Teachers Learning: In Their Own Words

Genie Bingham Linn
University of Texas at Tyler

Continuous learning by today's classroom teachers is necessary for the survival and improvement of the American educational system. Although the imperative is for teachers to learn at a higher level, "teacher development has been limited by lack of knowledge of how teachers learn" (Lieberman, 1996, p. 185). Cochran-Smith & Lytle (1999a), and Wilson & Berne's (1999) studies show us that designers of teacher learning opportunities are operating with limited knowledge about teacher learning. But, in order to design and facilitate successful learning experiences for teachers, school leaders need to know more about teacher learning.

Studying teacher learning requires multi-dimensional understanding of a whole person who operates in complex environment because learning is a whole human experience. Individual competence and professional knowing are part of a complex, interrelated system of learning that happens inside and outside of the classroom and in formal education settings and from practical experience. Designers of teacher learning are challenged to understand individual learning needs within the complexity of culture and systems. According to Schoenfield (2000), "we need explanations of learning that have great scope, and that apply equally to the growth of understanding and capacity not only in school and in the experimental laboratory, but on the job, at home, and anywhere else" (p. 7).

The purpose of this research was to hear the voices of teachers as they told about their learning experiences. Two broad questions guided the project:

1.What do teachers have to tell us about their learning experiences?
2.Who is the self that teaches and continuously learns?

Personal experience research through autobiographical and biographical approach to non-fictional narrative story method has given voice to lives of change and learning in the classroom, and in the reflective process we have come to know both the professional and the person.
Five East Texas teachers were identified by their principal's as exemplary life-long learners and invited to talk about their learning journeys.

The Literature on Teacher Learning
What we know about teacher learning is "puzzling" because of the "serendipitous and scattered nature of teachers' learning" (Wilson & Berne, 1999, p.173). Teachers learn from a wide variety of opportunities and experiences, both by design and by chance. The list of learning situations is almost unlimited. Isolating and identifying what and how teachers learn are, then, complex and uncertain tasks.

A teacher who learns does not just accumulate facts, but gains an understanding of new concepts of content and pedagogy and "the new roles assumed by the practitioners of teaching and learning for understanding" (McLaughlin & Oberman, 1996, p. x). Shoenfeld (2000) clarified when learning has happened by noting that, "one has learned when one has developed new understanding or capacity" (p. 6). Gwyneth Dow (1982) expanded the definition of learning to emphasize self-knowledge as a critical dimension of learning. "Proper learning is the acquisition of self-knowledge and an understanding of oneself as a part of a particular culture" (Dow, 1982, p.1) defies the exactness of science. Each definition includes growth, increased capacity, and change. Therefore, teacher learning is characterized by personal and professional change, along with an increased understanding of self and the role of educator.

How do teachers learn? According to Darling-Hammond (1997), "teachers learn just as their students do: by studying, doing, and reflecting; by collaborating with other teachers; by looking closely at students and their work; and by sharing what they see" (p. 319). Lambert, Collay, Dietz, Kent, and Richert (1996) and Falk, (1996) concur that adults learn like children except they bring more experience and established beliefs to the learning.

Research acknowledges that teachers first learn how to teach from their own school experiences (Borko & Putnam, 1996). Teacher learning begins before the prospective teacher formally enters in a university department of education. The seminal work by Dan Lortie (1975) identified "general schooling and apprenticeship of observation" (p. 60) as the first and most powerful influence and learning in any teacher's career. According to him, the apprenticeship of observation supports continuity and fights change.

New learning is strongly affected by previous experiences, prior knowledge, and current beliefs. Borko and Putnam (1996) identified three critical knowledge and belief screens that influence teacher learning: general pedagogy, subject matter, and content pedagogy. Since beliefs, knowledge, and skills for teachers are initially formed by the early school and life experiences, teacher preparation programs are faced with the challenge of breaking the cycle of repeating teaching practices (Borko & Putnam, 1996; Wideen, Mayer-Smith & Moon, 1998; Wilson & Berne, 1999, Yost, Sentner, & Forlenza-Bailey, 2000; Zeichner, 1999). The same challenge exists for educating teachers in the classroom.

