Engaging Pre-service Teachers - and Their Professor - in Learning: A Comparison of Two Literacy Methods Courses

Abstract

This article reports a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) study undertaken to improve pre-service teachers’ engagement in learning in two advanced literacy teaching methods courses. Over four semesters’ time, data were collected in the form of Instructional Practices Inventory (IPI) codes, anecdotal peer observation notes, the professor’s written reflections, and ratings/comments from student course evaluations. Pre-service teachers’ engagement in learning increased from the first time to the second time the professor taught each course, but the quantitative analysis comparing the “old” course to the “new” course was deemed inconclusive. The professor’s transformative learning process, described as discursive and sometimes tacit, is illustrated through extensive written reflections and characterized by six qualitative themes. The study’s findings suggest that the systematic process of data collection, analysis, and reflection can support transformative learning toward improved teaching practice, especially when the process is self-motivated, collaborative, and ongoing.