Poh Soon Koh

What most teacher education programmes aim to do is to mediate in beginning teachers’ processes of learning to teach by introducing conceptual tools (such as learning theories) and practical tools (such as teaching strategies) into teacher education activities (Grossman, Smagorinsky, & Valencia, 1999a, p. 2). The goal is to support teachers in appropriating these cultural tools to achieve teaching expertise across contexts and time. Despite this, tool appropriation literature shows the persistence of the two-worlds pitfall (Smith & Avetisian, 2011) which typically describes a conflict between teaching practices advocated by the university community and those valued in schools.

In order to gain greater insights into the persistence of the pitfall, this study used the concept of cultural models from cognitive anthropology (D'Andrade, 1995; Quinn & Holland, 1987; Strauss & Quinn, 1997) to investigate beginning teachers' mental representation of social reality in the form of simplified, tacit and taken-for-granted cultural knowledge of the world. Informed by the broader sociocultural theoretical perspective on teacher learning and using ethnographic case study method, this qualitative study seeks to examine the practices of three beginning teachers of English language who have successfully completed their teacher preparation in which they were exposed to conceptual and practical tools related to the teaching of English language to secondary school students in Singapore.

Discourse analysis of teachers’ reasoning was used to reconstruct the cultural models that teachers held. Results of the study suggest that the teachers’ simplified, tacit and taken-for-granted background expectancies reflect the sociocultural experience that the teachers bring to their teaching. The teachers in the study took these simplified worlds to be normal and typical reality. Accordingly, they appropriated tools adhering to the normative expectations in these simplified worlds that informed them how people and situations are and should be. Their adherence to the cultural models demonstrates an allegiance to the discourse of meritocracy, pragmatism, cultural control and ability streaming in Singapore. The findings show that to understand the two-worlds pitfall through teachers’ appropriation of tools, an account of the role of larger structures localized in the talk and actions of the teachers needs to be taken into consideration.

Prospectives teachers are formally introduced a variety of conceptual (e.g., learning theories) and pedagogical tools (e.g., teaching strategies) for teaching in their teacher preparation programmes. The goal is for them to adopt these tools and to internalize ways of thinking endemic to the cultural practices of using the tools. However, teachers have been found to develop conception of these tools that are at odds with their intended purpose. This study seeks to understand this phenomenon by examining the cultural part of cognition of three beginning teachers.

All Express stream students in Singapore secondary schools are required to sit for a written English Language paper in the 'O' level General Cambridge Examination (GCE). The summary component of this paper has been a continuing problem for some students. In some of the yearly examiner reports by the University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate and Singapore Ministry of Education (UCLES/MOE), the problem of unsuccessful attempts by some candidates in summarization has been raised as a cause for concern.

Several researchers have done studies on summarization. However, the summary writing tasks in these studies differ from those targeted by the GCE 'O' level examinations. The present study examines the value of ideational frameworks as scaffolds for helping upper secondary students in the summary writing tasks targeted by the GCE 'O' level examinations.

The ideational framework investigated was the matrix. Specifically, the study examines the effectiveness of the matrix in helping a group of students in their reading in summary writing tasks.

A group of twenty-seven Secondary Four Express stream students participated in the study. The participants completed a summary writing task unassisted in the pre-teaching stage of the study. They were then instructed in the use of the matrix in the teaching stage. Each participant completed the same pre-teaching summary writing task in the post-teaching stage using the matrix. The effect of using the matrix was examined.

The findings suggest that the matrix has helped to improve the scores of the majority of students. This study also examines the ways in which the matrix has helped students in the reading process. Some limitations of the use of the matrix are also discussed.

Teacher education research continues to show a gulf between teaching practices advocated in teacher preparation and practices adopted by beginning teachers in schools. Informed by the sociocultural perspective on teacher learning that foregrounds the social origin of human cognition, this article reports a qualitative study to investigate the sociocultural influences on the teaching of three beginning teachers in Singapore secondary schools. The findings demonstrate the need to take into account the role of larger structures in the talk and actions of teachers in order to understand their classroom practices. The article concludes with a consideration of some implications for teacher education.