Narratives to Construct Meaning

        Teacher education involves many processes. The transformation from student to teacher is not automatic, does not occur instantaneously and implies learning about theoretical aspects and training in practical ones. Student teachers often experience a mismatch between the theories they study and real practice in the classroom. As Dolk and den Hertog (2008) state, “For many student-teachers theory is what is taught at teacher Education College and what they need to know for their examinations; practice is what classroom teachers do and talk about” (p. 215).

Bridging the gap between theory and practice is considered to be paramount in order to better teacher education. One approach towards doing so is the practice of developing narratives of classroom situations that student teachers can observe in a multimedia classroom. “In the MILE (multimedia interactive learning environment) environments student teachers are asked to observe a small fragment of a lesson, construct a story about what they have seen, and investigate what this means for teaching in that classroom” (Dolk and den Hertog, 2008, p. 216).

This approach offers several benefits both from a general and a specific point of view. In general, stories are part of every person’s life and everyone can relate to stories about school life. More particularly, narratives are viewed as elements student teachers produce that help them see the practical meaning behind the theories they studied that they could not initially contemplate. However nice this may sound as the solution to bridge the gap, writing narratives is not as straightforward as observing and retelling. There is a cycle student teachers need to go through more than once so as to truly learn first, how to observe and then narrate the event. Moreover, not only observing and narrating an event will provide the desired result but also what kind of event to observe will be crucial so as to be able to reach the desired goal.

“Only paradigmatic observations are worth reporting” (cited in Dolk and den Hertog, 2008, p. 222). Therefore, there is a prior need to teach student teachers how to observe and how to assess a situation as paradigmatic or simply eventful. The MILE approach designed a structure made up of six steps so that student teachers could master narrative writing. These scaffolds included “Observing, sharing and discussing observations, analyzing, reflecting, developing narrative knowledge [and] expanding the personal repertoire and generalizing the situation into a didactic for teacher education” (Dolk and den Hertog, 2008, p. 225). 

By following this cycle, it is expected that, as well as building a bridge between theory and practice by generating knowledge, student teachers will have the possibility of applying what was observed in similar observations, forming one new synthesized narrative and thus “build a personal didactical theory” (Dolk and den Hertog, 2008, p. 227). This cycle allows for intrapersonal reflection, i.e. when student teachers observe a classroom event and reflect upon it they are likely to discover that their own personal experiences and stands about education permeate their understanding of it. As student teachers go through the steps, this becomes clear and they have the possibility of narrating independently from their outlooks.

Theory without practice and practice without theory would provide prospective teachers with an empty canvas. Nonetheless, if students are being taught and trained in both theory and practice but they cannot see the relationship between them, the canvas is still unused. Only by noticing the foundational theories that support and justify teachers’ actions every day, will future teachers be able to grasp the importance of having a palette of theories to inspire their decisions and produce colourful classroom work.

Reference

Dolk, M., & den Hertog, J. (2008). Narratives in teacher education. Interactive Learning Environments, 16(3), 215–229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10494820802113970