See teacher draw: exploring preservice teachers' perceptions of teaching. (On-going Topics).

Abstract

This study asked preservice teachers to draw "a teacher at work" before and after their initial field experience. These drawings provide rich data about the evolving images that preservice teachers use to make meaning of complex classroom cultures and their perceptions of the teacher within these settings. These drawings also provide interpretive access to the changing attitudes and beliefs of preservice teachers about the nature of teaching and learning during their initial socialization into the profession. We suggest that drawings be more widely used by teacher educators, school-based mentors, university-based supervisors, and placement coordinators to understand the evolution of preservice teachers' thinking and to foster reflection and inquiry.

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Recent research on preservice teacher education has emphasized the importance of reflection in the development of new teachers (Ducharme & Ducharme, 1996). At the same time calls have been made for further qualitative and interpretive research into the developmental processes of becoming a teacher (Britzman, 1991; Ducharme & Agne, 1982). Toward these ends, this study used drawings and the written descriptions that accompanied them to gain insight into how prospective educators understand and depict teaching. Drawings provide a simple but evocative technique to literally see the images that may guide preservice teachers' interpretations and expectations of classroom teaching. Drawings also provide a vehicle for reflection on the ways in which prior educational experiences and current field placements influence the thinking of preservice teachers about the nature of teaching.

We build on the work of Weber & Mitchell (1995) and others by using preservice teachers' drawings of themselves in relation to their teaching practice to better understand how they perceive the role of teacher. For this study we asked preservice teachers to draw "a teacher at work" before and after their initial field experience. These drawings provide rich data about the evolving images that preservice teachers use to make meaning of complex classroom cultures and their perceptions of the teacher within these settings. Drawings also provide interpretive access to the changing attitudes and beliefs of preservice teachers about the nature of teaching and learning during their initial socialization into the profession.

This study addressed the following questions: How do preservice teachers perceive the role of teacher prior to their initial field placement? In what ways does participating in classroom settings as preservice teachers alter their notions of the role of a teacher? What is the usefulness of drawings as a method of eliciting and documenting changing perceptions of preservice teachers before and after their initial field placement experience?

Theoretical Background

For over one hundred years, children's drawings have engaged a diverse audience of psychologists (Arnheim, 1969; Goodenough, 1926; Piaget & Inhelder, 1969), educators (Britt, 1974; Thompson, 1994), and art historians (Perez, 1993). Children's drawings have been used predominantly in the field of psychology -- namely studying children's intelligence and emotional and cognitive development (Golomb, 1992). Recent studies have used children's drawings to illuminate classroom ecology and to prompt teacher reflection on classroom practices (Haney, Russell, Gulek, &Goldberg, 1995). Additional studies using students' drawings are Black (1991), who investigated college student's writing, and Weber and Mitchell (1995), who studied images of teachers. Drawings made by preservice teachers have also been used as a tool to represent classroom cultures and practices (Fischman & Pruyn, 1999; Jorg, Swennen, & Korthagen, 1999; Sack, 1997).

In the literature on preservice teacher development, many researchers agree that students entering a preservice education program are not blank slates (Jorg, Swennen, & Korthagen, 1999). Rather, preservice teachers have had many years of experience in educational institutions (Cole & Knowels, 1993; Raymond, D. & Butt, R. & Townsend, D. 1992). Preservice teachers are new to classroom as teachers but are veterans in that setting as students. They have been exposed to classrooms, teachers, and stories about teachers, stereotypical images of teaching in films and books (Weber & Mitchell, 1995).

In short, preservice teachers arrive with preconceptions about teaching that reflect cognitive and affective responses to their own school experiences as well as cultural representations of teachers (Wubbles, 1992). Elbaz, (1983) and Clandinin (1985) are among many researchers who agree that internalized images based on experiences as a student play an important role in shaping the behavior of preservice teachers (Calderhead, 1989; Denis, 1991; Connelly & Clandinin, 1984).

