Abstract
A major objective of teacher education is the development of professional knowledge, which may be described as conceptual knowledge stemming from research findings and theories. The integration of professional knowledge and teaching practice is a central component of teacher education. To date, little is known about how preservice teachers may connect professional knowledge with an important aspect of practice: lesson planning. Furthermore, there is limited research on the relationships between lesson planning and another aspect of practice— observation of teaching—specifically with regard to the ability to use professional knowledge in these tasks. The present dissertation aimed to bridge these research gaps by conducting two studies.
The first study investigated how preservice teachers may be supported in connecting professional knowledge with lesson planning. An educational approach to lesson planning was created by drawing on the frameworks of teachers’ professional vision and analysis of teaching. The approach shows what kinds of connections may be developed between professional knowledge and lesson planning decisions. These connections require the ability to reason about possible effects of instruction on student learning, according to principles of teaching and learning. To support this ability, a scaffolded progression was created on the basis of research literature on teacher education. This progression suggests engaging preservice teachers in the gradual application of professional knowledge to iterative cycles of lesson plan analysis and lesson planning. Furthermore, a tool for the implementation of this approach in preparation programs, the Lesson Analysis and Plan template (LAP), was developed through a researchpractice partnership. This collaboration involved designing the LAP on the basis of research literature and implementing this tool in a preparation program. Preservice teachers used the LAP for lesson planning, enactment, and reflection during their initial preparation. The template design was optimized based on field observations and the perceptions of the preservice teachers, faculty, and directors of the preparation program. Recommendations for future implementers of the LAP were provided based on this field experience.
The second study had two goals. The first goal was to determine whether the LAP can detect preservice teachers’ connections between theory and lesson planning. Participants in the study, who were preservice teachers (N = 18) at the end of their first year of preparation, planned a lesson with the LAP. Qualitative and quantitative content analyses of the lesson plans showed that, even though their preparation offered opportunities to connect theory with several aspects of practice, most preservice teachers showed a developing ability to connect professional knowledge with lesson planning. More precisely, the majority were able to predict the effects of their activities on student learning but were unable to justify these predictions with professional knowledge. The findings suggest that the development of this ability requires specific support. Moreover, the LAP can help identify how aspects of professional knowledge are connected with lesson planning so that additional support can be provided when needed. A second goal of the study was to explore the extent to which the ability to connect professional knowledge with lesson planning is similar to the ability to connect such knowledge with observation of teaching. Preservice teachers’ observations were assessed with a professional vision test and compared with their lesson plans. The findings showed that the planning and observation abilities are not identical; most preservice teachers were more successful at observing than at planning. As such, preservice teachers might benefit from applying the theories and concepts they use during observations of teaching to their own lesson plans.
Overall, this dissertation might contribute to developing curricula that support preservice teachers in planning lessons and connecting theory with practice.