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Critical moments and the art of teachingGeorge D. Labercane a , Sandra Last b , Sharon Nichols b & WarrenJohnson ba University of Calgary , Canadab University Elementary School , Calgary, CanadaPublished online: 20 Dec 2006.

To cite this article: George D. Labercane , Sandra Last , Sharon Nichols & Warren Johnson (1998) Criticalmoments and the art of teaching, Teacher Development: An international journal of teachers' professionaldevelopment, 2:2, 191-205, DOI: 10.1080/13664539800200050

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Critical Moments and the Art of Teaching

GEORGE D. LABERCANEUniversity of Calgary, CanadaSANDRA LAST, SHARON NICHOLS & WARREN JOHNSONUniversity Elementary School, Calgary, Canada

ABSTRACT The article is a report on a collaborative study of three experiencedteachers who reflected on the critical moments of their teaching experiences in amulti-age classroom in an elementary school in Western Canada. The focus in thearticle is on these critical moments in their teaching that brought about change and howthese changes improved teaching practise. Using ‘reflective practise’ as a theoreticalframework, the three teachers present a number of insights from their personal livesand from their practise to support the notion that the crucial factor in effective teachingis to be formal in learning how to become a ‘reflective practitioner’.

Introduction

This article reports on a teacher–researcher collaborative study of threeexperienced teachers who examined the critical moments in their teachingpractice. The focus of the article is on the key experiences that broughtabout change in the teachers and how those changes subsequently improvedtheir practice. In the process of working together as a team, they gained anunderstanding of how they functioned and how they were able to see theirpractice as being an inseparable part of their roles as teachers.

The process that supports this change is self-reflection. The teachers(Sandra [Sandy] Last, Sharon Nichols and Warren Johnson) participated in agraduate course that I taught for prospective teacher–researchers. Workingas a team, the three teachers collaborated in the development of this researchproject in a school whose philosophy was predicated on notions ofconstructivism and collaborative learning.

The course was designed, first of all, to introduce graduate students toqualitative research methods However, its other main purpose was toencourage teacher–researchers to engage in a research project that suitedtheir needs and interests. Hence, the three teachers worked together to

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develop a proposal for their action research and to implement the projectover a 3-month period of time.

Teaching as Reflective Practice

Van Manen (1995) states that reflective thinking is important not only as atool for teaching but also as an aim for education (p. 33). He goes on toargue that reflection may refer to an array of cognitively and philosophicallydistinct methods.

Quoting Dewey (1933), he points out that reflection may consist ofseveral steps. Three of these are of particular relevance for this study: (1)“perplexity, confusion, doubt” due to the nature of the situation in whichone finds oneself; (2) “conjectural anticipation and tentative interpretation”of given elements or meanings of the situation, and their possibleconsequences; and (3) deciding on a “plan of action” or “doing something”about a desired result (quoted from van Manen, 1995, p. 34).

In addition, van Manen argues that knowledge of reflective methodsalone is insufficient. What is needed in reflective practice is thedevelopment of wholehearted or absorbed interests, responsibility, as wellas the need for a habit of thinking in a reflective way. Schön (1983) refers tothis as “thinking on your feet” and “keeping your wits about you”.

Van Manen (1977, 1986, 1988, 1990) further discusses theimplications of the notion of reflection in his exploration of themethodology and practical applicability of hermeneutical phenomenologicalreflection in the lifeworld. From his perspective, two phenomena stand outas having relevance for this article: the notion of reflection-in-action andsomething that van Manen refers to as pedagogical tact.

Reflection-in-action is, as van Manen states, difficult to attain, evenunder the most ideal of teaching situations. What makes it difficult is that“life in the classroom is contingent, dynamic, everchanging every moment,every second is situation-specific. Moments of teaching are ongoingincidents that require instant actions” (1995, p. 40). Van Manen sees thisphenomenon as part of an ongoing dialogue where the teacher carries on akind of inner dialogue with the self as one goes about the act of teaching,Thus, any act of teaching has innumerable consequences. What isappropriate and less appropriate with these children? How does one enter aclassroom? How does one respond to inappropriate behavior? When shouldI, as teacher, be silent? How should I respond to questions that have noready answers?

