Transforming our pedagogical practice and students' educational experience by developing the discipline (or art?) of noticing

There is an established body of research on the significance of teachers’ (or lecturers’) ‘bio-pedagogies’ on their teaching practice. A bio-pedagogy is defined as the link between ‘personhood and pedagogy’ (Camacho and Fernandez-Balboa, 2006). Teachers as professionals need to develop a sense of personal biography and professional history and we should seek to actively explore our historically located consciousness, to question taken for granted teaching actions and to interrogate where our teaching practices have come from (Smyth, 1989). Alexander (2008) defines pedagogy as the act of teaching together with the ideas, values and beliefs by which that act is informed, sustained and justified. Understanding the roots and origins of our pedagogical practice through the analysis of our ‘bio-pedagogy’ is particularly powerful when combined with the use of an approach referred to as video stimulated reflection (VSR). Powell (2005) describes this as a reflective process intended to surface thinking and feelings about aspects of teaching and learning through the collaborative analysis of captured video footage of pedagogical practice. This in turn develops the ‘discipline of noticing’ (Mason, 2002) and our ability to exercise professional discernment and judgement, grounded in the interrogation of our values and beliefs about teaching. A preparedness to engage in this deeper level of analysis of pedagogy can lead to us ‘noticing’ and then potentially disrupting and challenging inequity and discrimination where it occurs through praxis. Praxis involves reflection and then deliberative action directed at the structural conditions we seek to transform.

Presented by: Dr Cathy Gower, Head of Department - Education, Brunel University London 

Aims & Objectives