Cochran-Smith & Lytle (1999): Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities

Cochran-Smith, M., Lytle, S.L (1999). Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities. Review of Research in Education, Jan 1999; vol. 24: pp. 249-305. Retrieved from http://rre.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/24/1/249

Three conceptions of teacher knowledge and learning:

knowledge for practice: formal knowledge and theory (including codifications of the so-called wisdom of practice) for teachers to use in order to improve practice

knowledge in practice: Here it is assumed that teachers learn when they have opportunities to probe the knowledge embedded in the work of expert teachers and/or to deepen their own knowledge and expertise as makers of wise judgments and designers of rich learning interactions in the classroom.

knowledge of practice: it is assumed that the knowledge teachers need to teach well is generated when teachers treat their own classrooms and schools as sites for intentional investigation at the same time that they treat the knowledge and theory produced by others as generative material for interrogation and interpretation

FIGURE 1
TEACHER LEARNING: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

KNOWLEDGE-PRACTICE RELATIONSHIP
What is understood or assumed to be the relationship of knowledge and practice? What is assumed about how "knowing more" and "teaching better" are connected?

IMAGES OF KNOWLEDGE
What knowledge are teachers assumed to need in order to "teach better"? What are the domains, sources, or forms of that knowledge? Who generates that knowledge? Who evaluates and interprets that knowledge?

IMAGES OF TEACHERS, TEACHING, AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
What is assumed about the nature of the activity of teaching? What is included in the idea of "practice"? What are assumed to be the primary roles of teachers in and out of classrooms? What is the relationship of teachers' work in and out of classrooms?

IMAGES OF TEACHER LEARNINGA ND TEACHERS' ROLES IN EDUCATIONAL CHANGE
What is assumed about the roles teachers and teacher learning play in educational change? What are assumed to be the intellectual, social, and organizational contexts that support teacher learning? What is the role of communities, collaboratives, and/or other collectives in these?

CURRENT INITIATIVES
What are current initiatives in teacher education, professional development and/ or teacher assessment that are based on these images?