Mode of Inquiry

This interpretive study used both drawings and written explanations to access preservice teachers' perceptions, images, and beliefs about teaching and learning. Holistic coding (Haney, Russell, Jackson, Gulek, & Fierros, 1996) was used to identify patterns in the drawings and corresponding written descriptions.

We conducted this study with 40 preservice teachers in an accredited teacher education program at a private university in the Northeast during their first semester of field placement. The participant group of 38 females and 2 males included 21 graduate students and 19 undergraduate students. Of these students, 35 were placed in elementary classrooms and 5 were placed in secondary classrooms.

The first drawing sample was collected as part of small group discussions that took place prior to the preservice classroom placement in the fall semester. The second drawing was completed independently as part of an end of the semester self-evaluation/reflection. The drawing prompt for both drawings was "Draw a picture of a teacher at work" followed by the writing prompt "Describe the job of a teacher as you have represented it in your drawing." In the first drawing an additional writing prompt was "What factors influence your perception of the work of a teacher?" The second drawing had two additional prompts: "In what ways has your field placement influenced your perception of the work of a teacher?" and "Look at the drawing and description that you did at the beginning of the semester. Describe how your image of teaching has changed since then." The drawings and the written comments were interpreted using an emerging coding scheme based in grounded theory.

Findings and Discussion

The first set of drawings typically depicted a teacher standing at a black board delivering a lesson to students seated in rows. These drawings also frequently included such stereotypical "teacher props" as an apple, the alphabet, 1+1=2, and other symbolic means of conveying "teacherness". The corresponding written descriptions of these drawings indicate that preservice teachers relied heavily on their own experiences as K-12 students in producing these images. These first drawings reflect traditional, authoritarian, and stereotypical notions of teachers as maintainers of order and dispensers of knowledge.

The drawings produced after the initial field placement were dramatically different. Typically they depict a teacher moving between groups of students in clustered seating arrangements. Fewer blackboard and teacher props are depicted, and more students are shown. The compositions are more complex and a variety of classroom activities are represented. The teacher is generally not the focal point as was often the case in the first set of drawings. The written descriptions of these drawings describe the teacher as facilitator, and they make reference to ways in which students create knowledge. Unlike the first drawings, the second drawings are based on recent experiences in K-12 classrooms. The influences of concurrent course work in educational theory and practice also appears evident. In representing teaching differently it can be inferred that preservice teachers see teaching differently by the end of their first semester of field placement.

Implications

An important objective for field placement supervisors and teacher educators is to help preservice teachers investigate new images of teaching and learning that they encounter in their initial field placements. This new data must be incorporated into their existing schemas of educational practices. The traditional imagery of teaching and learning represented in the first set of drawings and written commentaries and its corresponding absence in the second set of data is striking. There is a marked difference in the drawings before and after field placement. Supervisors and teacher educators can use drawings to explore this dramatic shift with preservice teachers. Preservice teachers may benefit from formalized opportunities to consider the prior experiences and assumptions that they bring to teaching. The process of moving from student to teacher seems ripe for reflection on changing perspectives.

The written comments and drawings also provide evidence for the powerful influence of the cooperating teachers with whom the students are matched and the conditions in the classrooms in which they have been placed. Personal experiences both past and present appear to be the foundation of preservice teachers' notions about the role of the teacher. Course work that provides opportunities for preservice teachers to critically question their own beliefs and attitudes about teaching and the factors that shape these guiding notions may be useful to preservice teachers and teacher educators. Eliciting drawings from preservice teachers before and after their initial field placement experience provides a simple and engaging tool to access and document the development of the role of professional to prospective teachers. We suggest that drawings are an interesting and simple way to better understand the evolution of preservice teacher thinking and could be used by teacher educators, school-based mentors, university-based supervisors and placement coordinators to foster reflection on the journey toward becoming a teacher.

References

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Mimi Coughlin, Boson College, MA Amy Seldin, Boston College, MA

Both authors are doctoral candidates in Curriculum and Instruction at the Lynch Graduate School of Education. The research for this article was conducted as part of a larger drawing initiative at Boston College supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation. We would like to thank Lillie Albert, Walt Haney, and Fran Loftus for their guidance and encouragement with this project.