Research on teachers’ (personal) theories and beliefs and their (practical) knowledge derived from experience, whether held implicitly or stated explicitly as their personal practical theories (PPTs), indicates that such beliefs can influence teachers’ classroom practices and, therefore, the opportunities that their students have for learning. This study uses a content analysis of 472 self-reported PPTs collected from 94 prospective teachers to develop a model of categories of beliefs, and describes the relationship between the content and sources of teacher candidates’ beliefs, expressed as PPTs. The purpose of this study is to help teacher educators better understand beliefs that teacher candidates bring to their teacher education program as we try to influence their knowledge and practices.

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Investigating the Content and Sources of Teacher Candidates' Personal Practical Theories (PPTs)

GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS Course Title Credits Communication Skills ENGLISH 1130 College Writing I 1 3 ENGLISH 1230 College Writing II 1 3 Entry Year Experience 1 Select one of the following: 2-3 SPEECH 2010 Speech Communication for Teachers (strongly recommended) 1 SPEECH 1010 Oral Communication for Professionals (accepted) 1 Foreign Language Bachelor of Science: 1 semester on campus or 1 year of high school in same language with C or better; Bachelor of Arts: 2 semesters on campus or 2 years of high school in same language with C or better 0-8

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Teacher Education Programs.

This study is a synthesis of ethnographies conducted in both North American and Australian cross-cultural and interethnic classrooms. It establishes nine assertions about culturally relevant teaching in such settings. It argues that both the understandings and classroom practices included in these assertions provide teachers with potential starting points, informed by current best practice, for praxis-reflecting upon their own practices within a framework of participatory democracy for all. For more than 30 years, ethnographers have been investigating teaching in cross-cultural and multiethnic settings. In so doing, they have accumulated a wealth of knowledge about what teachers do-teachers' practice. As a result, we know much about what works and what does not work with Native American, Australian Aboriginal, Hispanic, Latino, Hawaiian, Asian American, African American, Mexican American, and Torres Strait Islander students. An ethnology, or synthesis, of these studies was made. It consists of nine assertions about culturally relevant pedagogy and so provides two outcomes useful for practitioners working in cross-cultural or multiethnic classrooms. One outcome is a theoretical perspective on how we need to think about teaching in such settings. I contend that we need to rethink what we are doing as teachers of these students who are an increasing percentage of the school populations we teach. This rethinking will not dramatically change the way we teach, but it will give us a clear framework for beginning to understand the various groups of students we teach and, thus, for teaching them better. This framework avoids victim blaming, although it fully encompasses the social context of both schooling and family life, and informs classroom processes designed to maximize learning for all our nations' children-not just those from the groups that traditionally have succeeded in our schools. The other outcome is a series of informed and tentative starting points for the classroom processes of teachers who want to reflect on issues of social justice, particularly as it relates to ethnicity and culture (which, of course, overlap both class and gender). I claim that the starting points are informed because they derive from a variety of research projects Anthropology & Education Quarterly 27(3):285-314. Copyright ? 1996, American

Practice into Theory into Practice: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for Students We Have Marginalized and Normalized.

Images: A Way of Understanding the Practical Knowledge of Student Teachers.

