Learning the curriculum as a classroom event.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the evolving event-structured knowledge of one student teacher in a second grade classroom containing a diverse population of students. His understandings, interpretations, and reflections were documented before, during, and after enactment of units of content in the classroom. Weekly interviews designed to elicit the student teacher's "well-remembered events" provided the primary data for the study. In addition, daily observations by the researcher supplemented analysis of the student teacher's interpretations. Interviews with the cooperating teacher to establish an understanding of the context in which the student teacher was learning to teach completed data collection. Findings indicated that the student teacher faced major difficulties in the areas of instructional time and unit context. Based on the demands of the curriculum, students, and cooperating teacher and his interpretations of difficulties encountered, the student teacher concluded that the second grade curriculum was above grade level, that it was constraining on planning and teaching, and that it contained discrepancies. The student teacher resolved these difficulties by moving students back in the curriculum or by condensing or eliminating portions of the curriculum before and during the enactment of content. Analysis of the data suggests that other factors may have contributed to the problems faced by the student teacher in learning to teach. For example, he reported having limited knowledge of the curriculum as well as teaching methods. These limitations may have affected the struggles he experienced as he learned, represented, and enacted the curriculum with a group of students in a complex environment.