TEACHER THINKING

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TEACHING IN MIND
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Contents
Preface
Introduction
Reviews 
About the author

TEACHER THINKING
Beliefs
Metaphors
Values
Meaning

EDUCATION MYTHS
Curriculum 
Knowledge
Teaching
Learning

ARTICLES

WORKSHOPS  

MEDIA 

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Teachers rarely appreciate how influential they are in shaping the lives of their students. A former student says, "Do you remember when you said...? That changed by life." We may not even remember saying whatever it was that touched that student so profoundly. Even throw-away comments by a teacher have the potential to trigger change in students.

Everything a teacher says and does springs from that teacher's inner reality—the worldview, beliefs, values, and other thinking processes that are so familiar they become invisible. These hidden foundations profoundly influence the behavior and perceptions of a person or institution. They enable some actions and inhibit others. 

Because those thinking processes are unique to each individual, teachers have different perceptions of the same situation. Yet educators often begin discussions with the assumption that everyone perceives the situation in the same way. "Solutions" are proposed when, in fact, a problem exists only in the mind of a few. How eager would you be to implement a "solution" to a nonexistent problem?

As daunting as the task seems, teacher thinking must be included in the educational equation if any meaningful change is to occur. While others may infer the thinking that goes into a teacher's behavior, only that teacher can accurately explore the nuances, the beliefs, the interpretations of words, and the perceptions that triggered the behavior. Therefore, the task begins with self-reflection.

The Evidence Is In
How Real Teachers Think
How Teacher Thinking Varies

The Evidence Is In

What would you say if someone made the following suggestion?

From now on, individual teachers will decide the goals and indeed, the very meaning of education.

Each teacher will define the purposes of education as he or she sees fit.

Each teacher will modify the official curriculum according to personal preferences, interests, and teaching strengths and weaknesses.

Each teacher will teach his or her personal beliefs and values.

To a large extent, this is what currently happens in education! Many studies have shown that the individual beliefs and values of teachers play a vital role in shaping the objectives, goals, curriculum, and instructional methods of schools. Those same beliefs and values can spell success or failure for any reform efforts imposed by a school or district. A school may publish its goals, objectives, and standards to represent its intended purposes and subject matter coverage. However, any uniformity outside of those published lists is largely mythical.

How Real Teachers Think

Even when there is surface agreement on what should be done, variations in the way teachers perceive the task create huge differences in execution. Here’s what happened when four teachers tried to collaborate on a unit dealing with the Great Depression.

One teacher wanted students to read The Grapes of Wrath in order to understand the impact of the Depression on people’s lives.

The second teacher contended that material on dust storms and droughts must be included to illustrate the impact on the land.

A third was certain economic and political issues were the most important aspects of the Depression for students to understand.

The fourth insisted the other three had totally missed the point. Students needed to understand how the Great Depression was relevant to them personally—how it affected their lives.

All four teachers had master’s degrees in education and secondary school teaching certificates in social studies. All agreed that the Great Depression should be taught. It was, however, their personal interests and values that determined the content they believed should be included.(1)

There is a comforting myth that the curriculum, as set down neatly in a school’s handbook, defines what is going on in the school. Reform efforts focus on how the curriculum can be modified or improved, how the curriculum can be more effectively transmitted to students, and how acquisition of the curriculum’s content can be assessed.

It is clear that curriculum developers recognize a teacher’s influence on even the most scrupulously designed and detailed curriculum. In the past, they have even attempted to design "teacher proof" curricula to prevent teachers from contaminating the purity of the design! Expecting that teachers will implement a curriculum in the same way that it exists in the mind of the designer springs from the flawed assumption that every teacher holds the same beliefs and values as the designer and defines/understands the designer's terms in the same way. 

