title: Teacher thinking and teacher actions: a study of six teachers

authors: Haigh, Neil John

abstract: This study is predicated on the assumption that teaching is an intentional behaviour and that a study of teaching therefore requires attention to teachers’ thoughts as well as their observable actions. It is an attempt to describe and account for: (a) the cognitive activities involved in teacher planning; (b) the contrastive features of teachers’ attention to and thoughts about elements of lessons; and (c) the relationship between planned and actual lessons. Data concerning these aspects of teaching were gathered from three experienced classroom teachers and three student teachers who were each asked to teach three small-group discussion lessons. 

Several data collection and analysis procedures were developed to help the teachers report fully on the focus of their thoughts prior to and in the course of their lessons, and to allow the researcher to categorise accurately the content of their self-reports. Pre-lesson planning thoughts were captured by having teachers make a written ‘stream of consciousness’ record of emerging thoughts, and a ‘stimulated-recall’ procedure was used to help them identify incidents in the course of lessons during which their attention and thoughts had been consciously registered. Additional data about the planning undertaken for specific lessons were obtained from questionnaire responses, while a structured interview technique was used to identify teachers’ perceptions of ‘typical’ features of their conscious experience of teaching. 

A comprehensive system for categorizing these data was developed and, as a means of ensuring that teacher self-reports were accurately categorized, the researcher systematically discussed their meaning with the teachers who were asked to confirm, disconfirm and where necessary correct the researcher’s interpretations.

The analysis of the data obtained revealed a number of significant similarities, differences, consistencies and inconsistencies in features of the teachers’ pre-lesson planning, their within-lesson attention and thoughts and plan-reality relationships. In accounting for these contrastive features, a number of explanatory propositions were formulated. These highlighted: (a) reasons why planning is likely to be undertaken before lessons; (b) the problem-solving nature of the planning process; (c) the contribution that factors internal and external to teachers may make to the nature of the planning process and the content of their plans (e.g. tolerance for uncertainty, teaching theories, information processing capabilities, availability of time and material resources); (d) factors that influence the focus of teachers’ within-lesson thoughts (e.g. the directive influence of plans, the ‘press’ of immediate events, significance and meaning attached to learner behaviours); and (e) the variables that influence teachers’ efforts to monitor learner behaviour (e.g. the availability, ambiguity and objectivity of behavioural cues). 

Educational implications that follow from these propositions centre on two recommendations. Firstly, those who wish to influence the actions of classroom teachers need to be aware of the manner in which the thoughts of teachers shape their overt behaviours, and to take account of factors that impose constraints on the capacity of teachers to attend to teaching situations in particular ways. Secondly, it is suggested that teachers will benefit from having opportunities to analyze, evaluate and experiment with a variety of ways of thinking about teaching situations.

text: Teacher thinking and teacher actions: a study of six teachers This study is predicated on the assumption that teaching is an intentional behaviour and that a study of teaching therefore requires attention to teachers’ thoughts as well as their observable actions. It is an attempt to describe and account for: (a) the cognitive activities involved in teacher planning; (b) the contrastive features of teachers’ attention to and thoughts about elements of lessons; and (c) the relationship between planned and actual lessons. Data concerning these aspects of teaching were gathered from three experienced classroom teachers and three student teachers who were each asked to teach three small-group discussion lessons. 

Several data collection and analysis procedures were developed to help the teachers report fully on the focus of their thoughts prior to and in the course of their lessons, and to allow the researcher to categorise accurately the content of their self-reports. Pre-lesson planning thoughts were captured by having teachers make a written ‘stream of consciousness’ record of emerging thoughts, and a ‘stimulated-recall’ procedure was used to help them identify incidents in the course of lessons during which their attention and thoughts had been consciously registered. Additional data about the planning undertaken for specific lessons were obtained from questionnaire responses, while a structured interview technique was used to identify teachers’ perceptions of ‘typical’ features of their conscious experience of teaching. 

A comprehensive system for categorizing these data was developed and, as a means of ensuring that teacher self-reports were accurately categorized, the researcher systematically discussed their meaning with the teachers who were asked to confirm, disconfirm and where necessary correct the researcher’s interpretations.

The analysis of the data obtained revealed a number of significant similarities, differences, consistencies and inconsistencies in features of the teachers’ pre-lesson planning, their within-lesson attention and thoughts and plan-reality relationships. In accounting for these contrastive features, a number of explanatory propositions were formulated. These highlighted: (a) reasons why planning is likely to be undertaken before lessons; (b) the problem-solving nature of the planning process; (c) the contribution that factors internal and external to teachers may make to the nature of the planning process and the content of their plans (e.g. tolerance for uncertainty, teaching theories, information processing capabilities, availability of time and material resources); (d) factors that influence the focus of teachers’ within-lesson thoughts (e.g. the directive influence of plans, the ‘press’ of immediate events, significance and meaning attached to learner behaviours); and (e) the variables that influence teachers’ efforts to monitor learner behaviour (e.g. the availability, ambiguity and objectivity of behavioural cues). 

