Using workplace learning theory to understand novice teacher experience

Steven Hodge and Lauri Grace

Research on novice teacher experience

Influential constructs:• Transfer of knowledge (e.g. Robert Glaser)• Reflective practice (e.g. Donald Schön)• Enculturation (e.g. Sharon Feiman-Nemser)• Socialisation (e.g. Kenneth Zeichner)

Workplace learning theory (take 1)

Paul Hager’s (2011) typology:• Influenced by psychological theories (e.g.

Schön 1983, Marsick & Watkins 1990)• Socio-cultural theories (e.g. Lave & Wenger

1991, Fuller & Unwin 2003)• Post-modern theories (e.g. Edwards & Nicoll

2004, Fenwick 2009)

Teachers as workplace learners

Existing research:• Heather Hodkinson• Phil Hodkinson• Alison Fox, Elaine Wilson, Rosemary Deaney

Workplace learning theory (take 2)

Stephen Billett• Doesn’t fit cleanly into Hager’s typology• Draws on socio-cultural concepts• Stresses subjectivity, self and personal agency

in workplace learning• Relational nature of workplace learning: the

social and the individual

Conceptualisation of our project

Conducting our project

• 15 participants drawn from a one-year pre-service program (Graduate Diploma)

• Interviewed in first term of graduate year• Interviewed in final term of graduate year:

• Their teaching work• Influences on their teaching• Influences on other teachers and school

Findings 1

• Dual spheres of practice• Staffroom: ‘in the staffroom we’d talk about our

students’, ‘as teachers we’re always asking each other for help…leaning on each other’

• Classroom: ‘I am free to teach the way I want to in there’, ‘I don’t like a lot of the curriculum here…in the classroom I can pick and choose what I want to do’

Findings 2

Resistance• In staffroom and other community contexts

novice teachers do not feel confident about criticising practices (‘I’ve decided to lay low this year’)

• In classroom, participants are selective about how they interact with restrictions (‘I can pick and choose’)

Findings 3

Convergence vs. divergence of spheres of practice:• Convergence: residential and remote schools,

expansive environments, particular curriculum models, time

• Divergence: Casual teaching, specialist teaching, larger schools, school architecture

Findings 4

Strongest influences on personal practice:• Their own experiences as a school student• Selected teachers in the workplace• Their students, through formal feedback,

informal discussion and observation of responses to teaching practice

Findings 5

Strongest influence on collaborative practice• Informal groupings and events• Difficult students and classes• Amount of time spent together

Findings 6

Role of pre-service education:• Most participants said the program hasn’t

influenced their teaching (‘I can’t remember that course anymore’) or they are not clear how (‘I’m sure [the program] formed more of a basis than I realise’)

• Graduates with previous teaching experience valued the program highly

Where to next?

Explore the role of students in teacher workplace learning• Students were consistently identified as a

source of workplace learning• Students were identified as one way novice

teachers learnt about other teachers’ practices and the main way their own teaching was revealed to other teachers

Where to next?

Explore relationships between personal and collaborative practices over time• Participants consistently represented

established teachers as sharing a common practice and themselves as doing something unique

Questions? Suggestions?