Pedagogical tact, it would appear, follows on the notion ofreflection-in-action, van Manen situates this notion in commonteaching–learning situations where the teacher is required constantly andimmediately to act with a certain degree of confidence. As he states, “Thisconfidence is already a situated practical knowledge that inheres in the actof tact itself” (p. 42). Tact, therefore, can be understood as “a particularsensitivity and sensitiveness to situations and how to behave in them”. Invan Manen’s view, a teacher with tact appears to have a fine sense of

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standards, limits and balance that makes it possible to know almostautomatically how far to enter into a situation and what distance to keep inindividual circumstances (p. 44).

Van Manen (1995) also sees tact as a form of practical knowledge thatrealises itself in the very act of teaching. The import of this view is that whatteachers do is reasoned thought translated into action. In his view, actionitself already constitutes a type of knowledge that cannot always betranslated back into propositional statements or cognitive theories.Generally, it could be argued (as van Manen does) that the practicalknowledge of teaching resides in the things that surround us: the physicaldimensions of the classroom are adapted; I recognise as my room that towhich my body is adapted. This is somewhat akin to Iser’s (1978) notion ofthe “virtuality of the (literary) work” where the virtual text that is created issomething that lives outside both the reader and the text. As Wittgenstein(1957) would argue, the ground of justified knowledge is not someungrounded proposition but, rather, it is an ungrounded way of acting(quoted in van Manen, 1995, p. 46).

Critical Moments: the context for the study

Building on van Manen, this article examines the character of the reflectionsof three teachers, how they are revealed individually and in concert. In allthree cases, the role of reflection-in-action and pedagogical tact will beexamined to ascertain the depth of insight attained by each teacher in the actof teaching itself. Each teacher’s story is presented as a moment of insight(or series of insights) as they arise in the day-to-day acts of teaching.Following this, a brief excerpt is presented where journal entries are placedtogether for purposes of comparison. What follows from this are reflectivecomments cast within the context of emerging patterns, teacher–student,teacher–colleague, teacher–pre-service, and teacher–parent interactions. Thefinal section of the article is given over to a discussion of teacher asreflective practitioner.

The School and the Curriculum as Contexts for Teaching and Learning

The three teachers in this study worked together in a large, open areaclassroom. The demographic nature of the classroom could best bedescribed as a multi-age group of students, a group that spanned grades 1–6(or ages 6–12). There were approximately 55–60 students clustered togetherfor instruction for all subjects. The three teachers brought differing levels ofexpertise to bear in their work with the children, although all three teacherswould prefer to describe themselves as elementary generalists and theirteaching as fitting in with what they would call a generative curriculum (i.e.a curriculum that was responsive to the needs of the students in the class).The curriculum, as mandated by Alberta Education, is sufficiently

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open-ended enough to permit integration of the subject matter into theteaching that went on in this area. For example, science, social studies, andthe language arts were integrated in order to allow students to see how thecurriculum operated as a unified set of operations as students attempted tomake sense of their learning

The school itself is unique in that it represents a mix of traditional andcurrent conceptions of curriculum. University Elementary School wasconstructed in the 1960s as a demonstration school designed to show (orshowcase) exemplary teaching practices. At the time it was built, it was astate-of-the-art facility with observation areas containing one-way glasswhere prospective teachers from the University of Calgary’s Faculty ofEducation could come and observe sound teaching practices. Over the years,this role has shifted, both out of necessity and in the realisation that thisrepresented an outmoded view of how student teachers should learn aboutthe act of teaching. In addition, the teachers in the school (including theadministration) began to question this model of training and to become morereflective about their own teaching practices. The following quotationconfirms this changing view:

We wanted to come together to spend time learning more about ourwork as teachers. We wanted to reflect on our practices, read thereflections of other researchers, dialogue together and engage in ...journal writing in an effort to gain insight into those moments that shapeour decisions and guide how we relate to our students. We also wantedto explore the complexity of the teaching role together. (Last et al, 1996,p. 2)

The mission statement generated by the administration and staff reinforcesthis current view of teaching where it states:

University Elementary School is an interdependent community ofstudents, staff, parents and University of Calgary partnersinterconnected through a shared commitment to build a strongfoundation of knowledge, inspiring a passion for learning, challengingperceived boundaries, designing action research, and the continuousimprovement of safe, open learning environments. (UniversityElementary School, 1994)

For the three teachers, documenting teaching moments only served to bringinto sharper focus the complex nature of these roles and allowed them tocome to a greater understanding of those incidents which clarified corebeliefs about teaching and learning. As Newman (1987) contends, “Icontinue to consider what I have done, how my teaching has affectedstudents, and what I would do next time. I am also looking at why I do whatI do. I am considering my beliefs about learning and teaching, while tryingto reveal my hidden assumptions” (quoted in Fedele, 1996, p. 23).

