On bridging the gap between theory and practice: a conceptual analysis of practice in relation to a teacher professional learning programme at Stellenbosch University

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT : There are extensive efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning of teachers in SouthAfrican schools. The South African government has experienced numerous challenges to addressthe educational neglect of the previous 350 years. Since 1994, there have been curriculum changescoupled with various training initiatives, to enhance the capacity of teachers in South Africa. Thefocus of these training initiatives has been on improving the efficacy of teachers. However, many ofthese training initiatives have been decontextualised and without support to teachers, that is, theseteacher training sessions took place outside of the context within which the teachers practice theirprofession and without the required support to make the paradigm shift from learning as a finiteactivity, to learning as a lifelong activity. It has now become necessary to explore other means ofteacher professional learning to make this paradigm shift.Practice-based professional learning has increasingly been offered as an approach to continuousprofessional learning through which the impediments (overly theory-laden contents, not relevant tothe context within which teacher work, no clear link between theory and practice) of conventionalmostly transmission-mode training could be addressed. After an in-depth survey of the literature aswell as critical reflection on own practice, the intention of this research was to find ways of improvingcontinuous teacher professional learning initiatives by utilising a practice-based approach to teacherprofessional learning, using practice theory as a theoretical and conceptual framework.Using conceptual analysis and phenomenology as research paradigms, this study explored thecurrent research on practice theory and offers suggestions on how to improve the efficacy of teacherprofessional learning programmes within the South African context. The study examined theeffectiveness of the current abstract, theory-laden modes of teacher professional developmentinitiatives in South Africa, and suggests alternative ways of effective professional learning that hasbeen proved to elicit changes in teachers' practices, taking into account the contexts within whichteachers learn while they interact with others on practice-based issues. This study thereforerecommends a practice-based professional learning approach where teachers could learn in andfrom practice rather than in preparing to practice.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University