Research Metaphor
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Researcher As Teacher/Teacher As Researcher

What Does A "Researcher" Metaphor For "Teaching" Teach You?

One can choose a metaphor for teaching and develop it with respect to items like the following: attitude to learners, communications with learners, expectations of learners, assignments, assessment, rules,  learner differences, behaviour of learners, nature/nurture, needs, curricular content, empowerment of learners, homework, teacher's role, record keeping, organization, activity level, discovery, messiness, artificiality, etc... One can learn something about teaching from thinking about a particular metaphor for teaching. One can learn something about research by reflecting on a metaphor of research-as-teaching.
 

 
Is there anything you would add to the following chart to further develop this particular metaphor? Does the metaphor advance your understanding of the "researcher?"
The Metaphor: Teacher as Researcher Suppose the teacher is viewed as a Researcher. With this metaphor the students could be viewed as research subjects.  The following chart is developed with this metaphor in mind. It provides the added advantage of being developed along two different streams...

(Quantitative versus Qualitative Researcher)

           
1 2 3 4 5 6
setting attitude to learner communications expectations assignments assessment
lab-like... a very controlled classroom an object top down theory driven - test to confirm or disconfirm systematic, measurable, diagnostic, prescriptive precise, measurable, detailed, quantitative
natural env't,-researcher stands back to observe subject and object inference none - they emerge from observations probing questions, descriptive, verbal,
7 8 9 10 11 12
needs of the learner learner differences behaviour of learners nature / nurture rules curricular content
basic, health, safety point of interest, source of error variance, outliers, controlled towards the nurture end of the continuum precise, top down controlled
basic, emergent, novel meaningful, a source of information, source of theory natural towards the nature end of the continuum student-defined natural, constructivist, authentic
           
13 14 15 16 17 18
homework teacher's role empowerment of learners classroom organization record keeping activity level of students
controlled, experimental, instrumental controller very little sterile, clinical meticulous, quantitative, lab notes controlled, regimented
student determined, personal interest, or collaborative observer very much emergent, messy descriptive, pages and pages, stories, messy natural
           
19 20 21 22 23 24
discovery messiness artificiality authenticity intelligence effort
little little much little one dimensional high if sufficiently motivated (extrinsic)
much much little much multiple intelligences high if interested (intrinsic)
           
25 26 27 28 29 30
reports parent involvement

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quantitative grades controlled, discouraged        
stories, anecdotal comments natural, encouraged        

 

What I learned from reflecting on these two metaphors. First, that the metaphor of the teacher as qualitative researcher has more philosophical appeal. An interesting point for someone who favours quantitative research. Second, that the nurture end of the nature/nurture continuum seems more congruent with the metaphor of teacher as quantitative researcher. It is the quantitative type who is trying to effect change. I hadn't thought of this before. Third, ...