Learning to teach secondary English: Using Vygotsky's activity theory to explore the impact of context, prior beliefs and experiences on the growth of first-year teachers (Lev Semenovich Vygotskii).

摘要

Prospective teachers often struggle as they make the transition from constructivist schools of education to the primarily transmission-oriented public schools. Teacher educators also encounter difficulty as they try to meet the needs of these new teachers. The success new teachers experience is a result of many different shaping forces, including the settings or contexts encountered, personal history, beliefs about teaching, prior experience, personality, and relationships formed. Research has demonstrated the impact of these shaping forces separately, yet few studies have investigated the collective impact these forces can have on learning to teach. This study examined the development of teachers through the lens of Vygotsky's activity theory. As each teacher's case evolved, issues of settings, tools and appropriation were investigated.; Three prospective secondary English teachers took part in this study. The participants included one second-career male of European-American and Native American descent, one second-career Caucasian-American female, and one first-career Caucasian-American female. This qualitative study took place in the southeastern United States and used case study methodology (Merriam, 1998). The study began during the participants' final semester in the university's college of education and ended when the participants had completed their first year of teaching. Data collection took place on a biweekly basis and included field notes or videos of lessons, audio taped debriefing sessions, instructional artifacts, and the participants' lesson plans and reflective journals. Data were analyzed for patterns and themes, including those from activity theory's framework. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyze data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Data analysis showed that in each case, the shaping forces combined in very distinct ways to affect the instructional practices used by the new teachers. Some of the themes in the data included resistance, tenacity, collaboration, cooperation and regression. The theme of regression was present in each of the three cases, demonstrating how new teachers who demonstrate a philosophy aligned with constructivism can show signs of reverting to behaviorism due to inexperience, limited instructional strategies, or limited behavior management strategies. These results indicate the importance of providing differentiated support for teachers as they transition from the university to the public school setting.