Learning Through Practice I

POWER TO TEACH Leaming through Practice The Woburn Education Series General Series Editor: Professor Peter Gordon ISSN 1462-2076 For over thirty years this series on the history, development and policy of education, under the distinguished editorship of Peter Gordon, has been evolving into a comprehensive and balanced survey of important trends in teaching and educational policy. The series is intended to reflect the changing nature of education in present-day society. The books are divided into four sections - educational policy studies, educational practice, the history of education and social history - and reflect the continuing interest in this area. For a full series listing, please visit our website: www.wobumpress.com Educational Practice Slow Learners. A Break in the Circle: The Private Schooling of Girls: A Practical Guide for Teachers Past and Present Diane Griffin edited by Geoffrey Walford Games and Simulations in Action International Yearbook of History Alec Davison and Peter Gordon Education, Volume 1 edited by Alaric Dickinson, Peter Gordon, Music in Education: A Guide for Parents Peter Lee and John Slater and Teachers Malcolm Carlton A Guide to Educational Research edited by Peter Gordon The Education of Gifted Children David Hopkinson The English Higher Grade Schools Meriel Vlaeminke Teaching and Leaming Mathematics Peter G Dean Geography in British Schools Rex Walford Comprehending Comprehensives Edward S. Conway Dictionary of British Education Peter Gordon and Denis Lawton Teaching the Humanities edited by Peter Gordon A History of Western Educational Ideas Denis Lawton and Peter Gordon Teaching Science edited hy Jenny Frost POWER TO TEACH Leaming through Practice WENDY ROBINSON University of Warwick The Woburn Education Series !:.l I~ ~?io~!~;n~~:up (:) LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2004 by RoutledgeFalrner Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NYI0017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an iriforma business Copyright © 2004 Wendy Robinson The Open Access version of this book, available at www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Robinson, Wendy Power to teach: learning through practice. - (Woburn education series) I. Teachers - Training of - Great Britain 2. Teachers - Rating of 3. Teachers - Training of - Great Britain - History I. Title 370.7'1141 ISBN 978-0-7130-0227-0 (hbk) ISBN 978-0-7130-4047-0 (pbk) ISSN 1462-2076 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robinson, Wendy, 1968- Power to teach: learning through practice / Wendy Robinson. p. cm. - (Woburn education series, ISSN 1462-2076) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7130-0227-1 (hbk)- ISBN 0-7130-4047-5 (pbk.) I. Students teaching-Great Britain-History-19th century. 2. Student teaching-Great Britain-History-20th century. 3. Student teachers-Training of-Great Britain-l 9th century. 4. Student teachers-Training of-Great Britain-20th century. I. Title. II. Series. LB2157.G7R62 2004 370'.71'5--dc22 2003049500 Typeset in l l/12pt Times New Roman by Taylor & Francis Books Ltd For Stephen Oliver 'The duty of each generation is to gather up its inheritance from the past, and thus to serve the present, and prepare better things for the future.' Friedrich Froebel quoted in R.H. Quick, Essays on Educational Reformers (London: Longmans, 1895, p. 547) CONTENTS Tables IX Acknowledgements X Abbreviations XI 1 Introduction 1 Historical Context 2 Methodology and Sources 6 Organizational Structure of Book 9 2 Teaching: Art, Craft or Science? 12 Teaching as Art 13 Teaching as Craft 15 Teaching as Science 18 'Power to Teach': The Interface of Art, Craft and Science 25 3 The Teacher as Trainer 32 The Teacher as Trainer: Historical Legacy 33 Towards a Partnership Model of Training: 1880-1910 36 The Declining Influence of the Teacher as Trainer: 1920-90 42 Reinventing the Teacher as Trainer through School-Based Initial Teacher Training 45 4 Learning Through Practice I Bridging the Theoretical Divide: Masters and Mistresses of Method 52 Personal and Professional Profiles of Masters and Mistresses of Method 53 Role and Function of Masters and Mistresses of Method 59 Personal Influence of Masters and Mistresses of Method 63 Modem Advanced Skills Teaching: Mastery and Expertise 65 5 Learning Through Practice II Model and Demonstration Schools 72 Normal, Model and Practice Schools: Historical Legacy 73 The Demonstration School Experiment 77 The Failure of the Demonstration School Experiment 84 Vlll POWER TO TEACH: LEARNING THROUGH PRACTICE The Demonstration School Ideal Revisited: Twenty-First Century Training Schools 86 6 Learning Through Practice III Evaluating Student Teachers' 'Power to Teach' 90 Practical Teaching Arrangements 91 Assessing Student Teachers Through Lesson Observations 95 Grading Student Teachers' Performance 98 Assessing Student Teachers Today: Historical Continuities in Current Practice? 