This complexity is often highlighted in the many activities teachers arerequired to engage in as part of their teaching: keeping attendance,supervising students on the playground, keeping abreast of recent trends in

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instruction, along with the ongoing concerns of managing the classroom anddelivering lessons. As van Manen (1995) puts it, “In the daily life ofteaching children teachers often feel that they are constantly on the spot.And in the spur of the moment only limited true reflection seems possible”(p. 35). Perhaps what permitted a limited form of reflection was to be foundin the reflective comments written in the logs the teachers kept as part oftheir course requirements. A comment written in the earlier part of thearticle is instructive: “Some of our responses led us to alter our practice, togain deeper knowledge of the people we interact with each day, to develop agreater appreciation of the impact teachers have on the lives of others, andto value the process of collaborative reflective practice ...” (p. 3).A quote from Patterson (1996) reinforces this perception:

Many teacher researchers are using the texts and talk from theirclassrooms to participate in reflective discourse. They know thatlearning moments are captured in the classroom and, throughdiscourse, teachers and their students can re-see and re-search thosesignificant moments. (Patterson, 1996, p. 4)

Reflective discourse, through the medium of journal entries, helped theseteacher–researchers to capture the feeling of what it means to engage inreflection-in-action. In the ‘stories’ that follow, then, we can begin to get afeeling of what it meant for these teachers in their attempts to becomereflective practitioners.

Sharon’s Story

The moment that led me into teaching began after I had begun my firstyear of teaching. One grey winter day I found myself standing by awindow on the second floor of a very old school and being called‘teacher’. The child was a new Canadian, from Jamaica. We werelooking at the sky and the horizon. We were noticing the color of the skyand the horizon. We were noticing how the color of the sky wovethrough the trees – until it was met by solid branches and gave up itsspace to the earth. He was drawing and painting a picture of an animalon a landscape. I felt pleased to show him how land and sky meet andfelt confident that his painting would reflect our teaching momenttogether.

His painting was of a snail. Its smooth shell-form filled the page of alarge drawing paper. The background – the object of instruction – wasrevealed to me. The perception I had crafted so well for him would beevident in his work. I was feeling powerful as a teacher, confident thatin this area of study my influence would provide this student with newunderstanding.

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He had placed his snail on a background of brilliant red swirls mingledwith vibrant oranges and yellows. There was no evidence of sky meetingland. The snail was in a place of heat and color not the bare bones ofthe landscape of a cold Ontario day.

I held that picture a long time and through many years. It helped leadme into a life of teaching. This child helped me look beyond myconvenient framework and I began to see the art of teaching: to seebroader strokes and deeper, richer meanings in the ways peoplecommunicate and express themselves. I began to appreciate and learnfrom the unique visions and experiences of others and came to translatethese understandings into practice. (Journal entry, October 1996)

Sharon’s story demonstrates how pedagogical tact shows itself in hersensitivity to the teaching moment with this child. She does not dismiss hisreaction as reflecting a misunderstanding of what she was trying to showhim, rather; she took the moment and used it as a basis for further action Asshe states:

And so, I began to learn about becoming a teacher. Later that first year(so many years ago), I closed my textbooks on models of what to teach,how to teach, and when to teach, and began to listen with an open mindand heart to the students I was teaching. (Journal entry, October 1996)

In Sharon’s story, reflection-in-action becomes the basis for hertransformation as a teacher. The closing of the textbooks does not mean thatshe has abandoned them; rather, it suggests her willingness to move fromwhat the textbooks have to say about teaching in general to the act ofteaching as it is situated within her own classroom. In other words,following what van Manen (1995) has stated earlier, knowledge of reflectivemethods alone is insufficient. What is needed is an absorbed interest, acommitment to the act of teaching. Undoubtedly, Sharon must haveexperienced perplexity and doubt about the child’s painting. However, whatshe did was to take this teaching moment to develop an interpretation of thisincident that moved her in the direction of an important ‘plan of action’, onethat led her to become more reflective in her practice.

