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Prue Gill

 

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Learning from Experience

 

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_ Public perceptions of learning to teach English English teachers as life-long learners Some prompts for reflexive narratives learning around and outside the classroom partnerships and co-mentoring learning from experience Crossroads/ cross words/ ’cross purposes’ Crossroads/ cross words/ ’cross purposes’ Crossroads/ cross words/ ’cross purposes’ Crossroads/ cross words/ ’cross purposes’ Page 11 _
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learning from experience

some prompts for reflexive narratives


In the section of the website called 'Becoming a Teacher', we argue that writing autobiogrpahical narratives that critically reflect on the journey toward or through a teaching career can be a powerful way to prompt and focus one's professional learning. There are links to many authentic pre-service teacher narratives in that section.

The process of writing these narratives often began with the writer thinking about some memorable or powerful learning experience/s in her/his primary or secondary schooling (or university for that matter)? Often, a good prompt for the initial thinking is as simple as: What do I remember about school? Sometimes, this question provokes very pleasant memories, and sometimes the memories are less pleasant. Often, the memory will not seem to be related to learning, until the writer-learner reflects more carefully. Was he/she learning while not realizing it? Was this pleasant/ unpleasant experience in some other way important for encouraging/discouraging learning at that time? Reading any of the pre-service narratives would suggest that critical reflection on early experiences in one’s life is a powerful prompt for a pre-service teacher’s learning.

Often, though, the pre-service teacher narratives do not restrict themselves to memories of in-school learning. Some come to the conclusion that significant learning in their lives has taken place outside of school.

Stories of pre-service teacher learning experiences provide a rich resource for critical reflection. We have all benefited from the opportunity to share and hear about the wide range of socio-cultural and professional backgrounds that contribute to pre-service teachers’ learning. It is powerful indeed when such stories can be the source of further learning for others and for ourselves, serving to generate authentic knowledge about teaching, and about English teaching in particular.

 

 

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_ Public perceptions of learning to teach English English teachers as life-long learners Some prompts for reflexive narratives learning around and outside the classroom partnerships and co-mentoring learning from experience Crossroads/ cross words/ ’cross purposes’ Crossroads/ cross words/ ’cross purposes’ Crossroads/ cross words/ ’cross purposes’ Crossroads/ cross words/ ’cross purposes’ Page 11 _
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voices
“The images and beliefs that prospective teachers bring to their preservice preparation serve as filters for making sense of the knowledge and experiences they encounter. They may also function as barriers to change by limiting the ideas that teacher education students are able and willing to entertain…. Taken-for-granted beliefs may mislead prospective teachers into thinking that they know more about teaching than they actually do and make it harder for them to form new ideas and new habits of mind.”

Susan Feiman-Nemser (2001, p.1016)

 

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