Content isn't the only thing that differs from classroom to classroom. Teachers’ beliefs and values shape the atmosphere of the classroom itself. Within that atmosphere, from the interactions among teachers and students, students learn their most pervasive lessons. These are lessons about respect, values, the nature of knowledge, thought processes, self-worth, and expectations. "…Pedagogy, the art and science of teaching, is crucial to what students learn. How we teach becomes what we teach." (2)

Despite the recognition that teachers can and do influence the success or failure of reform efforts, they are largely ignored in designing those efforts. The process of teaching involves two major domains: 1) teachers’ thought processes and 2) teachers’ actions and their observable effects. (3) 

Because teachers’ thought processes occur inside teachers’ heads, they are unobservable. Worse, individuals report their processes differently— subjectively. It’s all so messy—unlike the measurable "objective" data researchers are accustomed to dealing with. For this reason, reformers have generally bypassed teachers’ thought processes in favor of observing and measuring teacher behavior, student behavior, and student achievement scores. But ignoring teacher thinking leaves gaping holes in our understanding of the educational process. What are the implications of teacher variability?

How Teacher Thinking Varies

Thinking about educational issues varies tremendously from one teacher to another. Here are just a few of those differences.

1. Each teacher has a personal "definition" of education that shapes and limits what the teacher chooses to do and to not do. How would the emphasis a teacher places on content or process, student- vs. teacher- centered lessons, discipline, group work, standards, or assessment shift if that teacher believed each of the following definitions?

Education is the accurate and efficient transmission of a body of knowledge that the culture values and that has historically produced progress.

Education is the total development of a child.

Education is the process of providing a rich, complex, and varied environment within which students can, through experience, develop effective thinking processes.

Do you agree or disagree with any of these "definitions"? How do you define education? Simply stated, there is no agreed upon definition of education. Is it any wonder there are so many different approaches to "fixing" the educational system when its primary purpose is still a matter of debate?

2. Each teacher has a set of beliefs about the nature of knowledge and how students acquire it. For example, there are volumes of educational research on individual differences among students. Despite this, there is little evidence American teachers consider those differences during lesson planning or actual instruction. Instead, they focus on what Richard Prawat calls the "Federal Express" approach, emphasizing the efficient packaging and rapid delivery of content. (4) Why? What fundamental beliefs inhibit implementation of this research? 

3. Each teacher has a set of beliefs and assumptions about the nature of learning and about students in general. Jerry frequently disciplines students for making "too much noise." He believes "quiet" is a requirement for learning. In Carol’s classroom, students are enthusiastically arguing about an issue. Does this mean no learning is taking place? If a teacher consistently acts on the belief that silence promotes learning, are there some cases where learning is actually inhibited rather than supported?

4. Each teacher has a personal set of values that determine the priorities operating in the classroom. Which is more important—content or process, discipline or self-esteem, student respect for the teacher or mutual respect? How do you rank the most important factor from moment to moment? For example, if you notice a child sleeping in your class when you’re in the middle of explaining something important, what do you do? Stop what you’re doing and wake the child up so she won’t miss the content, or continue the lecture? Would it matter which child it was? How would the interest level of the rest of the class influence your decision? In other words, what do you value most highly at that moment in time?

Because teachers do influence students through their beliefs, attitudes, and values—their individual mental "maps"—isn’t it time to bring those things into consciousness? How many of your fellow teachers could put their most deeply held beliefs and values about education into words? How many are aware that other teachers, principals, or supervisors may not share those beliefs and values? Just because everyone uses words such as thinking, understanding, learning, or teaching, there is no guarantee those words have the same meaning for each person.

Fortunately, you and your fellow teachers needn’t wait for educational research to accept your importance. It is your own beliefs and values that influence your work, not those of "n" teachers in a research study. Who better to explore the geography of your mental landscape than you?

An individual’s beliefs, values, and metaphors, and the meaning people attach to words and actions generally exist outside of conscious awareness. On a day-to-day basis, these factors drive our behavior automatically, without our attention. That’s not all bad. Imagine what it would be like if you had to stop and consciously go through the decision-making process for every action in your life.

The point is a teacher’s behaviors frequently spring, not from higher-level thinking processes, but from habit. One of the primary purposes of this website, and its companion book Teaching In Mind, is to assist you in identifying the habitual factors that unconsciously influence your behavior and thus, the influence you have on your students.

Begin by reading through the sections on Beliefs, Metaphors, Meanings, and Values. In each section, processes will be suggested to help you identify your own thought processes. For a more complete discussion and an extensive self-inventory, order Teaching In Mind.(5)