Knowledge Transmitter, Social Scientist or Reflective Thinker: Three Images of the Practitioner in Western Australian High Schools

Abstract

A psychometrically derived typology of teaching styles or preferred approaches to teaching social studies was presented.

Separate case studies of teachers, each of whom represented a type were reported. The purpose of this was to flesh out and ascribe meaning to the psychometric data previously collected by schedule-based systematic observation. The latter is necessarily restricted to behavioral observation and description.

Qualitative data collection and analysis methods together with rating scales were employed, within a symbolic-interactionist framework, to capture the intent and meaning behind the cognitive interactions observed and of the temporal and contextual conditions under which they occurred.

It was found that the teachers were conscious of their preferred approach to teaching social studies, and could account for their style in terms of the construction of social studies knowledge and aspirations they held for their students.