Competence and performance #10 – Pedagogical reasoning skills - World of Better Learning | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

In the latest post in his series on what distinguishes the very best language teachers, Interchange author Jack C. Richards considers the role played by pedagogical reasoning skills.

An important component of current conceptualizations of Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE) is a focus on teacher cognition. This encompasses the mental lives of teachers, how these are formed, what they consist of, and how teachers’ beliefs, thoughts, and thinking processes shape their understanding of teaching and their classroom practices. Borg (2006) comments:

A key factor driving the increase in research in teacher cognition, not just in language education, but in education more generally, has been the recognition that teachers are active, thinking decision-makers who play a central role in shaping classroom event. Coupled with insights from the field of psychology which have shown how knowledge and beliefs exert a strong influence on teacher action, this recognition has suggested that understanding teacher cognition is central to the process of understanding teaching. (p. 1)

An interest in teacher cognition entered SLTE from the field of general education, and brought with it a similar focus on teacher decision making, on teachers’ theories of teaching, teachers’ representations of subject matter, and the problem-solving and improvisational skills employed by teachers with different levels of teaching experience during teaching. Constructs such as teachers’ practical knowledge, pedagogic content knowledge, and personal theories of teaching are now established components of our understanding of teacher cognition (Golombek 2009).

A central aspect of teacher cognition is the role of the teacher’s pedagogical reasoning skills, the specialized kind of thinking that teachers posses and make use of in planning and conducting their lessons. Here is an example of how teachers use these skills. I recently gave an expert teacher the following challenge. “A teacher has just called in sick. You are going to teach her 50-minute spoken English class, lower-intermediate level, in five minutes. Your only teaching aid is an empty glass. What will your lesson look like?”

The teacher thought about it for less than a minute and then elaborated her idea for the lesson.

1. I would start by showing the glass and asking students to form groups and brainstorm for five minutes to come up with the names of as many different kinds of containers as possible. They would then group them according to their functions. For example, things that contain food, things that are used to carry things, things that are used to store things in, and so on. I would model how they should do this and suggest the kind of language they could use. (10 minutes)2. Students would present their findings to the class to see who had come up with the longest list. (10 minutes)
3. For a change of pace and to practice functional language, I would do some dialog work, practicing asking to borrow a container from a neighbor. First I would model the kind of exchange I want them to practice. Then students would plan their dialog following this outline:
a) Apologize for bothering your neighbor.
b) Explain what you want and why you need it.
c) Your neighbor offers to lend you what you want.
d) Thank your neighbor and promise to return it over the weekend.
Students would then perform their dialogs.

This is a good example of a teacher’s pedagogical reasoning skills. These are the special skills that enable English teachers to do the following:

Analyze potential lesson content (e.g., a piece of realia, as in the preceding example, a text, an advertisement, a poem, a photo, etc.) and identify ways in which it could be used as a teaching resource
Identify specific linguistic goals (e.g., in the area of speaking, vocabulary, reading, writing, etc.) that could be developed from the chosen content
Anticipate any problems that might occur and ways of resolving them
Make appropriate decisions about time, sequencing, and grouping arrangements

Shulman (1987) described this ability as a process of transformation in which the teacher turns the subject matter of instruction into forms that are pedagogically powerful and that are appropriate to the level and ability of the students. Experienced teachers use these skills every day when they plan their lessons, when they decide how to adapt lessons from their course book, and when they search the internet and other sources for materials and content that they can use in their classes. It is one of the most fundamental dimensions of teaching, one that is acquired through experience, through accessing content knowledge, and through knowing what learners need to know and how to help them acquire it. While experience is crucial in developing pedagogical reasoning skills, working with more experienced teachers through shared planning, team teaching, observation, and other forms of collaboration can also play an important role in helping less experienced teachers understand the thinking processes employed by other more experienced teachers.

References and Further Reading

Read all the posts in this series: