Empowering Professional Teaching in Engineering. John Heywood

teachers had were, would they be able to maintain discipline? And, would they be able to motivate their pupils? My particular contribution to this course was to introduce them to perception and perceptual learning. I wanted to achieve a number of objectives. Of these the one that is relevant to this text is that students do not always perceive what the teacher is saying as the teacher expects it to be perceived. Hence, the need for questioning and testing at the time to establish what is being learned and how it is understood [5]. The situation is no different in a university class, as Jane Abercrombie showed in studies of architectural and medical students. Her “The Anatomy of Judgement” first published in 1960 [6] must be a classic in the literature of higher education.

2.4 ELLIOT EISNER’S CONCEPT OF EDUCATIONAL CONNOISSEURSHIP

Although, in the 1970’s Elliot Eisner wrote one of the most profound books on the curriculum he is seldom cited in the literature of engineering education. Possibly this was because he was anti-positivist, and was also a considerable critic of the objectives movement [7]. Eisner’s world was that of art and design. From that world came the concept of connoisseurship which he applied to the idea of evaluation. (Many authorities have replaced the term “evaluation” by the term “assessment.” I have retained the term “evaluation” in all my work). It simply means, not with-standing Eisner, a process for determining whether or not we have achieved our objectives. We can’t help wanting to achieve something and in this script that is an objective.

Connoisseurship implies knowledge and skill that has been built up over time. It is an expertise, or as today’s jargon would have it, a “competency.” It is a skill that can be learned, and with beginning teachers it is one way they can begin to acquire the tacit knowledge that is so important in teaching. It is a way of reflecting on and bringing a critical eye to one’s practice, that is, educational criticism. Eisner wrote: “As one learns to look at educational phenomena, as one ceases using stock responses to educational situations and develops habits of perceptual exploration, the ability to experience qualities and their relationships increases. This phenomenon occurs in virtually every arena in which connoisseurship has developed. The orchid grower learns to look at orchids in a way that expands his or her perception of their qualities. The makers of cabinets pay special attention to finish, types of wood and grains, to forms of joining, to the treatment of edges. The football fan learns how to look at plays” (set pieces in soccer), “defense patterns and game strategies. Once one develops a perceptual foothold in an arena of activity—orchid growing, cabinet making, or football watching—the skills used in that arena, one does not need the continual expertise of the critic to negotiate new works, or games or situations. One generalizes the skills developed earlier and expands them through further application” [8].

      To develop this skill of connoisseurship I suggested to my trainee graduate teachers that at the end of the day they should reflect on what had happened in a class, by trying to visualize that class as an impressionist painting. I hoped it would help them understand (perceive) what had happened that was educationally significant. Exhibit 2.1 shows two reports from student teachers on what happened in their classes when their students were taught a problem solving heuristic. It might be argued that teacher (b) shows more insight than teacher (a) but this is not to say, that with further experience teacher (a) would not show an increase in insight, particularly if he/she had had sight of examples considered to have met the criteria.

      The idea is to see the classroom in a different light. The skill of connoisseurship can only be developed with practice and conversation. To further develop the skill I asked my graduate trainees to provide me with an overall evaluation a week or so after the lesson had been conducted, and after they had analysed the results of the test they had designed to evaluate the strategy used. In the cases shown in Exhibit 2.2 they had been asked to evaluate a reported research on the effect of examples on teaching a concept (see Journey 10). To enable them to complete the final evaluation, I had provided them with a chapter from a book by Howard on concept learning in order for them to make a judgement based on theory and the evaluation practice.

      Eisner’s view that skill in educational criticism requires an adequate theoretical base was met by the provision of Howard’s book. Eisner clarifies what he means by this when he relates it to reflective thinking which he regards as the base for curriculum thinking. He calls the reflective moments that a teacher has “preactive teaching,” a term coined by P. W. Jackson. Such moments occur, Eisner writes, “prior to actual teaching; planning at home, reflecting on what has occurred during a particular class session, and discussing in groups ways to organize the program. Theory here sophisticates personal reflection and group deliberation. In so far as a theory suggests consequences flowing from particular circumstances, it enables those who understand the theory to take these circumstances into account when planning.”

      “In all of this, theory is not to be regarded as prescriptive but as suggestive. It is a framework, a tool, a means through which the world can be construed. Any theory is but part of the total picture… In one sense all teachers operate with theory, if we take theory to mean a general set of ideas through which we make sense of the world” [8].

“All teachers whether they are aware of it or not use theories in their work. Tacit beliefs about the nature of human intelligence, about factors that motivate children, and about the conditions that foster learning in classrooms. These ideas not only influence their actions, they also influence what they attend to in the classroom, that is, the concepts that are salient in theories concerning pedagogical matters also tend to guide perception. Thus, theory inevitably operates in the conduct of teaching as it does in other aspects of educational deliberation. The major need is to be able to view situations from the varied perspectives that different theories provide, and thus, to be in a position to avoid the limited vision of a single view” [9].

      a. “As is normal in these research classes students are issued with the relevant handouts, and began beavering away. The first handout issued related to their emotional and motivational states (questionnaire), the second to their decision making models, the third was a repeat of the Payne experiment, while the fourth familiarized them with the daily decisions of science, the fifth tested the application of problem solving skills. The class was divided in half, one group were given the problem solving sheet (questionnaire 4) and were not shown how to subsequently solve the problem. A second group were tested and subsequently shown the correct way of solving the problem, and then both groups were retested. Discounting memorization this should (by comparative analysis of the scores of group A and B) illustrate if problem solving skills can be taught. Distribution of questionnaires takes up a large proportion of the student teacher’s time in such a class and efficient organization is essential. The sequence of using the questionnaires together with a specified place for each completed set must be designated beforehand by the researcher. Sloppy organization makes for a badly run class and much time can be lost as a result. Students enjoyed playing with the information search ‘card’ sheet which was passed around the class and as students completed the questionnaires. The typing of the questionnaire by the school secretary was of immense benefit, as students were not strained into deciphering my handwriting as is usual, in these exercises where there is usually a large volume of hand written material. Students were patient in filling out the forms and in listening to the initial ‘talk’ given about Kolb, the importance of educational research and decision making skills to examination performance. They co-operated but class noise levels were abnormally high. This exercise extended across 4 classes and what has been included here is a general impression of all classes.” (See Journey