Narratives and sharing could help teachers' improvement

       Dolk and den Hertog (2008), in the article titled “Narratives in teacher education,” analyzed the idea of helping student-teachers to develop narratives using a multimedia learning environment. They carried out an experiment at a Primary School to help student-teachers construct their own personal growth through personal practical experiences. Furthermore, student-teachers had to share and discuss their own practices with their peers.

       Dolk and den Hertog (2008, p.216) discussed the idea that “taking the narrative approach implies a redesign of teacher education”. They focused the experiment on a multimedia learning environment called Multimedia Interactive Learning Environment (MILE).  MILE is used for didactical investigation so it helps users to analyze students’ learning and their process. “MILE contains a database of real classroom teaching: a video database of real teaching and learning practice in primary schools, communication tools for learners, a search engine, a scrapbook, and a journal for the learners.” (Dolk & den Hertog, 2008, p. 216)

        In the article, it is described the worth of using narratives by student-teachers. Dolk and den Hertog (2008, p.217) stated that “constructing narratives from learning experiences will help teachers to reflect on those experiences”.

       In the multimedia, environment student-teachers observe and discuss different topics related to education. This debate leads them to talk about their own stories and to develop them into narratives (Dolk & den Hertog, 2008). Student-teachers are asked to tell their stories and “telling stories about the observation of short episodes in the classroom brings student-teachers to constructing hypotheses about education.” (Dolk & den Hertog, 2008, p.221)

       Dolk and den Hertog (2008) presented and explained one specific situation that happened to a particular student in a Primary School. This was taken as an experiment. Dolk and den Hertog (2008) asked student-teachers to observe a video about a specific episode and to make it their personal story. After that, several stories were shared and analyzed among the peers.

       Subsequently, Dolk and den Hertog (2008) presented six steps for the construction of educational meaning through narratives. The six steps include: observing; sharing and discussing observations; analyzing; reflecting; developing narrative knowledge; and expanding the personal repertoire and generalizing the situation into a didactic for teachers’ education.

       Practical experience is an important source for constructing a meaning of teaching…Student teachers are expected to explain and justify their observations and interpretations. Their peers are expected to take observation and interpretation seriously, to be able to paraphrase their story, and be able to verify the story with the event in the multimedia environment (social norm) … We see these narratives as the starting point for a discussion about understanding teaching, constructing educational meaning, rethinking classroom behavior, and expanding classroom repertoire. (Dolk & den Hertog, 2008, p.228) 

      The aim of the article written by Dolk and den Hertog (2008) was to help student-teachers reflect upon their own practices. Also, the purpose of the mentioned experiment was that student-teachers should learn to share their personal practices with their peers so as to grow professionally.      

References

Dolk, M & den Hertog, J. (2008). Narratives in teacher education, Interactive Learning Environments, 16:3, 215-229. Doi:10.1080/10494820802113970