Abstract
This chapter start as a descriptive approach to teaching. The intention with a descriptive opening is to help the reader construct a context for her/his reading of the later chapters. This description of teaching is based on a visit in a classroom of second and third graders in a rural school one day every week for a shorter period of time. The descriptive language has a reference to a testimony of what teaching implies.
The text exceeds a pure description. It is based on an understanding developed in dialogues we had with the teacher, Rachel, about her intentions and what she did, and our interpretations of these dialogues. Thus, we try to develop an understanding of teaching today, that is, in the historical time of the second decade of the twenty-first century, that relates to an actual expression of teaching. The chapter therefore expands from the teachers acts in the classroom to the teachers understanding of herself in relation to a local culture of the school, to the authority of the school owner, the municipality, the state and the development and organisation of education in Western culture.
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Notes
- 1.
Like Karolina (K-5 Teacher) asking David Hansen (a researcher): “how am I doing? I mean, I really wonder if I am a good teacher with these children” (Hansen, 2017).
- 2.
Rachel has an assistant helping out for several hours every day.
- 3.
- 4.
They split up in grade level for math, so the third grader go to a different room and a different teacher.
- 5.
This is a book usually meant for older children (5–6 grade).
- 6.
- 7.
Rachel reads a short fairytale in the morning, later she reads in the chapter book and the students follow along in their book, then students read a book of their own choice, and later they talk with a fellow student about what they read and then students write on a fairytale they create by themselves. This project on fairytales lasted about 6 weeks, the next theme was non-fiction.
- 8.
The term pedagogy in English has a different connotation than it has for us as Scandinavians. Our Major from University is in Pedagogy, and we are now professors of Pedagogy. Alexander (2009) explains well some of the differences in the meaning of Pedagogy.
- 9.
- 10.
The district has now decided to adopt another assessment program, MAP®®. (See more at: https://www.nwea.org/assessments/MAP®/). Through this, the provider (NWEA) claims that Response to Intervention (RTI) and personalized learning is enhanced (effective). (Authors emphasis/bold letters)
- 11.
Reliability is the “consistency” or “repeatability” of your measures and in psychometrics, validity has a particular application known as test validity: “the degree to which evidence and theory support the interpretations of test scores” (Wikipedia). In psychometrics often built on IRT, Item Response Theory.
- 12.
Kindergarten class (US) is 1st grade in most European countries.
- 13.
She uses Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System.
- 14.
In the US testing is more widespread than we know from our background in Norway. So this cry from a US teacher: “No longer can I throw my students to the testing wolves” can serve as a sign of what happens when testing takes over teaching. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/05/teacher-no-longer-can-i-throw-my-students-to-the-testing-wolves/?utm_term=.97ea5c14a208
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Hoveid, H., Hoveid, M.H. (2019). Teaching. In: Making Education Educational. Contemporary Philosophies and Theories in Education, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27076-6_2
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