Innovations in Teacher Education: A Social Constructivist Approach

CHAPTER 4. Building Community in the Program

Obviously we talk about it all the time, how great the social events are, and how everyone gets on. But moving that into teaching, that sets the foundation that this is a social profession. You’re not teaching by yourself to some kids in isolation, you are there with all these other people. . . . [And in the practicum] you are working with the other student teachers going through the same experiences, and sharing things with them, learning from them, getting different perspectives on things, getting different ideas. —Paul, OISE/UT Mid-Town preservice student Constructivism today has a strong sociocultural emphasis. As discussed in chapter 1, constructivist educators are now more aware of how learning is influenced by the larger society in which we live and by our teachers and peers. The influence occurs both through unconscious absorption of ideas and practices from those around us and consciously as we dialogue with others. Communal learning is often positive because of the insights we gain from others, but it can be negative as we are indoctrinated into problematic outlooks. Student teachers are no exception to this phenomenon. Accordingly, it is important to ensure as far as possible that the community experience of a preservice program is strong and has a positive impact. A supportive community can provide a context for critiquing societal practices and negotiating ideas about teaching and learning. As Linda Kroll at Mills College said in her interview: If you’re going to talk about issues of social justice, equity, and excellence and have hard conversations about things like race and discrimination and how you feel about those things, then you have to have a safe place to talk about it. And if you are going to take risks, showing that you don’t know something , there has to be a safe place. So . . . the first thing you have to do is establish a community in your classroom where people feel free to say what they think and where it’s okay to make mistakes. Such a setting also serves as a model of community-based education, allowing students to see firsthand how valuable this approach can be and how to establish it in their own classrooms. Further, when the community extends into the practicum, it gives student teachers the support they need to develop constructivist pedagogy in a school climate that often discourages such an approach. 73 CHAPTER 4 Building Community in the Program Is it appropriate from a constructivist point of view to impose a certain type of program on preservice students, namely, a community-oriented one? Is this not itself indoctrinative? Given student teachers’ extensive past experience of individualistic, cognitively oriented education (Lortie, 1975), we believe it is legitimate to expose them systematically to a more communal approach. However, it is essential that they have constant opportunities to disagree and propose alternatives. The particular kind of classroom community we have in mind may not be feasible, or it may not suit everyone. Constructivism requires that we work with student teachers in exploring the type of community they need in both preservice and school contexts. COMMUNITY AND LEARNING We wish to stress at the outset that, on a social constructivist view, community is not just a frill: it is fundamental to effective learning. As Dewey said: “We never educate directly, but indirectly by means of the environment” (Dewey, 1916, p. 32); and “education is essentially a social process. This quality is realized in the degree in which individuals form a community group” (Dewey, 1938, p. 58). Even if students wished to, they could not live in their own bubble while in the classroom. The class milieu continually impinges on their thoughts, emotions, and relationships; it interprets the messages they receive from the teacher and other sources. It also provides them with constant sociocultural experiences. Especially important for knowledge construction are the ideas students receive from their peers. Unfortunately, student teachers often see community merely in affective terms, as an enjoyable concomitant to their learning. They look to experts, not each other, for answers to their pedagogical questions: cover the material quickly and let us go early, they sometimes say. They do not realize that the “expert” ideas in books and journal articles are quite abstract as they stand, and so have little practical value. Only as the ideas are interpreted and given concrete form do they become useful; and in this process, the countless qualifications, suggestions, and stories offered by peers are invaluable, arising as they do from...