Beginning teachers’ developing clinical judgement: knowledge, skills and attributes for clinical teaching

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a case study that tracked a group of beginning teachers who were undertaking an employment-based model of Initial Teacher Education (ITE). This ITE program combined academic study for a Masters-level degree with part-time employment in secondary schools. The beginning teachers were concurrently engaged in face-to-face and blended learning, with substantial professional in-school experience (0.8). The focus of the study was an investigation of the development of clinical judgement and how these beginning teachers articulate the knowledge, skills and attributes required for their professional decision-making with a model of clinical teaching. Drawing on data collected using open-text questionnaires at two-time points, findings of the study indicate a strong acknowledgement of the centrality of a student centred focus by the beginning teachers. Participants’ responses indicated awareness of the importance of using data to identify learning need/s and for planning pedagogic interventions. However, there was comparatively limited evidence of beginning teachers generating data on or reflecting on the implications of their pedagogical choices to inform adjustments for future interventions. This highlights the importance of providing beginning teachers with ongoing support to build their clinical judgement and refine its application in clinical teaching.

KEYWORDS:

• Initial teacher education
• clinical teaching
• reasoning
• clinical judgement
• professional judgement
• critical thinking
• professional learning and development

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Melbourne Education Research Institute seed-funding grant 2014-2016. We thank David Camilleri for assistance with the initial analysis of survey data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kira Clarke

Kira Clarke is a Lecturer in Education Policy in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Her areas of expertise are youth transitions, vocational education and training, and social contexts for initial teacher education..

Andrea Truckenbrodt

Andrea Truckenbrodt is a Honorary Lecturer in Language and Literacy in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

Jeana Kriewaldt

Jeana Kriewaldt is a Senior Lecturer in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. She is the coordinator of Master of Education in Evidence-Based Teaching. Her areas of expertise include education for sustainability, teacher education and geography education.

Teresa Angelico

Teresa Angelico is a Senior Lecturer in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

Sally Windsor

Sally Windsor is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies at the University of Gothenburg. Her areas of expertise include educational inequality, international teacher workforce development and implications of globalisation for education.