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A Transformative Journey:
Theoretical Foundations for
an Integrative Approach to Teaching
Katherine Evans, Kathy Glenn, and Jessica Lester (United States)
A dilapidated school building sends a message filled with despair. How can anyone inspire children to love learning in such a place? As we walk down the gloomy corridors of the school, we see classrooms filled with silence and predictable order. However, in one of the classrooms the sounds of excited children can be heard. Peering into the window of this classroom, we see what appears to be chaos. Where is the teacher? Why are the kids not sitting quietly in their desks? Who is in charge here? Surrounded by a small group of attentive children who are engaged in a discussion about how their writing can impact their community sits Ms. Garcia, a fifth-grade language arts teacher. A smile lights up her face as she looks about her classroom. She knows that this is not a place of chaos, but of focused learning. It has not been easy getting to this place, but today as she watches Marie and Matthew working together to construct a persuasive essay about recycling, her love for learning and for reaching all children is affirmed. As she notices the dynamics of her classroom, Ms. Garcia remembers what it was like before she began this transformative journey.
While the tendency in the field of teacher education has been to compartmentalize theories of learning and teaching, an integrative approach—bringing together valuable principles from behavioral, social cognitive, and social constructivism—is needed (Ormrod, 1998). New teachers often experience incongruity between what they learn in their university courses and their actual classroom practices (Grossman, Smagorinsky, & Valencia, 1999). By focusing on the big ideas that are common across theories, both new and seasoned teachers can select principles that promote a holistic way of teaching. In this paper, we explore key characteristics of behavioral theories of learning, social cognitive theory, and social constructivism in the context of a fifth-grade classroom. We represent the development of a teacher committed to lifelong learning through a case study reflecting the combined experiences of the authors. Follow Ms. Garcia as she reflects upon the journey to improve her instructional practice by reconstructing the art of teaching on theoretical foundations. Her development is tracked through a narrative description in which she explores characteristics of the major theories of learning.
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A Transformative Journey: Theoretical Foundations for an Integrative Approach to Teaching