A century ago, John Dewey alerted the teaching profession to the need for interventions in the learning-to-teach processes that foster the development of student teachers' knowledge-inaction. Dewey suggested that student teachers should be involved in reflective inquiry to develop an understanding of what takes place when learning actually occurs. He believed the observation of the teaching practice of others vital for student teachers' professional development. Such observation, however, should be tempered with the view to recognizing how the minds of the teacher and students interact (Dewey, 1904/1974c). Observation alone has a danger of focusing only on observable classroom behaviors. Student teachers may limit their practices to imitating or cloning, devoid of insight and initiative. They may lack understanding of the educational principles guiding effective teaching practice. Dewey argued that students with access to the thinking and pedagogical goals underlying observable teaching behaviors will utilize their knowledge of content and educational and psychological principles to become more knowing. Becoming more knowing requires that students make judgments and decisions about teaching practice. Rather than imitating or cloning, students would be engaged in intelligent action (Dewey, 1904/1974c). Dewey called for closer attention to the process of learning to teach, the essential relations between theory and practice, and the ways in which student teachers could develop the knowing of effective classroom teaching (1904/1974c). Learning to teach effectively requires that student teachers access the minds, not only the observable behaviors, of effective teachers. How best to prepare individuals for the complex and multifaceted profession of teaching continues to challenge those concerned with preservice teacher education. Student teachers, during the learning-to-teach process, participate in two distinct learning contexts. On-campus university classes involve students in the study of educational theory, curriculum design and development, psychology of learning, and teaching strategies and classroom management. During school-based practicum experiences, student teachers observe and practice various teaching approaches, skills, and techniques. Despite the commitment of teacher education institutions to providing effective preservice programs, research all too often reveals that student teachers engage in apprenticeship practica where they model teaching practice on the observable behaviors of supervising teachers. Only tenuous links exist between beginning teachers' theoretical and procedural knowledge of teaching. As student teachers gain more classroom experience during practicum, they often fail to build on the learning and understandings from their on-campus university classes. Instead, they perceive that much of the formal on-campus course work appears irrelevant when viewed from the perspective of classroom practice (Bromme & Tillema, 1995; Russell, 1987, 1988, 1989). Practicum experiences result typically in student teachers being left to intuit the pedagogical principles underlying effective classroom practice. One way to reconcile the dilemma of the theory-practice nexus is to examine and make explicit the typically tacit understandings of both beginning and expert teachers. The intervention we describe in this article brought together the stimulated recall of an expert teacher's thinking and the collegial reflections of a group of student teachers. We report one stage of a qualitative study involving the development, implementation, and evaluation of a cognitive intervention in preservice teacher education. The larger study comprised a yearlong program of interactive workshops conducted with nine preservice student teachers enrolled in a 1-year graduate diploma of education course at an urban university in Australia. The underlying goal of the program was to assist student teachers in reconciling the theoretical and practical knowledge of teaching. …

Unlocking the knowledge in action of an expert practitioner

Classroom theory, thinking, and action

This paper synthesises and searches for commonalities in ethnographies of Native American and Torres Strait Islander classrooms. It presents confirming and disconfirming evidence for 11 assertions about such classrooms#shcommunities. These assertions are a starting point for developing a culturally responsive pedagogy and for teacher preparation.

Towards an ethnology of culturally responsive pedagogy in small‐scale remote communities: Native American and Torres Strait Islander

This paper examines some challenges we confront working with preservice teachers prior to serving in remote Indigenous communities. Some challenges include what preservice teachers bring to their studies - subjectivities, experiential understandings of teaching and notions of childhood/adolescence, culture and social justice, all of which involve minds, emotions and our notions of our places in society. Some challenges involve linking new notions of teaching to what they already know which may entail unlearning before relearning. Some challenges involve making sense of the theory/action dialectic - teasing out links between strongly held but unarticulated values, beliefs and actions that derive from them. Some challenges involve anticipating what it might be like to live and teach in a remote setting and preparing to work effectively across cultures. I then discuss how we might tackle them in the light of productive pedagogy and culturally relevant pedagogy (Osborne, 2001a, 2001b).

Preparing Preservice Teachers’ Minds, Hearts and Actions for Teaching in Remote Indigenous Contexts

This paper, beginning from a concern about the ‘current state of muddle’ in educational research (Wilson & Cowell, 1983, p 213), outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the quantitative and quali

The Search for a Paradigm to Inform Cross-Cultural Classroom Research.

From the early 1900s, education in the Torres Strait was dominated by protectionism and segregation. In 1964 on Thursday Island the segregated state school system was abolished: 'coloured children' could attend the high top from 1964 and thus secondary schooling became available to all as far as year 10. Since then there have been considerable changes. This paper describes and analyses some of these within a framework of relational justice and social access. Themes discussed include written texts about the people of Torres Strait and about education in Torres Strait; the growth of Torres Strait Islander voice in educational research; educational governance, facilities and staffing; teaching in Torres Strait classrooms; curriculum and language; preparing teachers to teach in Torres Strait; supporting teachers in Torres Strait; school-community relationships; and some recent initiatives.

Barry Osborne

Papers

Classroom theory, thinking, and action

Towards an ethnology of culturally responsive pedagogy in small‐scale remote communities: Native American and Torres Strait Islander

Preparing Preservice Teachers’ Minds, Hearts and Actions for Teaching in Remote Indigenous Contexts

The Search for a Paradigm to Inform Cross-Cultural Classroom Research.

Around in Circles or Expanding Spirals?: A Retrospective Look at Education in Torres Strait, 1964-2003