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 * Teacher Formation in Higher Education**

This space is for us to develop the conversation started by Peter and Jo at HKIEd on Dec 11 2006.

Over the past few years, Jo and I (Peter Knight) have been doing a series of studies, with other colleagues, of the processes by which teacher formation happens. Succinct summaries of the five studies are at: http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/document.cfm?docid=8976http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/document.cfm?docid=8976.

I suppose two things stand out. First, we are consistently hearing colleagues say that their professional formation has predominantly been non-formal and social. Formal provision, by means of staff development provision, is always reported as having a lesser role, although there is variation in the degree of 'lesser-ness' between the five studies.

Elsewhere (for example, in our report on the [|effects of postgraduate certificates in teaching and learning in higher education]) we remark that researchers are coming to similar conclusions about other professions. Consider this extract from van de Wiel and colleagues (2004: 200):

//The present study showed that in the domain of strategy and organisational consultany professionals do use deliberate activities to improve their work performance. These activities were both performed when working on an assignment and when keeping up-to-date. However, most activities were performed because they were seen as part of the job and necessary to deliver good work to the customer ... talking with colleagues and reflection were most often mentioned as the activities most important for professional development and competence building.//

Or these extracts from the chapter by Simons and Ruijters (2004: 214):

//The study showed that police officers learned many new competences at work, ranging from new social competences to juridicial, athical and self-regulatory competences. Many of these competences were acquired thorugh implicit ways of learning. The policement were not aware of the learning and did not even call it learning. Most of their learning processes were combinations of experiential learning with some kind of support from their colleagues ... self-directed learning and guided forms of learning were almost non-existent.//

Secondly, this poses really big questions about ways in which we might try and steer formation in particular directions: indeed, in what sense might it be steered? This question particularly occupies educational professional development colleagues with whom we have had discussions in the UK and Hong Kong. Some feel very threatened by these findings. Others hear a call to re-think the business and underlying assumptions. A few think there is no alternative to business as usual. Again, van de Wiel and colleagues have some useful points to add, saying:

//... the environment, in line with the theories of deliberate practice, self-regulated learning and reflective learning, is an important contributor to learning by stimulating reflection on and exchange of knowledge and experience ... when organisations value individual and hence organisational competence, they are advised to create a working environment that is also a deliberate learning environment.// (2004:202)

We are hoping to take this further with a symposium at [|EARLI] in August 2007. It is also influencing Peter's wider work in the [|Centre for Practice-based Professional Learning] and Jo's in [|SCEPTrE]. It will be a theme in our presentations in Singapore and Australia in June and July.

Are there resonances with what you are doing?

van de Wiel, M. W. J., Szegedi, K. and Weggeman, M. (2004) Deliberate attempts at developing expertise, in: H. Boshuizen, R. Bromme and H. Gruber (Eds.) //Professional Learning: gaps and transitions on the way from novice to expert//. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 182-206. Simons, R-J and Ruijters, M. (2004) Learning professionals: Towards and integrated model, n: H. Boshuizen, R. Bromme and H. Gruber (Eds.) //Professional Learning: gaps and transitions on the way from novice to expert//. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 207-229.
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