Re: Learning to make a difference: gender, new technologies and in/equity

Phillip Allen White (pwhite who-is-at carbon.cudenver.edu)
Fri, 28 Jun 1996 12:42:19 -0600 (MDT)

On Thu, 27 Jun 1996, Judy Diamondstone wrote:
> You also noted that the researcher has to be willing to teach with
> the teacher. Literally? I myself am not qualified to demonstrate
> teaching to an experienced teacher. But I can help someone to follow
> their own questions and to look at their own practices. That's how
> I see my role insofar as I work directly with teachers. Any comments
> or critique you have to offer on that stance would be welcome.

Judy, I hope that my following is a helpful explanation. I
really do think that an experienced teacher can learn from any other
professional in the teaching field. That's one of the advantages of
being 'experienced'.

Bryson and de Castell are working in an area of research in which
they hope that the research itself will affect change. Because of that,
I contrasted it with my own teaching position in which I teach children
specific literacy skills and I teach teachers through my modeling of
lessons that I teach to a classroom or to individual students.

The essence of my relationship with the teachers is specifically
research based. The teacher talks to me, commenting that they are not
happy with the results of past lessons they have used, or that they want
to attempt something new. While the teachers' research is based on
anecdotal evidence and samples of students' work, they are still led to
the same question as B & de C, which is how can I get some change here?

So the teacher and I collaborate, I usually do the 'literature
search' and consider 'theory', but we look at materials and strategies
and methods. Then, I do the series of lessons. It may be for only one
day, or as many as twenty days. As the lessons that I model progress,
the teacher and I talk about them - what is working and what is not
working. We evaluate student work together. And then the teacher again
takes over.

These teachers I'm working with are plenty experienced - in my
building the average number of years teaching is about fifteen. And,
often I am teaching something I have never done before. (How to get
students to self assess their own writing drafts using a rubric.)

This sort of collaborative work can be highly effective, and I
think that it is something that university professors - when their goal
is to affect change - could also incorporate in their research work.

I hope this is of some help in understanding my statement. And
by the way, I've taught students from kindergarten to adults - there is
hardly any difference, except that adults of far more anxious and
sensitive - worrying about 'doing the right thing'.

Phillip