The Adaptive Subject Pedagogy Model

Understanding Pre-service teachers’ pedagogical reasoning in Design and Technology Education

Abstract

Our presentation discusses the current phase of a practitioner enquiry project to explore ways of supporting undergraduate technology education ITE students to inform their classroom practice with theory, research, and academic knowledge.  The practitioner enquiry centres on our work in teacher education with students using a model created by Morrison-Love to scaffold the development of pedagogic reasoning: the Adaptive Subject Pedagogy Model (ASPM). In the first phases of our project, we explored students’ challenges in relating theory to practice and developing pedagogic reasoning using focus groups with students and analysis of course assignments. Continued use of the model showed students improving in their connections across knowledges, but many still struggle with the development of coherent evidence-led pedagogic reasoning.  Here, we will present findings from our analysis of a series of mediated interviews we undertook with students to understand more about how they were reasoning through engagement with the ASPM.  During the interviews, student submissions were used as a mediating artefact to scaffold questioning and discussion.  The submissions each capture one full cycle of the ASPM for a topic chosen by that student and an associated lesson plan in a form of their choosing.  Use of student submissions in this way provided a tangible focus to help reveal more of the students underlying thinking.  Here, we will discuss insights about the knowledges drawn upon, considerations and decisions made by students in the process of creating their own subject pedagogy and what this means for our own practice as teacher educators.  We will conclude by reflecting more broadly about what our evidence to date about the ASPM suggests given that, despite our best efforts, some students still struggle to create pedagogically reasoned lesson plans.  We discuss implications for future work with ASPM and for our own practice as teacher educators.