An investigation of pedagogical expertise in the planning practices of professors with varying degrees of teaching experience /

• Main Author: Gendron, Marie-Josée
• Other Authors: Saroyan, Alenoush (advisor)
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 1994
• Subjects: Teaching; Lesson planning.
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=68093

The role of teaching experience has been acknowledged in the development of pedagogical expertise, however, past research has failed to specify the relationship between experience and expertise. The ill-defined nature of the teaching task has led researchers to inadequately define pedagogical expertise directly in terms of years of teaching experience. Moreover, the literature on pedagogical expertise is primarily based on data from school teachers, who typically are not subject matter experts in the topics they teach. This study attempted to establish the differences and similarities between experienced and inexperienced university professors in the planning and delivery of teaching and the extent to which these activities and processes resembled expert characteristics. Indices of teaching effectiveness were derived from both theoretical and empirical sources and applied to the practices of 11 university professors, ranging in experience from 1 to 30 years. After the conduction of a lecture, subjects were interviewed and asked to elaborate on planning decisions made prior to teaching and to trace the events of the class. Protocols were then analyzed for the presence of characteristics of pedagogical expertise as defined above. Important differences were revealed between the teaching practices of experienced and less experienced professors which involved: (1) automaticity of activities, (2) teaching a lecture as part of the global task of teaching, (3) knowledge integration, (4) flexibility of plan implementation, (5) use of planning notes, (6) time management, and (7) reflections. Important group similarities were also revealed. Implications for the development of pedagogical expertise are discussed.