Dimensions of Teacher Learning. Three dimensions of teacher learning are evident within the body of literature on teacher learning: inquiry, reflection, and sharing. Each dimension is interdependent and interrelated.

Inquiry. The recurring theme of inquiry learning is carried through the research of teacher learning. Teachers learn and grow through inquiry (Beattie, 1995a, 1995b). Inquiry can be the attitude of wonder and desire to know that drives one to seek answers and learn and it can be the question that leads to formal research. The first question a teacher must ask is "who am I as a teacher?" (Cochran & Lytle, 1999a, p. 292). Knowing self establishes the groundwork for teachers to work within "inquiry communities that regard dissonance and questioning as signs of teacher learning rather than their failing" ( p. 32).

Inquiry is a learning posture. Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999a) introduced the learning concept of "inquiry as stance" that emphasizes local knowledge which values both formal and practical. Although professional learning experiences are often a planned event at a specific time, inquiry as stance is learning across a professional life.

Reflection. Inquiry naturally moves into and nurtures reflective practice (Yost, Sentner, & Forlenza-Bailey, 2000). "Reflection lies at the heart of inquiry" (Day, 1999, p. 22), and according to Lord (1994), increased reflection is the core of questioning. Teacher learning is a recursive process where inquiry demands reflective action and reflection raises questions, and each fuels learning. Ultimately, teaching is a reflective vocation as Dewey claimed (1933/1964), and effective teachers must be reflective practitioners (Schon, 1983, 1987).

Sharing. Inquiry and reflection are limited without the benefit of sharing in dialogue with other professionals and critical friends. Conducted in isolation, inquiry and reflection provide a limited opportunity for learning because it will be "unsystematic with checks against realities constrained by the limitations of the single perspective" (Day, 1999, p. 36). Teachers want to tell the stories of practice to other teachers and to develop relationships where they can examine together the contexts of their experiences (Connelly & Clandinin, 1999). A community of learners is further expanded through the concept of an "inquiry community," where teachers share common concerns and search for answers (Cochran-Smith, 1999a).

Teachers come with beliefs, knowledge, and life experiences that filter learning. Inquiry, reflection, and sharing are significant concepts in understanding how teachers learn in any setting, whether formal or practical. Designers of learning experiences for teachers must take into account life factors as well as professional circumstances .

Learning From The Teacher Interviews
Two simply stated, but profoundly complex questions directed this study: "What do teachers have to tell us about their learning?" and "Who is the self that teaches and learns?" Ironically, the five experienced teachers found the first question puzzling? They asked, "What do you mean?" What do you want me to say?" "You mean my learning or my students learning?" "I have never thought about that." They were at a loss to respond to questions that focused on their own learning.

Their stories revealed teachers who had questions, but they saw themselves mainly as consumers of knowledge, seeking answers from outside experts, in addition to relying on their own personal practical experience. There was little evidence that the teachers sought learning that brought deep understanding. Rather, they looked for a solution or a new strategy. Expert educators recognize that any classroom solution is only temporary and new questions return quickly, while understanding the issue allows for growth and the capacity to expand accommodating new challenges, new knowledge, and new solutions. It is a "why" learning as opposed to a "what" learning that is most important.

The compelling nature of the five teacher voices was more than I expected. I struggled for weeks about the shape of the stories and the names for each participant. The answers came in my dreams and in the religious convictions expressed by each participant: Hope, Harmony, Grace, Faith, and Charity. I invite the reader to listen to one of those voices. Let me introduce you to Hope.

Hope: In Her Own Words

I've got a great job. You know it would be silly, really silly to retire when you like what you're doing.

