Deep and lifelong learning: When theory and SoTL intersect
Main Article Content
Abstract
In this reflective essay, a teacher educator describes her own transformation that occurred as a result of studying adult learning theory along with a group of doctoral students. In examining her habits of course design, she realized that her practices had departed from her ideals and that her course planning was guided as much by pragmatic schedule demands as by the conceptual development of her students. As a result, she redesigned her course in language and literacy for preservice teachers. After describing the existing course, the author relates how her thinking—and the course—were transformed by the intersection of three influences: her encounter with Ramsden’s (2003) androgogical theory of teaching and learning, her familiarity with a discipline-specific pedagogical theory, and her SoTL research on students’ needs as learners. Guided by these influences, she reconceptualized the language and literacy course with a renewed focus on the social constructivist goals of facilitating conceptual change through meaning-oriented approaches. The author attempts to make visible to the reader exactly how she made this transition to address both the theoretical and the practical dimensions of the course, rediscovering in the process the transformation that is possible when teacher education focuses as on the why as well as the how of teaching.
Downloads
Article Details
- Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (JoSoTL) right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License, (CC-BY) 4.0 International, allowing others to share the work with proper acknowledgement and citation of the work's authorship and initial publication in the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
- Authors are able to enter separate, additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
- In pursuit of manuscripts of the highest quality, multiple opportunities for mentoring, and greater reach and citation of JoSoTL publications, JoSoTL encourages authors to share their drafts to seek feedback from relevant communities unless the manuscript is already under review or in the publication queue after being accepted. In other words, to be eligible for publication in JoSoTL, manuscripts should not be shared publicly (e.g., online), while under review (after being initially submitted, or after being revised and resubmitted for reconsideration), or upon notice of acceptance and before publication. Once published, authors are strongly encouraged to share the published version widely, with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
References
Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Calkins, L. M. (1994). The art of teaching writing (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Cambourne, B. L. (1988). The whole story: Natural learning and the acquisition of literacy. Auckland, New Zealand: Ashton-Scholastic.
Cambourne, B. (1995). Toward an educationally relevant theory of literacy learning: Twenty years of inquiry. The Reading Teacher, 49(3), 182-190.
The Chronicle of Higher Education (n.d.). Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/section/Home/5
Fletcher, R., & Portalupi, J. (2001). Writing workshop: The essential guide. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Graves, D. H. (1983). Writing: Teachers and children at work. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Harwayne, S. (2001). Writing through childhood: Rethinking process and product. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Kegan, R. (2009). What “form” transforms? A constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning. In K. Illeris (Ed.), Contemporary theories of learning: Learning theorists. . .in their own words (pp. 35-52). London: Routledge.
Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ramsden, P. (2003). Learning to teach in higher education (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge Falmer.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language. London, England: Cambridge University Press.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.