentify
the decisions made by teachers (p 8)
TEACHER AS PRACTITIONER
 As
the decision maker: ..he/she chooses…
 To

teach
Know when, why, rewards & challenges- why is this important?
 How
to teach (Instructional strategies?)
 How to manage classroom?
 How to help children grow and learn
 Why
should teachers appreciate what it means to be a
practitioner?
Teachers & teaching
 30%
of trained teachers don’t join the profession
 30% of those that join leave in the first 3 years
 50% of those that join leave in the first 5 years due
to:
 Burn-out,
Frustrations, workload
 Safety, lack of support, salary
 Poor incentives, Motives for joining,
 Work environment
DO OUR TEACHERS MEASURE UP?
The number one way to enhance students’ learning is
through:
a) Parental involvement and support
b) Challenging preschools
c) Reduced student-teacher ratio
d) Improved programs for reading and other subjects
e) None of the above.

Classroom Teacher

“I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the
decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal
approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that
makes the weather. As a teacher, I posses tremendous
power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be
a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can
humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my
response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or
deescalated, and the child humanized or dehumanized.”
-Hiam Ginnott, 1977
Your Students: Net Generation… (Don Tapscott, 2009)

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Have grown up digital--- Screen children…. “Screenagers”
Smarter, quicker & tolerant to diversity
Learn, play & communicate differently
Care about justice and societal problems
Civically engaged
Enable vs. control
Price freedom… freedom of choice
Customize---make it their own—creative
Multi-task & Collaborate
Short attention span– conversation/discussion (learner-centered)
Value fun
Value speed
What Principals want
 Relationship
 Team
builder… Be nice to people
player
 Organizer
 Planner
 Flexibility
 Willingness to learn
 Lifelong Learner (Tom Mesecher, 2008~ Grant~)
Characteristics of a quality Teacher
 Class
Text ( p.. 3, 16…)
 Your Reflections (Prior teachers)
 What else?
 Metaphor for quality teachers?
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1…. Leader/organizer
2…. Writer
3….. Material getter
4…… Draws
5….. Helper
0….. Presenter
Democratic= Practitioner= Decision-maker
Quality teacher
 Teaching
is a process that continues well after your
first, third, or twentieth year. It’s what keeps it
interesting. Teachers must be thinkers and decision
makers who take full responsibility for their
classrooms and students. It’s a continual search
for knowledge. Teaching relies on the judgment of
its “individual practitioners” – it’s called the art of
teaching ~ Kathleen Lange, 5th grade teacher in Tennessee
Quality teacher
 It’s
your attitude not your aptitude that determines
your altitude ~ Zig Ziglar, 1926~
And how are the Children?
The Masaai of
East Africa
Just a thought!
 Pedagogical
principles are constant, but
applications are grade and age dependent
 First
impression is critical to future encounters
 Incongruity
(mismatch) between school and home
cultures is a hindrance to learning (Smith, 1998)
Quality Teachers

View quality teaching as a “personal” decision p. 19

View teaching as a science and art (pedagogy) p. 7

Do not teach from a recipe p. 7

Are decision makers p. 8
 Teachers make one rapid interactive decision every 2-6 minutes
EFFECTIVE TEACHERS
•
Have attitudes that foster learning (warmth, empathy,
sensitivity, enthusiasm and humor).
•
Have deep knowledge of subject matter (Experts).
•
Are well educated in theoretical knowledge about learning
and human behavior.
•
Have a wide repertoire of teaching skills.
(Ryan & Cooper, 1998).
QUALITY TEACHERS
“It’s not what is poured into the
students, but what is planted that
matters” ~ Erskine Dottin, 2003 ~