Teacher Professionalism and the Emergence of
Constructivist-Compatible Pedagogies
AUTHORS: Henry Jay Becker and Margaret M. Riel
Revised version of a
paper presented at the 1999 meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal
University of California, Irvine
September, 1999
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the relationships among teachers' role orientation, the school culture they experience, and their personal teaching practices using information from a national sample of
4,000 teachers across 1,100 schools, including schools involved in major reform programs. We found that where teachers had a collaborative role orientation rather than solely a classroom focus and where a professional culture
emerged schoolwide, teachers were more likely to report engaging in teaching practices consistent with current constructivist reform ideas. In addition, collaboratively oriented teachers were more likely to report
recent changes in their teaching towards constructivist practice. Teachers with an orientation limited to their own classroom and teachers in schools with a more traditional school culture of individual teachers engaging in private
practice were more likely to have classrooms in which teachers emphasized curriculum coverage, knowledge transmission, and skills practice through direct instruction. The findings suggest that teachers who are engaged
in collaborative professional activities extending beyond their classroom are more likely to have their students work in collaborative ways as well. Teacher who are engaged in constructing new understandings among their colleagues
are more likely to encourage their students to take an active role in knowledge construction