A Big Little Window (BLW) for Teacher Training: A Frame for Teaching and Thinking Through Disruption

This chapter introduces and illustrates a pedagogical frame for teaching and thinking through contemporary disruptions in initial teacher education (ITE). The Big Little Window (BLW) represents relational dynamics and dimensions of complex problems in contested spaces. Specifically, this chapter offers critical reflections on the use of BLW in an ITE course at a regional university, with a focus on a unit in Educational Philosophy. The unit explores curriculum controversies and pedagogical issues related to social, technological and ecological disruptions in contemporary education. These critical reflections illustrate how the BLW facilitates relational and contextual understandings of disruptions in education related to Traditional-Progressive positions and paradigms. More specifically, we illustrate how the BLW supports teacher improvement related to the Australian Professional Standards for Teaching—‘Know students and how they learn’ (1.1–1.3), ‘Know the content and how to teach it’ (2.1) and ‘Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning’ (3.3). We encourage the development and use of such frames in ITE to avoid the polarisation and politicisation of the ‘Education Wars’ that weaken the profession during times of disruption.

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Re-imagining Teaching Improvement: From Early Childhood to University

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978-981-99-7745-1

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