105 7 Towards a Theory of Teaching 116 Why a History of Pedagogy? 117 Early Twentieth Century Pedagogical Debate 119 In Search of General Principles 121 Historical and Current Resonance 130 Bibliography 134 Index 147 TABLES Table 1: 'Power to teach' 27 Table 2: Example of completed teaching observation proforma, Southampton Day Training College 110 Table 3: Example of categories in blank teaching observation proforma, St John's College, York, 1904 110 Table 4: Darlington Training College, suggestions for supervisors when observing lessons 111 Table 5: Example of categories used in teaching observation, Cambridge Day Training College, 1901-08 112 Table 6: Example of categories used in teaching observation, Leeds Day Training College, 1909-10 112 Table 7: Guidance for assessing students in teaching, Chester Training College, 1913 112 Table 8: Correlation of categories for assessment across the sample 112 Table 9: Examples of positive and negative comments against the seven professional categories for assessment 113 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks are due to the archivists and librarians who assisted my access to the various archives and collections in their care. I am grateful to the University of Warwick, Research and Teaching Innovations Fund, for funding the research project 'The teacher as trainer: pedagogy, practice and professionalism' which kick-started the research for this book. The loyal support and encouragement of colleagues, friends and loved ones has, as ever, been much valued and appreciated. ABBREVIATIONS AST Advanced Skills Teacher AUT Association of University Teachers CATE Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education CPTC Council of Principals of Training Colleges DES Department of Education and Skills DfEE Department for Education and Employment HEI Higher Education Institution HMI Her/His Majesty's Inspectorate ITT Initial Teacher Training LEA Local Educational Authority NUT National Union of Teachers OFSTED Office for Standards in Education SCITT School Centred Initial Teacher Training TCA Training College Association TTA Teacher Training Agency 1 INTRODUCTION The nature of initial teacher education is currently contested and has been for many years. This is not the first and probably will not be the last book to begin with such a judgement. Questions as to the form and nature of a professional training, the essential skills, knowledge and attitudes desired of an effective teacher, the most suitable locus of expertise, the relative roles of participants and the balance between theory and practice are certainly not new or recent, but have long been rehearsed by education ists, policy makers, teachers and trainers alike. In the context of teacher training, past and present, any sense of a coherent, consistent or united system of training, in which the various academic, practical and theoreti cal strands have been successfully reconciled has proved an elusive goal. Arguably the current juncture of teacher education is fraught with funda mental tensions. Increasing government control of teacher education, shifts towards school-based initial training, the threatened position of higher education institutions, the introduction of a technicist and skills based training, a mandatory national curriculum for trainee teachers and assessment against prescriptive standards and, recently, a set of expected outcomes, have all contributed to a climate of uncertainty, anxiety, hostil ity and ideological polarization, particularly in relation to higher educa tion institutions, which have long had the responsibility for training teachers. A distinctive feature of this book is that it moves beyond current tensions over what constitutes a sound and proper start to a career in teaching and seeks instead to locate these within a historical perspective. By exploring the potential merging of principle and practice across key moments in time, this book illustrates hitherto unexamined connections between the present state of teacher education in the United Kingdom and past models of practice. In particular, the book will focus on elements of professional preparation that actively sought to promote a viable working balance between the potentially oppositional strands of theory and practice, art, science or craft. In his work on the history of English pedagogy and educational theory, Simon identified five key periods, of which the period 1870-1920 stands 2 POWER TO TEACH: LEARNING THROUGH PRACTICE out for its

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