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What Learning Can Do to Teaching: Assessing the Impact of Apprenticeship of Observation on Pre-service Teachers’ Beliefs

教與學的交互作用:評估學徒制觀察對師培生信念的影響

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Abstract

Past school experiences have been found to influence English as a Foreign Language (EFL) pre-service teachers’ beliefs and their teaching choices. Although a great deal of research has addressed the idea that EFL/ESL teaching behaviour may be influenced by teachers’ proficiency level, their personal ideals and beliefs, and their social and economic environment, few studies have attempted to understand and explore the role that ‘apprenticeship of observation’—i.e. the thousands of hours that EFL pre-service teachers have spent as students in classrooms before entering teacher education programmes—plays in the shaping of teacher beliefs with EFL pre-service teachers. To this end, a qualitative multiple case study that included narrative frames and semi-structured interviews was conducted with eight students in a teaching training programme at a Chilean private university. Findings suggest that these pre-service teachers were strongly influenced by several aspects of apprenticeship of observation, as it led them to replicate or avoid their school teachers’ practices depending on their context. It is argued that pre-service teachers should become aware of how their prior learning experiences influence their current teaching practices in order to improve the reasoning behind their teaching choices.

摘要

過去研究發現個人就學經驗會影響在英語作為外語(EFL)環境的師培生的信念及其在教學選擇。許多研究曾指出EFL / ESL教學行為可能受到教師本身的英語程度, 個人理念以及社經環境等因素影響其想法, 但鮮少有研究試圖檢視EFL師培生在成為正式英語教師前在教室裡度過的數千個小時的實習與觀課,也就是「學徒制觀察」是如何影響並塑造了這些師培生的教學信念。本研究背景與對象是在一所智利的私立大學中對八名師培生所進行的多案例個案研究, 研究方法包括敘述框架和半結構化訪談。研究結果顯示這些師培生在許多方面受到了學徒制觀察的強烈影響, 學徒制觀察促使師培生們根據自己的情況或教學情境來模仿所觀察到的教學行為或是避免重蹈覆轍。建議師培生應清楚意識到自我的學習經驗會如何影響他們目前的教學實習, 以作為改善他們選擇教學方法的依據。

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Educación y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Andres Bello, Fernandez Concha 700, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile

    Marco Cancino, Macarena Durán & Camila Solorza

Authors
  1. Marco Cancino
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  2. Macarena Durán
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  3. Camila Solorza
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Correspondence to Marco Cancino.

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Appendix. Narrative frame prompts (based on [24])

Appendix. Narrative frame prompts (based on [24])

1-My English classes in school were …

2-My English teachers usually …

3-My best memories from English classes in school include …

4-My worst memories from my English classes in school are …

5-I think that the experiences I had as a student have affected the way I teach are related to…

6-I think that these experiences affect the way I teach in the following ways …

7-These days, I think English classes in schools are …

8-As an English teacher, I have had some success learning English. I think the biggest reasons that I was successful learning English are …

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Cancino, M., Durán, M. & Solorza, C. What Learning Can Do to Teaching: Assessing the Impact of Apprenticeship of Observation on Pre-service Teachers’ Beliefs. English Teaching & Learning 44, 297–312 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42321-019-00044-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42321-019-00044-z

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