I was late for our appointment, and I worried that my first interview would be off to a bad start, but deep chuckles bursting into rich laughter greeted me from behind a door aptly labeled, OK Corral. Hope was a 35-year veteran who worked in a room comfortably cluttered with computers, tables, desks, files, books, magazines, and even a couch. Pictures, posters, curtains and burning candles completed the cacophony of colors and delighted the senses. I knew immediately this was truly an OK place for intermediate school students or anyone else. I have called her Hope because hope never gives up; it never finds an ending place. Hope always looked forward to another year, another opportunity to learn.

Hope eagerly greeted me, seeking to make me comfortable. She bustled about clearing a space for my things, like a harried housewife preparing for a welcomed guest. I felt at ease with her immediately, and worked to calm her down to the task. She was worried about what she would say and if she would say what I wanted. I had sent all of the interview participants a copy of my learning story to help them think about their own story, but Hope had not been able to get her copy. While I was setting up I gave her a copy to glance over. I couldn't work fast enough to get the tape recorder set-up before she began. Like so many teachers in East Texas, Hope knew me because she had been in staff development sessions I had conducted. Although I may not remember the training session or her participation, she remembered me, and we had an immediate connection.

Small Town Values. In search of what formed Hope's beliefs about learning, I asked about her family and where she grew up. She answered with a laugh and a glow of pride as she described her small town upbringing. Although her parents had little education, they expected their children to get the most from school.

. . . it takes parents who do think it's (education) important to the point almost that you're real fanatic about it. I asked my mother once . . . I said, "If we had school on Sunday, would you make us go to church or to school?" Because that's just how adamant it was, they were about it. And she said, "You'd go to church in the morning and the afternoon you'd go to school." And it was not a chore, it was part of being in a small town. School was the only social life you had so you didn't dare miss school. Because if you did you didn't know what was going on . . . The church is the center of town, and the school was just the right arm of it. Everybody knew you didn't dare miss that.

Making good grades and excelling in school were not options. Hope lived up to the expectations set for her. Getting an education was important to her family-- parents, aunts, uncles, brothers, and sisters.

. . . the choice of not getting an education was not there. You could stop when you got your Bachelor's degree, but you had to get that. And it wasn't like I could say to Mother and Daddy, "I don't want to go to school" because that would have disappointed them.

Those expectations continued to follow her as she eagerly entered into every new learning opportunity. I had the feeling that she was still working to make her parents proud.

Concern for Students. In reflecting on her learning journey, Hope admitted to early teaching ignorance. The first couple of years I was very young and taught according to the textbook and was still in college so to speak. And you know, you want to do everything by the book and just right.

It was her concern for students that led her to search for learning opportunities.

One teacher and I worried and worried that our kids were not learning. Another teacher finally told us to hush that some kids learn in spite of you and sometimes you can't teach any of them. And I was never willing to accept that, but I (still) worry that those first kids . . . you know . . . what are they doing? But then I've seen a lot of them, and I guess they made it somehow.

Hope's love for students with her desire to be a better teacher caused her to ask questions and search for new answers. She reflected upon her practice wondering what her work was doing to kids.

Sometimes I would analyze the homework and the work that I gave them and think this is not going to be worth their while to do because I was having to sometimes do work that just took up time and not necessarily was a learning tool for me. So then I began to analyze, what am I doing to my kids? And I always feel like when I'm in school I'm there for my kids because I can . . . I don't know . . . I can make better judgments of what I want them to do. And when I'm learning, they're learning. Whatever I learn I bring back to the classroom.

Hope's efforts were driven by her desire to help her students. When they learned and were excited to learn more because of her work, she was gratified and fulfilled both professionally and personally.

In technology, it seems that I can, maybe by attending this class, stay one step ahead of the kids. Even though a lot of the kids teach me things about computers, I am able to teach them a little bit that they don't know. If they are in it for the gaming part, and I am in it for the learning situation, then both the students and me, we're able to really help each other a lot. And they help. I teach them and they teach me . . . (Hope falters as she becomes overcome by emotion.) It's fun to see these kids after they've been in your class awhile come back to say, "Let me show you what I did at home!" (Hope wiped away the tears as she continued in a broken voice.) So I know if they're having slumber parties and they're doing computer work it must be good. Through it all, you think back about your teachers, and you had good ones. And you had not so good. But you learned . . .