Warren’s Story

In his reflections, Warren raises the question of how and where teaching andlearning fit into his life. This question was important in that it led him torecall his experiences as a learner in a small elementary school in Manitoba.As he reports, these experiences were not of the curriculum he experienced,nor were they tied to the work he performed; rather, they were focused onthe stories that he lived and the relationships that he developed as he movedthrough the grades:

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As a child in grade two, I recall having to teach the class a song myfather had sung one weekend in a social context in the crowded kitchenof my first and second grade teacher. It was a fall evening sometimearound November. As I sat on my father’s knee, I recall the ringing inmy ears of a song that I had heard many times. A song that was off-key,not impressively presented but sung from the heart of a man who had apassion for his livelihood of farming. I remember the Monday morningthat followed, and my teacher asking me to sing the song ‘O I’m a JollyFarmer’, so she could record the words for us to perform later at thecommunity Christmas concert. I can (still) hear the coaching andencouraging words as she nudged a shy, reserved, self-conscious youngstudent to sing in front of the group. I could not sing aloud in front ofthe group. I was finally urged to recite the words for her. This song wasperformed in front of the community ... for many years to follow. It wasalso a song that had a line in it sung, not the way the song writer hadintended it ... (but) because a seven year old boy had substituted oneword in the song. I can still sing that song for you ... and I can even giveyou both versions. (Journal entry, October 1996)

The impact of this story on Warren’s life is that it had the effect ofsensitising him to the needs of the children he encountered in the classes hetaught. Indeed, in encountering a shy child, Warren had this anecdote at theready as a kind of cautionary tale about the trials and tribulationssurrounding any child who ‘freezes’ when confronted with the need toperform for others. Thus, the reflective teacher is sensitive to the needs ofindividual children because she/he has ‘walked over the ground’ of thatexperience and can readily empathise with the shy child.

Sandy’s Story

From Sandy’s perspective, a series of ‘critical moments’ appear to haveinfluenced her development as a teacher.

Winter, grade 12 ... My biology 30 teacher worked with me to develop aself-directed science project. This was the first time that I rememberlearning for myself, in my own best ways. It was a time when I gainedconfidence about myself as a learner and when I truly realized my lovefor the study of the natural world. A world of beauty, mystery andchallenge was revealed to me. I won’t forget her face.

Fall, first year university ... I clearly recall deciding, with my father, tostudy Science instead of English. I had to defend my desire to enter anarea of study that was somewhat un-traditional at that time andtherefore unrealistic for me to enter into. This was a critical moment; Iwas recognizing what I loved to do and I was making decisions to follow

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my heart against the advice of my beloved father. We still talk about thistime together ... we both remember.

Fall, first year teaching ... I was teaching grade 8 Science. I loved thesubject and was beginning to enjoy the people that I was teaching. Somedifficult boys cheated (poorly) on a test. I had firm and respectfulresponses to this and they did not come back to our class for a week.When they did return, they were ready to learn; firm boundaries and(firm) decisions had earned their respect. One of them recognized me inthe paint store last year; we laughed together as we recalled the time.He did not forget. (Journal entry, October 1996)

What is clearly evident here (and is found in the other accounts) is thepresence of a clearly reflective stance. It is the remembrance of things inone’s past acting as reminders of how certain critical moments are crucial toone’s determination to become a teacher. It is as though the critical momentis the crucial moment; it stands out as a reminder of how important incidentscan change or alter (or reinforce) one’s decision to choose one career pathover another. And, more importantly, it is these critical moments that oftenlead us into the reflective life.

The Reflective Process as a Communal Activity

In the previous accounts, a serious attempt has been made to recordindividual reflections. These are useful because they provide us withindividual portraits of what the reflective process looked like for eachteacher. Moreover, they are important because they highlight the criticalmoment that each teacher encountered in their journey towards becomingreflective practitioners. Now, to complete the picture, what follows is anexamination of what reflection looks like when it is viewed through thecombined lenses of these three experienced teachers.

To do this, a triple-entry format is presented to show what thereflective process looked like when the teachers wrote in concert about theirdaily practice. Following this, various roles are looked at, particularly interms of patterns of interaction: teacher–student, teacher–colleague,teacher–pre-service, teacher–parent, and finally, teacher as reflectivepractitioner.

