Theory and practice in in-service teacher learning: teachers' reconceptualisation of curriculum in history lessons

This paper reports on the findings of a qualitative interpretive study that was undertaken to determine how in-service teachers at Great Zimbabwe University were able (or not) to translate a theory that they were exposed to into practice during history lessons. Drawing on a range of data, the study...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research papers in education 2014-08, Vol.29 (4), p.438-456
Main Authors: Moyo, Nathan, Modiba, Maropeng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Classroom Observation Techniques
Conceptualization
Curriculum
Curriculum Implementation
curriculum theory
Education
Educational Theories
Foreign Countries
History Instruction
history teaching
in-service teachers
Information Sources
Inservice Teacher Education
Interviews
Learning
Lesson Plans
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Pedagogy
Praxis
Qualitative Research
Questioning Techniques
Secondary School Teachers
Teacher Effectiveness
teacher learning
Teachers
Teaching Styles
Teamwork
Theory Practice Relationship
theory-practice gap
Zimbabwe
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Summary:This paper reports on the findings of a qualitative interpretive study that was undertaken to determine how in-service teachers at Great Zimbabwe University were able (or not) to translate a theory that they were exposed to into practice during history lessons. Drawing on a range of data, the study explored how the teachers, who were purposively sampled, reconceptualised curriculum through their pedagogical practices during lessons. Teacher's utterances in the interviews helped clarify their notions of history teaching in terms of the theory they were exposed to. The study found that while the teachers could articulate the theory, they faltered and hesitated to draw on it when reframing their pedagogical practices. The paper argues that this is not because of exposure to bad theory. Rather, it reflects the need for teachers to be assisted to weave together curriculum theory and curriculum practice into one coherent interdependent landscape that reflects praxis and its dialectics and thus make the theory-practice gap difficult to perpetuate.
ISSN:0267-1522
1470-1146
DOI:10.1080/02671522.2013.772222