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What Does A Metaphor For Teaching Teach You? |
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Teacher as Researcher |
| 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. |
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| The Metaphor: Teacher as
Quantitative Research
Scientist |
Suppose the teacher is viewed as a Research Scientist.
With this metaphor the students could be viewed as research subjects.
The following chart is developed with this metaphor in mind.
If teachers acted like Quantitative Researchers
their approach to teaching might look like these cells: |
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|
Metaphor |
setting |
attitude to learner |
communications |
expectations |
assignments |
assessment |
| Quantitative Researcher |
lab-like... a very controlled
classroom |
learner as an object |
|
theory driven - test to
confirm or disconfirm |
|
precise, measurable,
detailed, quantitative |
| |
needs of the learner |
learner differences |
behaviour of learners |
nature / nurture |
rules |
curricular content |
| Quantitative Researcher
|
basic, health, safety |
differences are points of interest, source
of error
variance, outliers, |
artificial, induced |
|
precise, top down |
controlled |
| |
homework |
teacher's role |
empowerment of learners |
classroom organization |
record keeping |
activity level of students |
| Quantitative
Researcher
|
controlled, experimental,
instrumental |
controller,
experimenter, observer, analyzer, |
very little |
sterile, clinical |
meticulous |
controlled, regimented |
| |
discovery |
messiness |
artificiality |
authenticity |
intelligence |
effort |
| Quantitative Researcher
|
little on the part of
the subject a lot on the part of the teacher |
very little |
much, or perhaps totally
artificial |
|
one dimensional |
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| |
reports |
parent involvement |
? |
? |
? |
? |
| Quantitative
Researcher
|
quantitative grades |
viewed as research
assistants |
X |
X
|
X
|
X
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| The Metaphor: Teacher as
Qualitative Researcher |
Suppose the teacher is viewed as a
Qualitative Research Scientist.
With this metaphor the students could be viewed as more than research subjects.
They would be participants, and perhaps, fellow participants. The following chart is developed with this metaphor in mind.
If teachers acted like Qualitative Researchers
their approach to teaching might look like these cells: |
|
|
Metaphor |
setting |
attitude to learner |
communications |
expectations |
assignments |
assessment |
| Qualitative Researcher |
natural env't-researcher stands back to
observe |
learner
is subject and object |
inference |
|
probing questions,
|
descriptive, verbal,
|
| |
needs of the learner |
learner differences |
behaviour of learners |
nature / nurture |
rules |
curricular content |
| Qualitative Researcher
|
basic, emergent, novel |
meaningful, a source of
information, source of theory, a source of future direction |
natural,
spontaneous, intrinsically motivated |
towards the nature end of
the continuum, but observations are made for the effects of nurture |
student-defined,
or student-negotiated, |
real,
authentic material |
| |
homework |
teacher's role |
empowerment of learners |
classroom organization |
record keeping |
activity level of students |
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Qualitative Researcher
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observer,
nurturer, |
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descriptive, pages and
pages, stories, messy |
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discovery |
messiness |
artificiality |
authenticity |
intelligence |
effort |
| Qualitative Researcher
|
student-centered activities |
very |
nil |
very |
multiple intelligences |
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reports |
parent involvement |
? |
? |
? |
? |
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Qualitative
Researcher
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natural, encouraged,
collaborative |
X
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X
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X
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X
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