Teachers' knowledge of students and classrooms.

Abstract

Current research in expert/novice differences in problem solving suggests the need to investigate the domain specific knowledge of people with experience in problem solving in a particular field against the domain specific knowledge of those with less experience. Furthermore, research in teacher thinking makes important assumptions concerning the knowledge teachers of different experience levels have about students, but lacks complete support for those assumptions. This qualitative study addressed both of these issues. It investigated the differences in the knowledge of students and classrooms of twelve high school science teachers with three different levels of experience. Through analysis of the protocols of interviews with experienced, first year, and student teachers at key times during a semester, this study examined patterns of knowledge acquisition among the three groups. Analyses of the protocols revealed four major findings: Patterns and themes in the development of teachers' knowledge of students and classrooms, the role of observation and work in teachers' understanding of students, the role of teacher comprehension in teachers' knowledge of students and the teacher/student relationship. The discontinuity in development between more and less experienced teachers in this study had important implications for teacher education and research.