15
Lynch , Smith , Howarth
Taking a different pathway , we suggest that if the business of schooling at the P-6 level is the development of literacy and numeracy in students ( with more bits and pieces of the National Curriculum ), then the core issue is ' how '. This is also a vexed issue in the Education field but not restricted to it . Some would argue that teachers ought to have a good grasp on ‘ why ’ they teach generally and in respect to curriculum content . Others recognise the importance of ‘ what ’ is taught . For some educators , the ‘ why ’ and ‘ what ’ questions transcend mere ( sic !) ‘ how ’ questions . These are pejoratively referred to as an ‘ instrumentalist ’ approach to Education ( Lubienski , 2003 ).
We already know , with some certainty in the modern era ( Hattie 2009 and Marzano 2004 , 1998 ) that :
( a ) We are wise to use explicit instruction strategies ( Hattie , 2009 , pp . 25 , 26 , 206 ) because these strategies are concerned with long-term memory . The instructional consequences of long-term memory are that the aim of all instruction is to alter long-term memory . If nothing has changed in long-term memory , nothing has been learned .
( b ) School governance and leadership should enforce a ' language of instruction ' that puts boundaries around the range of pedagogical practices in use in a given school or classroom .
( c ) School ( and Professional ) culture should propagate , sustain and develop the skills and knowledge for good teaching including the expectation that such teaching practice is the prime professional responsibility of teachers .
( d ) The professional expectation that good teaching and good student outcomes go hand in hand , reinforcing the need in each school and in the profession generally , that teachers should be aligned and engaged with , and have the capabilities for , effective teaching .
( e ) The ideas of explicit instruction , pedagogical leadership , school governance that supports a language of instruction , and the professional expectation of commitment to improved student learning outcomes should be teacher culture ‘ memes ’. By this I mean that these ideas , and beliefs and distinct patterns of behaviour should be the professional inheritance of teachers and form the core of the cultural acquisition by teachers in professional in-service and development with peers , institutions , employers and professional associations .
Notice that the proposition here is that knowing the minutiae of how IT , or brains , or child development etc . work is not core professional knowledge for schoolteachers who are primarily concerned with enhancing student-learning outcomes . Those theoretical and technical mechanisms can be looked after by the investigations and interests of specialists in those fields . Teachers are not normally specialists in any of these fields and using them in a technical sense is not just a risk , but a diversion from the main game of teaching .
Rather than taking a negative view of the last sentence , consider the achievable aim that teaching personnel are specialists in ‘ teaching ’ who can design teaching sequences that are shown to enhance student learning outcomes at any level in the P-12 , Post school / Vocational Education , University of the 3 rd Age span . Such pedagogical specialists should have a bright future in a global market and culture in which ‘ knowledge ’ is a high stakes ‘ must-have ’.
It is important to point out that the claim does not mean that teachers ought not to be interested in theoretical research and its spin-offs . On the contrary , professional practice in any field implies that its practitioners will be well informed and will keep up to date with a variety of developments that do or might