A STUDY OF THE MODES OF ANALYSIS GIVEN BY TEACHERS DISCUSSING TEACHING SUBJECTS

Abstract

This paper reports an investigation on the modes of
analysis revealed in the discourse of a group of teachers, during a series
of sessions for the discussion of teaching problems. The speech of teachers and coordinators (researchers) was categorised on the basis of
three operations of analysis - to describe/narrate, characterise/
conceptualise and to establish relationships - and with reference to the
central components of the pedagogical situation - the pupil, the object of
knowledge and the teaching conditions. The findings showed that, in the
teachers speech, the operation describe/narrate was predominant, while
the other two operations appeared in a low proportion. The teachers
analysis had the pupil as the more frequent target; the teaching conditions
were less frequently referred, and the object of knowledge was, in
general, mentioned only as a result of induction by the coordinators. The
data of the coordinators speech indicate that, while questioning, the
distribution of their operations mirrored that of the teachers, but, while
making statements, their operations displayed a different pattern, with a
superiority of characterise/conceptual and establish relationships. In the
discussion of the findings, we attempted to identify the characteristics of
the interlocution situation which could have hindered the emergence, in
the teachers discurse, of more complex modes of analysis and of a
substantial change in conceptions.