Hope wanted to be the good one from whom her students learn. She wanted to make a difference, and her continual search for new knowledge was a result of this desire and need.

Professional Learning. Hope's need to learn compelled her to earn her Master's degree, and yet she still continued to attend classes at nearby colleges and universities. She actively sought out workshop and training opportunities, and participated in summer institutes that took her from home for weeks at a time.

I think I have probably missed in the last, oh maybe 15 years, one summer that I didn't take a workshop or go to school at all. And it was the worst teaching year of my life. I thought, "I don't have anything new!" Even though the kids were new, and they didn't know that I had not been to school. I thought everything was old. There was nothing new. And so I thought, "I will never again not go to school in the summer." And so I've been going ever since. The thing that kind of spurred me on a little bit more is I had taken so many workshops at the service center, and I got a paper in the mail that North Texas State was having an institute in the summer, like a three-week institute for computers. I filled out an application, and I had no idea that I would be chosen or selected to go to that, but I was.

Hope's voice rose with excitement as she recalled the summer experience, living in a dorm, learning and sharing with other teachers.

It changed my attitude, I think. Because there's a lot more to learning than being in a classroom, but when you are together with a group of people you begin not to see that person as anything but another learning experience . . . And I mean everything we did it was just like almost being back in college and re-living that experience and going, "my goodness!" There are so many ways to learn besides just sitting or reading or whatever. I personally think this is one of the things that create a burn-out in teachers is that they never get the opportunity to go to conferences and do that.

The need to be with and share with other teachers was a recurring theme in Hope's story as she told of her fifteen years of summer math institutes. She marveled how much she learned each year as another door to learning just flew wide open . . . And I could not believe how much that I had learned, and it was once again that we had a common bond with different teachers . . . We were learning strictly to learn and to teach . . . help to teach our children.

Hope attended state and national conferences, oftentimes without the school support. Because she loved to share and learn with others, she lamented that many teachers have never had those experiences.

It breaks my heart that some teachers have never attended a conference of any kind. You just learn so much. It's hard to believe that you go to these places, and there are just so many people there that are doing the same thing you are . . . (it is wonderful) to go and see, and you learn so much that's just a little bit out of the box of what you would learn in the (college) classroom . . . It is interesting, and it's fun, and it's really interesting to see others and to be able to talk to them from all over the country . . .

Life Patterns for Learning. Hope laughed as she noted the pattern in her learning routine.

And this has just been a constant thing. You know you're going to be out of school a week, and then you're going to school for three weeks. (chuckling) Then you might have time to get your house cleaned this summer. (pause) It keeps me excited about learning. Her voice breaks with emotion, as she fights back tears. Going to school keeps me excited, and if I am excited then my kids are, too. And that's exactly how I feel about it. You can put information out there, but if you're not excited, you're not going to bring in new learning for the kids.

She struggled to continue with the interview because she was overcome with emotion. She credited her husband for encouraging and supporting her to continue her studies. Her sense of humor lightened the moment. So he's finally just given up and says, "Go for it. If that is what you want to do, go for it." Her laughter is short-lived as her voice breaks again. I guess education is very important to my family.

Although Hope learned through sharing with other teachers, she felt lonely and insecure. When I asked her if she felt different from other teachers, her tears came in earnest.

I care too much. Why do I care-- maybe nobody else does. And I think, well I don't-- I really don't know-- maybe they do. And I just think maybe in a way I'm driven to a situation that maybe I don't have the confidence that somebody else has. So I feel like I have to work harder.

Though she was eligible for retirement, Hope was not yet finished with this job.

I think you can't stay in teaching if you don't like it. You know. And I think every year is the year I'm going to retire. I'm too old. Then stop and let the young ones take over. And I think, "I can't do that yet. I'm not ready and I don't want to stop!" So here I go again planning for the summer . . . all in all I can't imagine not being in school.

