Constructivist practice, pre-service teacher education and change: the limitations of appealing to hearts and minds

Klein, Mary (2001) Constructivist practice, pre-service teacher education and change: the limitations of appealing to hearts and minds. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 7 (3). pp. 257-269.

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Abstract

In this paper, I examine why constructivist practice in mathematics education, while appealing to pre-service teachers' hearts and minds, does not necessarily deliver the empowered and liberated students that many educators and policy developers seem to take for granted. I argue that this may be so because constructivist practice, although it fosters the construction of important and necessary intellectual knowledges, reinforces power/ knowledge relationships of teacher authority that these students experienced at school. I draw on a post-structuralist analysis of my own constructivist practice in teacher education to show how investments of power/knowledge and subjectivity were played out to effectively maintain the status quo , severely limiting the students' experiences and appreciation of problem-solving or investigative ways-of-being in mathematics (education). In the conclusion, I suggest steps that might be taken in teacher education to help students recognise the powerful constitutive effects of discourses and to think about the kinds of classroom relationships that might be most engaging and enabling for learners.

Item ID: 13412
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1354-0602
Keywords: mathematics education; teacher education
Date Deposited: 21 Dec 2012 02:38
FoR Codes: 13 EDUCATION > 1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy > 130208 Mathematics and Numeracy Curriculum and Pedagogy @ 100%
SEO Codes: 93 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 9399 Other Education and Training > 939999 Education and Training not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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