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The Expertise of School Teachers and Medical Doctors: What Do They Have in Common? 46 th International IATEFL Annual Conference in Glasgow Wednesday, March 21 st , 2012 . Masataka Kizuka Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine Japan.
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TheExpertise of School Teachers and Medical Doctors: What Do They Have in Common?46th International IATEFL Annual Conference in GlasgowWednesday, March 21st , 2012 MasatakaKizukaKyoto Prefectural University of Medicine Japan
Purpose of the presentation To explore the common core characteristics of the expertise found in both school teachers and medical doctors on the basis mainly of Schön’s work (1983) and my own experience in both disciplines, leading to teachers to be regarded as professionals.
Why is the topic important? • There is a distinction between professions and semi-professions on the basis of “Technical Rationality”, but recently there has emerged an awareness of the limits of this approach. →the need for a reconsideration of expertise, especially from the standpoint of the common core features in both professions and semi-professions.
The definition of expertise • …one’s expertise is a way of looking at something which was once constructed and may be reconstructed; and there is both readiness and competence to explore its meaning in the experience of the client. (Schön, p.296)
Professions and semi-professions The prototypes of professional expertise…are the “learned professions” of medicine and law, the “major” or “near major” professions. They are distinct from such “minor” professions as education. (Schön, p.23)
Professions and semi-professions (Continued) The Schools White Paper (2010) refers to “raising standards and giving outstanding schools a much greater role in teacher training in the same way that our best hospitals train new doctors and nurses.
Professions and semi-professions (Continued) • The underpinning concept of the traditional model of a profession, “Technical Rationality”, is based on the rules of: 1. the relevant basic and applied science. 2. the skills of application to real-world problems of practice (Schön, p.27).
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? 1. Disestablishment of the knowledge-base. Learners are individually different. Even with the same complaint, diagnoses of individual patients are often very different.
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued) • Schön mentions that the problem cannot be usefully phrased in terms of too much technology…the four professions—medicine…and education—must bear the brunt of responsibility for generating and managing this change (p.15).
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued)
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued)
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued)
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued) 2. Complexity and uncertainty. • Teachers, learners and materials are interwoven parameters. • One patient often has several diseases, such as high blood pressure, hyperlipaemia and diabetes, simultaneously.
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued) Problem-solving, complexity, uncertainty—as mentioned in “What does Society Require of its Doctors? —Unique Characteristics of the Doctor in the 21st Century” (Fleming, K., p.92). For example: difficulty in diagnosing appendicitis and ovarian cancer, especially in younger women of child-bearing-age.
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued) • There are possibilities for various, different understandings and interpretations when considering the same phenomenon from different angles.
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued) 3. Indispensability of learning from practice or particular cases. • “Lesson Study” in Teacher Education. • “Case Method” or “Problem-based Learning (PBL)” in Medical Education.
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued) 4. Importance of clinical experience. • Teachers : new findings about their learners and learning. • Doctors : new thoughts about their patients and diseases. →learning of decision-making, judgment, interaction, way of thinking, etc.
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued) 5. Cruciality of connecting experience/practice with knowledge/theory. Schön (p.18) mentions: Leading professionals tend to focus on the mismatch of traditional patterns of practice and knowledge to features of the practice situation—complexity, uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and value conflict. →Theory/knowledge is one thing and actual practice/diagnosis is another.
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued) 6. Reflection is a key to develop their practice and to become successful practitioners. • “Reflection-in-action” is the core of practice in both teachers and doctors (Schön, pp.68-69). • The importance of reflective practice in medicine: “The Case for New Curricula” by Leinster, S. (p.12).
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued) • Schön (p.295) mentions: The professional recognizes that his technical expertise is embedded in a context of meanings…He recognizes that his action may have different meanings for his client than he intends them to have, and he gives himself the task of discovering what these meanings are.
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued) • School teachers and medical doctors try to discover meanings to their new settings or situations through experiencing their cases. Throughout the process, they confirm the significance of theory/knowledge, consider its relevance, and try to connect previous cases/prior knowledge with new settings/situations.
What do school teachers and medical doctors have in common? (Continued) • The same characteristics of expertise commonly discovered in both disciplines: 1. The ‘Hamlet model of decision-making’--- seeking for alternatives. 2. Context-bounded and domain-specific knowledge bases: accumulating case-knowledge through case analysis. 3. Self-monitoring ability: implementing “reflection-in-action” and intra-conversation.
Common underlying characteristics of school teachers and medical doctors with regard to reflection
Common underlying characteristics of school teachers and medical doctors with regard to reflection (Continued) To teach or not to teach, what a silly question!! Certainly ‘tis nobler to reflect on thine action/behaviour/performance, especially in a case of attempting to improve lessons or consultations as a profession.
Common underlying characteristics of school teachers and medical doctors with regard to reflection (Continued) • Fundamental underlying expertise indispensable for the two disciplines: 1. Llisten carefully to (including observing) learners/patients
Common underlying characteristics of school teachers and medical doctors with regard to reflection (Continued) 2. connect what learners/patients say and their present conditions with academic knowledge and past experiences
Common underlying characteristics of school teachers and medical doctors with regard to reflection (Continued) 3. return its interpretations, views, or understandings to learners/patients in order to look back on what they said previously and their present conditions and to deduce more thoughts/information.
Concluding remarks • As both school teachers and medical doctors are so very deeply involved with human issues/matters/problems interactively, in both professions communication is of paramount importance.
Concluding remarks (Continued) • In the interactional process of communication, listening, linking and returning form the essential common-core expertise. • In order to enhance school teaching as a genuine profession, we should pay attention to the core expertise because this IS common to a genuine profession.
Concluding remarks (Continued) • Contact address: kizuka@koto.kpu-m.ac.jp