Educational implications that follow from these propositions centre on two recommendations. Firstly, those who wish to influence the actions of classroom teachers need to be aware of the manner in which the thoughts of teachers shape their overt behaviours, and to take account of factors that impose constraints on the capacity of teachers to attend to teaching situations in particular ways. Secondly, it is suggested that teachers will benefit from having opportunities to analyze, evaluate and experiment with a variety of ways of thinking about teaching situations.

year: 1981

title: The marketing future beyond the limits of growth

authors: Varey, Richard J.

subjects: macromarketing

abstract: This review constructs a broad and deep appreciation of what marketing scholars need to understand about economic growth, consumption, and quality of life, not as a problem of how to enhance marketing effectiveness and extend its reach, but rather one of how to focus (or limit) within the specific context of a better-not-more life goal and finite resource budget. The essay synthesizes concise reviews of recent books and finds implications for revisions to marketing and macromarketing principles and practices.

text: The marketing future beyond the limits of growth This review constructs a broad and deep appreciation of what marketing scholars need to understand about economic growth, consumption, and quality of life, not as a problem of how to enhance marketing effectiveness and extend its reach, but rather one of how to focus (or limit) within the specific context of a better-not-more life goal and finite resource budget. The essay synthesizes concise reviews of recent books and finds implications for revisions to marketing and macromarketing principles and practices.

year: 2012

title: Kia matatau ki te reo: Factors influencing the development of proficiency in te reo Māori with adult learners

authors: Rātima, Matiu Tai

subjects: te reo Māori

abstract: This thesis sought to answer the question: what factors help or hinder adult Māori second language learners to become proficient speakers of te reo Māori? I ask this question at a moment in history when te reo, like other indigenous languages, sits on the edge of a precipice in terms of its survival as a living language. Ambivalence and inaction will almost certainly constitute a push towards oblivion. Nothing less than concerted effort can pull te reo back from the brink. But what kind of concerted effort is needed and how can individual learners optimise their efforts to learn te reo?
Te reo must survive because, as Sir James Henare put it, ‘ko te reo te hā o te Māoritanga’, meaning ‘the language is the essence of Māori culture.’ Without te reo the very survival of Māori people as Māori is in doubt. My questions and the thesis occupy a multidisciplinary space, drawing on research from adult second language acquisition, teaching pedagogy and language revitalisation. The thesis makes an original contribution to all three bodies of literature by examining data from a previously untapped source; successful adult Māori language learners. 
I interviewed 17 participants. All highly proficient second language speakers of te reo. All learned te reo as adults.  Adult second language learning of endangered languages is broadly acknowledged in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as essential to re-establishing Intergenerational Transmission of Language (ITL) in the home to ensure an endangered language is passed on to future generations.
The interview questionnaire was based loosely on 10 help/hinder factors I identified through a review of the literature from the three research fields (adult second language acquisition, teaching pedagogy and language revitalisation). The ten factors identified in the review were; language aptitude, age, learner attitudes and motivation, learning strategies, instruction, agency and anxiety, wairua (the spiritual dimension), demography, language status, and language planning.

text: Kia matatau ki te reo: Factors influencing the development of proficiency in te reo Māori with adult learners This thesis sought to answer the question: what factors help or hinder adult Māori second language learners to become proficient speakers of te reo Māori? I ask this question at a moment in history when te reo, like other indigenous languages, sits on the edge of a precipice in terms of its survival as a living language. Ambivalence and inaction will almost certainly constitute a push towards oblivion. Nothing less than concerted effort can pull te reo back from the brink. But what kind of concerted effort is needed and how can individual learners optimise their efforts to learn te reo?
Te reo must survive because, as Sir James Henare put it, ‘ko te reo te hā o te Māoritanga’, meaning ‘the language is the essence of Māori culture.’ Without te reo the very survival of Māori people as Māori is in doubt. My questions and the thesis occupy a multidisciplinary space, drawing on research from adult second language acquisition, teaching pedagogy and language revitalisation. The thesis makes an original contribution to all three bodies of literature by examining data from a previously untapped source; successful adult Māori language learners. 
I interviewed 17 participants. All highly proficient second language speakers of te reo. All learned te reo as adults.  Adult second language learning of endangered languages is broadly acknowledged in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as essential to re-establishing Intergenerational Transmission of Language (ITL) in the home to ensure an endangered language is passed on to future generations.
The interview questionnaire was based loosely on 10 help/hinder factors I identified through a review of the literature from the three research fields (adult second language acquisition, teaching pedagogy and language revitalisation). The ten factors identified in the review were; language aptitude, age, learner attitudes and motivation, learning strategies, instruction, agency and anxiety, wairua (the spiritual dimension), demography, language status, and language planning.

year: 2013