Nourishing the Heart of Teacher Practice and Growth

In Deep Knowledge: Learning to Teach Science for Understanding and Equity, Douglas Larkin identifies
a parallel between student misconceptions in science and misconceptions of teachers when it comes
to professional growth. Learning to teach is presented as the acquisition of skills.

Misconception: When novice teachers have obtained enough experience, they will become effective
at teaching for understanding and addressing the needs of diverse students.

Implication: Teaching is about learning skills, tips, and tricks from master teachers. Professional
development should provide readily implementable teaching tools.

Alternate idea: “Learning to teach involves an investment of serious intellectual effort into the
nature of one's own knowledge and beliefs.”

Implication: The opportunity to engage in that serious intellectual effort must be intentional in
training programs. While Larkin's book is written for new teachers, it is important for veteran
teachers as well.

However, this veteran teacher's experience has identified a problem with this model for teacher
growth in its implementation: the types of experiences that will allow for growth are not encouraged.
The result of this is an often discouraging experience as a new teacher that has resulted in a high
turnover rate in the most challenging school settings.

There are several factors for poor implementation. There is a lack of administrator support to allow for
the time and resources to engage in this work. Professional development for teachers is often rooted
in a traditional approach in which information to improve educational outcomes is transmitted.
Neoliberal shifts to education have resulted in the intensification of work, isolation of teachers from
decision-making in schools, and isolation of teachers from one another. Finally, like other efforts to
teach for conceptual change, a tension must be demonstrated between a current conception and one
that is ultimately more useful: Teachers must be willing to engage in difficult, sustained work.

Ultimately, the need for the most condensed, technical fixes for the most adaptive dilemmas due to
the pressures of the job can leave teachers frustrated with or unable to participate in effective
professional development.

Towards Better Outcomes for Professional Growth:

1. Best practices for teachers are related to best practices in student instruction. Knowledge is
constructed socially, therefore, work to improve teaching should follow this approach. In the case of
veteran teachers, professional learning communities offer a model for implementation.

2. In collaborative contexts, the mundane daily experiences of schools becomes a wealth of

opportunities to explore the deep challenges of teaching. Working with frameworks and a few like-
minded colleagues can be a way for isolated teachers to improve their practice. A framework for
engaging in this work can be found here.

3. Professional development experiences need to be explicit in the need to address teacher

conceptions of schools, learning, and instruction. Following the opportunity to consider the work of
teaching, time creating, assessing, and modifying instruction must be facilitated in a supportive
environment.

4. Teachers need to demand more from their administrators and districts. Time and other resources to
collaborate will not be easy to find in schools that are also dealing with a parade of initiatives, but
there are great benefits. Veteran teachers can leverage their experience here to assist newer
colleagues.

Just as an enlightened view of science is that it is a process, not an end state, teachers make a valuable
insight when they realize the process of professional growth is just that – a process. Like other
processes of learning, professional growth will be messy, but worth the investment of time.

References

Ascd. (n.d.). Reflection Is at the Heart of Practice. Retrieved from

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may99/vol56/num08/Reflection-Is-at-the-
Heart-of-Practice.aspx

Larkin, D. (2013). Deep Knowledge: Learning to Teach Science for Understanding and Equity. Teaching
for Social Justice. Teachers College Press.

Sharma, M., & Portelli, J. (2007). Uprooting and Settling In: The Invisible Strength of Deficit Thinking.
LEARNing Landscapes, 8(1), 251-267.