The stories about critical moments in teaching practice were developedin the triple entry journals and show how ongoing reflections of teachingevents were captured in the journal for later sharing and revision. Eachteacher wrote about those events that had an impact on teaching. This kindof writing went on for approximately 1 month in the fall of 1996. Journalresponses were shared in terms of insights, questions, challenges andcomments. A brief sample is presented in the following:

October 1, 1996

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As I write this I still have questions in my mind as to whether or not thisis a critical moment. A few weeks ago as we began to organize andarrange our classrooms I had tried to arrange the environment so thatstudents had a voice in their seating arrangements. It was my goal tohave conversations with students and talk to them about what madegood study partners, who would be the people that would best supporttheir learning needs. I believe ... I can teach students how to makeinformed decisions for themselves ...

In producing these entries, the teachers wanted to identify some of thethreads that would weave together and shape the greater design that couldthen be used for designing critical moments. The goal here was to seeteaching practice with ‘an enlightened eye’. Eisner (1991) describes it as akind of seeing which is at the heart of making meaning. From hisperspective, this is as relevant in educational practice as it is in the act ofcreating a painting.

Clandinin (in Clandinin & Connelly, 1986) was instructive and addedto the understanding that was gained as the teachers talked to each other: “Itis through reflection that we come to challenge our assumptions andreconstruct our experience”. The assumption shared by the teachers was thatthey were operating within a Knowledge Community, “a place whereeducators are vibrantly present, where their voices are unconditionallyheard, where their relationships are authentic and secure” (Connelly &Clandinin, 1988, p. 152). Thus, there was the search for patterns, formeaning in events, and ultimately the search for improved practice throughthe telling and analysis of everyday stories of the kind quoted earlier.

After a short time, some definitions of critical moments began tosurface in the entries. The excerpts in Table I illustrate this point.

(Reflective Journal,Nicols/Last, 6 October 1996)

(Reflective Journal, Nicols,Johnson, 6 October 1996)

(Reflective Journal, Nicols, 6 October 1996)

P questions arising fromreading

P self–self relational?P emotional responses

P teacher–teacher relational?P colleague’s questions

P student–teacher relational?P student questions

A list is starting – aframework is brewing ... thishelps a focus become moredefined for me. Is this abeginning of a pattern ...?

Are they:Are we creating a frameworkfor this study? Criticalmoments suggested by:

Table I. Excerpts from the teachers’ journals.

The outcome of these journal responses led to the belief that teachers serve arelational role with students, colleagues, parents, and with themselves (asreflective practitioners). Their comments are instructive here:

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We were asking questions that spoke to the role of the teacher. Is ourprimary goal to teach concepts and facts and make observations that laythe foundation of life-long learning or is it more than that?... As wepondered this, we created a framework ... that went beyond the teachingof knowledge and skills ... we asked questions, affirmed strengths,shared experiences to show understanding, listened to spoken andunspoken stories, asked more questions, and gave time for others to feelstrong. (Course assignment, December, 1996, pp. 17-18)

The excerpts listed in Table I (and those that follow) illustrate relevantteaching moments that have formed a pattern in the whole process ofreflection. As Jalongo (1992) reports, “Personal narratives reveal thenurturing dimension of the teaching role, characterize the important changesin our professional lives, and encourage more reflective practice. All ofthese benefits have a direct impact upon our professional growth because‘our lives are made of stories’” (p. 72).

He was somber when he came to the study group where I was workingwith other children. I asked if I could help him but he said no. I wasn’tsure what was wrong. He appeared to be a confident child andcompleted assignments with ease. I gave him space by giving him timeto be by himself and at the same time to be in the circle of learners hehad joined ...We played with ideas and materials as we explored ways tolearn more about air pressure. The somber little boy was soon engagedwith us. When he was relaxed he was able to say he hoped we wouldplay with his problem in some way. (Sharon, Journal entry, October1996)

Sharon’s account demonstrates the wisdom of learning to be patient and togive students time to trust teachers to respond to their questions andpuzzlements in a non-threatening manner. The incident reported aboveshows, again, how the reflective teacher must be sensitive to the needs ofher children. This incident also reminded Sharon that teachable momentshappen in an atmosphere of trust, when there is a demonstrated assurancethat all questions will be treated as important. Here, what was demonstratedwas the need to guide students to find ways to persevere and to let studentsdiscover ways to have a successful experience even though an experimentfails and may fail again before success is achieved. Such endeavours willundoubtedly lead to other teachable moments because Sharon discoveredways of establishing common threads of understanding and trust.

