REFLECTION A TALE OF TWO HAMLETS – GROSSMAN, P. (1990)

REFLECTION

A TALE OF TWO HAMLETS – GROSSMAN, P. (1990)

Darvesh Karim

Assistant Instructor

Professional Development Center, North

University Road, Konodass, Gilgit.

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While going through the first chapter of ‘The making of a teacher: Teacher knowledge and teacher education – A Tale of two Hamlets’ (Grossman, 1990), I went back to my initial days of teaching - almost 10 years back. It was an English class of grade 8^th which was assigned to me. I didn’t had any professional degree or never been formally/informally introduced to teaching techniques, but just had completed my masters and had joined the school as a teacher. While teaching English to this class I was only trying to replicate exactly the same way as my English teachers had taught me in my school years. A very traditional way of teaching, very well known as ‘Talk, Chalk and Walk’. I was completely un-aware of new teaching methodologies; ultimately I was quite happy with my teaching practices assuming that I am doing well. During those days, I happened to attend only a week’s English workshop organized by HERP[1], where new techniques of teaching and learning and specifically involving students in the process, were in introduced. Then, I realized that how much traditional I was in terms of my teaching. Right after this workshop I tried to change and mould myself to practically implement some of the modern teaching strategies, like group work, role playing and using flashcards. A drastic change was visible, as students were now getting much closer to me than earlier. They were taking much interest and actively participate in teaching and learning process as I have now created a two way interaction. I felt students’ learning and understanding level was now increased as to finish a chapter; I was having much less time comfortably with a clear understanding than before.

My belief was changed and now I was eager to have some more professional knowledge as I had identified that I have the content knowledge but the pedagogical or context pedagogical knowledge was still missing which was much necessary for an effective teaching learning process. Fully agreeing with Grossman (1990) who has identified four major areas of knowledge to become effective teacher;

1.      General pedagogical knowledge – (knowledge and skills related to classroom management, purpose of education and beliefs).

2.      Subject matter knowledge – (Elements of subject matter knowledge)

3.      Pedagogical content knowledge – (Discussed below)

4.      Knowledge of context – (Understanding of the particular contexts, like school settings, school culture, knowledge about students, communities, strengths and weaknesses etc.)

The training of teachers has increasingly been the focus of critical inquiry in the field of education. The writer examines the issue with a comparison of the classroom approaches and effectiveness of two English teachers. So, among all above major areas of knowledge, during teacher professional trainings the focus should be on enhancement of ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ which exactly concentrates on how to teach a specific subject matter.  In my opinion the whole chapter of Grossman’s book is based on advocacy of the concept of pedagogical content knowledge for unavoidable inclusion in the teacher training programs. The writer has elaborated pedagogical content knowledge further, through four understandable components; knowledge and beliefs about the purpose for teaching a subject, knowledge of students’ understanding, conceptions and misconceptions of particular topic, curricular knowledge and finally knowledge of instructional strategies and represent actions for teaching particular topics.

So, to develop the pedagogical content knowledge four possible sources have been identified as apprenticeship of observation, subject matter knowledge, teacher education, and classroom experience, because through integration of theory and practice methods courses can encourage students to engage thinking strategically and a teacher becomes effective facilitator of the subject.

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[1] HERP – Hunza Educational Resource Project – a professional development project for private English medium school of Hunza.