Summary: This entry is directed at those people who wish to demonstrate, even make the most of, their influence on the knowledge-building/knowledge-making of others. My concern will be to construct a mental 'handle' on that influence so that truly effective actions (and people who take those actions ) will be systematically distinguished from those which are not (but which may being practiced because fashionable or required by higher-ups).
The influence can be indirect (funding research, for example,), but in this entry I will focus on those who take more direct action (such as lecturing/explaining/demonstrating/leading). For these direct actors the core question is one that relates to student impact. If we are hoping to help the student build such-and-such knowledge through one or more activities, we have to ask whether the intended knowledge building was the knowledge actually built.
I have codified this notion more systematically and have labelled it: Intentional Teaching. I have done so because, or so it seems to me, one's professional efficacy evolves to the extent that one determines whether intentions followed by a set of intervening actions actually results in the knowledge-making that was intended.[Clearly it doesn't stop with the intention! Evolution would also require a systematic alteration of approach to the student of concern, and repetition of this cycle, until student success replaces failure--but it starts with the intention and appropriate tools to recognize whether the student is mastering the intended learning.]
The formal definition (below) is applied one student and one learning at a time.
Intentional teaching (for a particular student and a selected well specified learning) has occurred when:a) the prospective teacher picks the learning for the student;
b) the prospective teacher picks and uses a strategy which s/he believes will bring about the desired learning in the student [sometimes this criterion is broken into two separate parts {picks, uses};
c) the student masters the learning, and
d) the mastered learning is proven to be (or at least may be strongly argued to be) the source of the target learning."
Thus, one is an intentional teacher to the degree that this definition can to be applied to each and every student and each and every learning objective.
An example: Mr. X's classroom during March:
If we multiply students by assigned objectives (and activities) for March we find that there are 150 objectives "out there". Further, all activities were completed and all learnings were assessed as satisfactorily mastered, or not. Our results show us that 30, 20%, were mastered according to the terms of the definition. We then are in a position to say that , in March, Mr X is 20% the teacher he intended to be.[Go here for a rhetorical application of these criteria to an hypothetical teacher certification hearing]----------
[One day later]
[The following was found during a meta-search for others who might also be interested in intentionality as a starting point for self-directed, rational teacher growth.]
One attribute seems to be a characteristic of all outstanding teachers: intentionality, the ability to do things for a reason, purposefully. Intentional teachers constantly think about the outcomes they want for their students and how each decision they make moves students towards those outcomes. A key new feature of the Sixth Edition of Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, The Intentional Teacher is included to help prospective teachers develop and apply a set of strategies to carry out their intentionality. It will help them internalize a set of questions that can aid them in planning, teaching, and revising their practice in intentional ways. In each chapter of the book, they will consider answers to the following questions from a new vantage point grounded in chapter content. Through the Online Discussion Program they will find examples at all grade levels and in all subject areas to help them apply intentionality. The Intentional Teacher focuses attention on these questions:
1. What am I trying to accomplish? to help keep teaching goals in mind. 2. What are my students' relevant experiences and needs? to help keep students' needs in sight. 3. What approaches and materials are available to me to challenge every student? as a reminder to vary methods and aim to challenge all students. 4. How will I know whether and when to change my strategy or modify my instruction? as a reminder to be flexible in order to reach teaching goals. 5. What information will I accept as evidence that my students and I are experiencing success? to help teachers reflect on their practice. The Intentional Teacher [i.e.,this web site and its services, SPH] helps preservice teachers combine their increasing knowledge of principles of educational psychology, their growing experience with learners, and their creativity to make intentional instructional decisions that will help students become enthusiastic, effective learners. By discussing teaching goals, student needs, techniques, strategy modification, and self-evaluation with experienced teachers and with their peers, preservice teachers will be able to build on their existing understanding of intentional teaching.
Students and/or professors using R. Slavin[base ']s ed psych text[the site is maintained by the publisher] are offered facilitated discussions on the issues listed above.
