The self-evident nature of teaching

Innovations in Education and Teaching International

Volumn 33, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 203-209

  Sotto, Eric ^a  

^a NONE   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 21444451521     PISSN: 14703297     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/1355800960330308     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. The way of looking at things which I have in mind, and wish to question, is most commonly associated with the work of D A Schon. See for example, The crisis of professional knowledge and the pursuit of an epistemology of practice, Journal of Interprofessional Care. 1992, 6, 1, 49-63. My aim is not a systematic critique of the position adopted in this paper; however, in addition to what I note in the main text, I might mention that I am troubled by so much argument by analogy rather than concrete example; by the anti-theoretical stance embedded in an extreme form of 'theoreticism'; and the belief that there can be intelligent action which is not based on extensive theoretical knowledge. I believe that this position has achieved the popularity it has largely because it articulates certain aspects of 'postmodern' ideology.
2. For some scathing comments on this see Sinclair, D (1972) Basic Medical Education, Oxford University Press.
3. See also Harding,A G (et al.) (1981) Professional Development in Higher Education, University of Bradford, Education Development Service, 13, 15. For a more recent description, in a medical setting,
4. see Lowry, S ( 1993) Teaching the teachers, British Medical Journal. 306, 127-30.
5. For a helpful review of the present status of teaching in UK higher education see Elton, L and Partington, P (1993) Teaching Standards and Excellence in Higher Education, 2nd edn, Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals.
6. Using a sample of 247 teachers, Wiseman found that 'promotion appears to be unconnected with teaching ability, whatever type of school the teacher is in.' Also, 'Intellectual qualities are similarly unimportant... Almost the only quality that matters for promotion... appears to be organising ability.' See his 'Learning versus teaching', in Niblett, W R (ed) How And Why Do We Learn? Faber and Faber, 1965. Researchers often find that there is little relationship between the opinion of students and the opinion of chief administrators on the ability of teachers.
7. A good introduction to the mystery of learning is Weimer, W B (1973) Psycholinguistics and Plato's Paradoxes of the Meno, American Psychologist, January.
8. There are of course exceptions, and I note as an example the kind of work done by F Marton. See Marton, F and Saljo, R (1976) On qualitative differences in learning: 1 - outcome and process. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 46, 4-11.
9. For an example of how such research has been used see Laurillard, D (1993) Rethinking University Teaching, Routledge.
10. The evidence I cite is of mainly American origin. See Centra, J A (1979) Determining Faculty Effectiveness, Jossey-Bass.
11. Also Aleamont, L M and Yimer, M (1973) An investigation of the relationship between colleague rating, student rating, research productivity, and academic rank in rating instructional effectiveness, Journal of Educational Psychology, 64, 3, 274-7.
12. Thus tutors in nurse education are required to have a teaching certificate, but not tutors in medical schools.
13. Barnett, R (1992) Improving Higher Education, Open University Press, 141; my italics. I have selected just one item for criticism in a rich and diverse book, and would like to emphasize that I am greatly indebted to this writer. Indeed, this paper might be seen as an example of how, in finding oneself disagreeing, one is often helped to clarify one's thinking.
14. Ibid., 144.
15. Sotto, E (1994) When Teaching Becomes Learning, Cassell, London.
16. An apparently more sophisticated approach to weekend training workshops is approvingly cited by Coles which again illustrates the belief that teaching is largely seen as a self-evident activity. He describes a process in which doctors take it in turns to teach a brief lesson, followed by their own evaluations of it, followed in turn by the evaluations of their colleagues. This leads to a listing of 'wants' and 'needs' which are then negotiated. Imagine a reliance on the same process in any other medical speciality! Coles, C (1993) Education in practice: teaching medical teachers to teach, in Coles, C and Holm, H A Learning in Medicine, Scandinavian University Press.
17. A summary of such research findings can be found in Gibbs, G (1981) Teaching Students To Learn, Open University Press, 59.
18. For some staggering statistics on rates of publication see Pritchard, P, Knowledge and information technology, in Coles, C and Holm, H A op. cit., note 11.
19. See Festinger, L (1964) Behaviour support for opinion change, Public Opinion Quarterly, 28, 404-17.
20. Fernald, P S (1995) Preparing psychology graduate students for the professoriate,American Psychologist, 50, 6, 421-7.
21. For information on this association write to SEDA, Gala House, 3 Raglan Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B5 7RA, UK.
22. For research on attitudes towards training among staff in teaching hospitals see Finucane, P (et al.) (1995) Comparison of teachers at 'traditional' and an 'innovative' medical school, Medical Education, 29, 104-9.
23. Also Finucane, P, et al. (1994) Attitudes to teaching among teachers at a British medical school, Medical Education, 28, 213-19.
24. Of all centres of higher education, it is the medical schools which appear to have supported research into teaching most consistently. For two interesting early papers see West, K. W (1966) The case against teaching, Journal of Medical Education, 8, 766-71 ;
25. and Miller, G E (1978) The contribution of research in the learning process, Medical Education, 12, 3, 28-33.
26. For the latter points I am much indebted to Elton, L (1987) Teaching in Higher Education. Appraisal and Training, Kogan Page, London.
27. See also Ramsden, P (1992) Learning to Teach in Higher Education. Routledge, London.