The other factor that is important in reflective practice here is theelement of time. In this case, the nature of grouping arrangements where theteachers are together with the children for 2–3 years allows for the shapingof attitudes, permits the development of a community atmosphere wherelearning can be nurtured and where the personalities of children can beallowed the full range of exploration. As one of the teachers reports, “We[can] play a role in shaping each child’s personality with varied learning

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experiences, guiding with the eyes of love and giving nudges that shapeconfidence, courage and perseverance” (Journal entry, Sharon, 6 October1996).

In addition to the benefits achieved through teacher–pupil interactions,a new appreciation was gained for the advantages of collaborative work. Thebenefits gained from shared readings, conversations, and teaching togethersharpened perceptions concerning interactions with one another and in theshared dialogues that took place with other colleagues throughout theschool. Most importantly, though, it was what was said about daily practicethat influenced reflection to the greatest extent. It was this daily asking ofquestions of one another and the daily wondering aloud of the influence ofcritical moments in teaching that came to have the greatest impact on thenature of reflective practice itself.

‘So what did we learn from that’ was a question that was often writtenin the journals of the three teachers. One of Sharon’s entries expresses thiskind of wondering:

In conversation at a Professional Development Day this fall, I wascalled on many times by different individuals to express my vision ofhow a multi-aged grouping could be organized to meet what we call‘best teaching and learning’ opportunities. How could skill and practicebe accommodated?... The questions challenged the whole notion of thegenerative curriculum and a constructivist approach to its presentation.(Journal entry, Nichols, 6 October 1996)

It is in moments such as these, where one is confronted by colleagues, thatreflection takes on an added dimension. As Sharon noted, in the act ofresponding to questions from others, one is quickly made aware of one’sown assumptions (and presumptions). Ideas that seemed sound at first blushcan often be exposed as major weaknesses or unfounded generalisationswhen exposed to the light of outside scrutiny. In addition, it is in theseinteractions with others, that one is led to revisit the readings that influencedthe practices of the three teacher–researchers (cf. Tomlinson, 1995). Aswell, the three teachers were often driven back to the work of other fellowresearchers. Patterson (1996), for example, was instructive:

It is through reflection with students and our colleagues that we come tocollective understanding and build theory to guide our shared inquiries... Through opportunities for group reflection, the learning communitycan move forward, informed by knowledge of its history, values,strengths, needs, and goals.

Opportunities to interact with pre-service teachers are abundant atUniversity Elementary School. Part of the agreement between the school andthe University is for the school to take on student teachers throughout theschool year. In some cases, students volunteer their time from Septemberthrough March, when the university term ends. In other cases, students findthemselves working with teachers as part of a practicum-based programmewhere students, professors and cooperating teachers are engaged in an

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ongoing process of supervision, from October through May, with time offonly for holidays and teachers’ conventions.

Thursday was to be part of a university class, giving the background tothe work that the class was doing and setting the overview of theunderlying purpose for the work. As I prepared for this presentation ... Iwas surprised to notice that during this study of critical moments in ourpractice, I had focused on the small events, those singular moments thatimpacted what I have been trying to think and learn about. It wasrefreshing (in this presentation) to reflect in a broader, morecomfortable framework. (Journal entry, 13 October 1996)

The question that arises here has to do with what the teachers refer to as “thechallenges of sharing the process of wondering and doubting and shynesswith others”. How does an experienced teacher pass on the attitude ofreflective practice to novices? In fact, becoming a reflective practitionerinvolves the opening up of oneself to others. Sharon, for example, writesthat the study itself has put her in the position of allowing others to enter herpersonal space and invading the boundaries of her own sense of privacy.Sandy, in response to this comment, asks Sharon if this isn’t tied to theprocess of discovery itself, that discovering things about oneself meansopening up oneself to others. Warren, in his reaction, reminds Sharon of theneed for trust and the need to find a ‘safe’ place where personal commentsand revelations of one’s own self are kept secure when we trust each other.But again the question remains: how do we pass this on to the novice? Canthe novice who has never experienced the reflective process learn toappreciate the efforts that have gone into becoming a reflective practitioner?

