Teachers' schemata for classroom events: The mental scaffolding of teachers' thinking during classroom instruction

Penelope L. Peterson*, Michelle A. Comeaux

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

108 Scopus citations

Abstract

Researchers have shown that experts and novices differ in their recall, representation, and analyses of problem situations. This study investigated whether such differences existed between novice and experienced high school teachers in their recall and analyses of problem events during interactive teaching. Experienced and inexperienced teachers (n = 10 in each group) completed cognitive ability tests and were interviewed after viewing three videotaped vignettes of interactive teaching. In contrast to novices, experienced teachers both recalled more classroom events and relied more on procedural knowledge and principles in analyzing classroom events. These differences may indicate that experienced teachers have better developed knowledge structures of "schemata" for classroom teaching than do novice teachers.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)319-331
Number of pages13
JournalTeaching and Teacher Education
Volume3
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1987

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The authors thank the experienced teachers from hladison. W’isconsin who participated in this study as well as the student teachers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They also thank Jean Norman and Lisa Armstrong who typed this manuscript.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

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