Paper, IAMTE Paris, June 2013
Situation based teaching and literacy events
SimonSkovFougt, PhDFellow, Instituteof Education, University of AarhusDepartment ofEducationandLearning, Metropolitan University College.
This paper presents "Situation based teaching" (SBT) (Fougt in press) as a way to recontextualize(Bernstein 1996) literacy events(Barton and Hamilton 2000)in classrooms. SBT refers to the planning, completion and evaluation of courses, where subject matters are contextualized in socially meaningful situations(Fougt in press). SBT isbased on the assumption that the best way to learn something new is by dealing with a meaningful problem in a social,so-called authentic situation(Bundsgaard, Misfeldt og Hetmar 2011).
A pilot project showed that most participatingteachers in their planning and practice tend to focus on activities, on isolated parts of the subject, and with an IRE-dominated communication structure: the teacher initiates a question, a student responds, and the teacher evaluates (Sinclair and Coulthard 1975).
My main interest is how teachers implement complex teaching theories into their classroom practices, and the main research question is: What happens to the ways in which teachers think and act when introduced to SBT and the principles of situated learning practices (Lave & Wenger 1991)?
My presentation includes threecase studies with teachers and their classes. Based on my introduction to SBT and in cooperation with me, the teachers plannedtheir lessons, which I observed, and with an ongoing adjustment of future courses.
Primarily findings suggest that the SBT reduces the IRE-dominated structure and increases the quality of subject related discussions. SBT also supports literacy events as a natural content of the classroom communications, butprimarily findings also stress the need for the teacher to organize well-structured lessons in order to obtain student autonomy.
Still, it is not yet possible to draw final conclusions, but I would like to present and discuss selected observations of literacy events from the classroom.
References
Barton, D., & Hamilton, M. (2000). Literacy practices. In D. Barton, M. Hamilton, & R. Ivanic (Eds.), Situated literacies: Reading and writing in context (pp. 7-15). New York: Routledge.
Berstein, B. (1996): Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. Theory, Research, Critique.New York & Oxford: Roman & Littlefield Publishers
Bundsgaard, J., Misfeldt, M. og Hetmar, V. (2011): ”Hvad skal der ske i skolen? Et bud på en prototypisk situationsorienteret curriculumlogik”. I: It-didaktisk design.Cursiv nr. 8, 2011: København: Institut for Uddannelse og Pædagogik, Aarhus Universitet
Fougt, S.S: (in press): “Skrivning, situationsdidaktik og storyline”. In Friss, K. & Madsbjerg S (red.) Skrivelyst i fagene. Købehavn: Dansk Psykologisk Forlag
Gee, J.P. (2000). The new literacy Studies: From ‘socially situated’ to the work of the social. In D. Barton, M. Hamilton, & R. Ivanic (Eds.), Situated literacies: Reading and writing in context (pp. 180-196). New York: Routledge.
Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991): Situated Learning. Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Sinclair, J. & Coulthard, M. (1975): Towards an analysis of discourse: The English used by teachers
and pupils. London: Oxford University Press.
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