The work with student teachers has its own set of problems and thecomments of the three teachers has touched on just a few of these concerns.A similar set of concerns is to be found in teacher–parent interactions.Parents are concerned, though, with their child, not with matters of beingreflective. If ‘my’ child has been placed next to a child for purposes relatedto his/her abilities to work with that child, I will naturally want to know whythis has been done. Often, though, the parent’s concern is for what workedin the past. If the formula used in past years had been a successful one, whywas a change being made now? Warren writes:

These parents caused me to question my practice, challenged mypractice and caused me to compromise what I believe is good practice... Is it really these students or their parents who are having difficultywith change? Are they really best suited to the study table that theirparents have chosen for them? Do I really believe that they would bebetter study partners elsewhere? Is it the students, parents or myself thatare resistant to change? (Reflective journal, 1 October 1996)

Questions and comments that Sharon and Sandy ask of Warren allow him tounderstand the moment and to grow from it. Sharon’s question, “What canyou recall as a deeper-farther back event that causes you to value this?” and“What stories do you have that shape this belief that determines classroom

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groupings and organization?” helped Warren to formulate the followingresponse, “I think sometimes parents are not as objective as is important fortheir children and trust has to be given to others; valuing of a professionaleducator’s judgment is needed. I live this ... sometimes as parents we can be‘blinded by love’” (Reflective journal, 2 October 1996).

It is these questions and comments that help Warren to arrive atalternative levels of understanding and belief. As he reports, “Had I not beenjournalling this with them I may have brushed off this moment and nevergiven it a second thought” (Journal entry, 3 October 1996). In the end,allowing the child to have ownership of this decision proved to be the mostproductive solution; the parent came back a few days later and thanked MrJohnson for allowing her child to make this decision on her own.

Concluding Comments: teacher as reflective practitioner

This article looked at reflective practice through the lenses of threeexperienced teachers who worked collaboratively in a multi-age setting in aschool that had close links with the University of Calgary in Alberta,Canada In one respect, the article represents a form of action research in itsbroadest form; it can be defined as a form of research as disciplined,reflective inquiry into practice (Adler, 1993).

Pinar (1975) writes that “to explore and understand educationalexperiences we must exist in them, rather than removing ourselves fromthem” (reported in Adler, 1993, p. 160). Doll (1993) proposes the 4 Rs ofRichness, Recursion, Relations and Rigor: “As the 3 Rs of Reading, ’Riting,and ’Rithmetic were foundations to late 19th and early 20th centurycurricula, I propose the 4 Rs as potentially foundational for the last years ofthis century and the early ones of the next” (p. 14).

What the teachers in this study reported was that they were learningabout “openness ... multiple layers of interpretation, and variable realms ofmeaning” (Doll, 1993, p. 57 ff). From our own perspective, we can envisionourselves as apprentices in meaning-making. We have learned the languageof reflection and have begun the journey toward that understanding whichwill lead us to deeper layers of interpretation. Becoming reflective, it wouldseem, is somewhat like becoming a craftsman, learning a trade. Thesilversmith does not easily learn how to fashion a silver bowl of the highestquality. He/she learns that craft through an apprenticeship that takes manyyears to develop. Wells (1985) talks about the child’s developingproficiency in using language to negotiate meaning as part of “anapprenticeship in meaning” (p. 39). Thus, learning the language of reflectivepractice represents one of those steps in our development as teachers. It is,perhaps, the first step but it is certainly not the last step. We “have foundthat formal recognition and the study of critical moments has been a highlyproductive, change enhancing activity” (Last et al, 1996, p. 36). Reflectiveteaching is not merely an exercise in blind impulsivity or routine habit. Asvan Manen (1995) would say, “While they are involved in teaching, goodteachers ‘thinkingly act’ and often do things with immediate insight” (pp.

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35-36). What the teacher–researchers have done and continue to do is to‘thinkingly act’ in a truly reflective manner.

Correspondence

George D. Labercane, Faculty of Education, Division of TeacherPreparation, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary,Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada (labercan@acs.ucalgary.ca).

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