Again her contagious laughter spreads to me, and we both basked in the warmth of a moment shared. We hugged and fought back tears again as we parted in the parking lot. She apologized for crying, while I assured her that tears were appropriate. A kinship had been established. There is power in shared knowledge and common understanding.

What Does Hope Have to Tell Us about her Learning?
Hope is just one example of a lifelong teacher learner. Her story, like the others, reminds us that teachers are individuals with special learning needs just like students. Teacher learning is not "one size fits all." Perhaps we cannot plan "tract" models, but rather "customize" according to learning needs. Most of all, I found that teachers who are life-long learners manage to learn, no matter what the setting. Like hardy plants, exemplary teacher learners will grow under any conditions, but a wise leader will create optimal conditions so they might bloom and make our world rich and beautiful.

Teachers learn what they need to learn in order to promote successful learning. They look for useful strategies and tools for effective instruction. They sought learning for special student needs and curriculum shortcomings. They focused their learning primarily on instructional processes, content mastery, and curriculum development in their efforts to attend to student needs. Two of the five teachers were open to new learning in any area.

The teachers in this study were compelled to learn because of their deep commitment to their students. Because they cared, they gave of themselves. They believed that their students' learning depended upon their own ability to renew themselves, be better prepared, and more knowledgeable. Their students' needs motivated them to learn. They were also driven by creative desires and personal standards of excellence. Each of these teachers wanted to be the best she could be. They were never satisfied or complete in their learning as long as they had this objective.

Who Is the Self That Teaches and Learns?
The second research question actually became the heart of this inquiry. The more I looked for the "what or how" of teacher learning, the more I was struck with "who" these teachers were. In their stories, the teachers tried to tell me about their learning experiences, but I found, like Connelly and Clandinin (1999), that no matter what questions were asked, teachers wanted to answer questions of self-identity. "Teachers seemed more concerned to answer questions of who they are than of what they know" (p. 3). Teaching and learning are expressions of the inner self.

These teachers shared a belief that they were called to be teachers, and that divine appointment required giving oneself to continuous learning and renewal to be the best. They loved children. They loved teaching. They were caring. They were committed. Each expressed strong spiritual beliefs that led them to this profession. They needed teaching and learning, as much or more than their students needed them. Their personal worth was tied to their work. They were women who need approval from others. They were strongly influenced by the conservative, traditional Bible belt communities of the South and entered teaching when the options for women, according to East Texas culture, were limited. These exemplary teachers were identified and recognized by their principals as life-long learners in a variety of school settings, but they were supported and nurtured to thrive and grow only within a collegial community of learners.

From the teachers' stories, I learned that it is the self --the "who" that the teacher learner is-- that is most important, not the "what or how." Lifelong learning and change in education is a matter of character and commitment. Inquiry, reflection, and sharing occur as a result of character. Engaging in these processes promote the establishment and growth of a learning community.

The following few recommendations for school leaders have evolved from studying the stories of exemplary teacher learners:

• Lead by example. Be a reflective practitioner who models inquiry, reflection, and sharing. Support the professional growth of the learning community by committing time and resources.
• Search for these lifelong teacher learners among your staff members, and nurture and support them to become the committed core of a self-renewing system. They will be the critical mass for school reform.
• Be vigilant when interviewing and hiring new staff to seek lifelong teacher learners who are committed and caring
• Finally, we should all be ready to listen to teachers' voices. During this research I was questioned by one principal about the value of listening to teachers. "What does that have to do with educational leadership?" I trust that the reader is as offended by the question as I. When school leaders fail to value teachers as individuals and professionals, we are bound to fail in our mission to serve students.

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About the author

Genie Bingham Linn
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
University of Texas at Tyler
3900 University Blvd.
Tyler, Texas 75799
glinn@uttyler.edu

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©April 2006 New Horizons for Learning

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