Learning Through Self-Study: The Influence Of Purpose, Participants And Context*

Abstract

This chapter examines the nature of the self-study in terms of teaching, learning and research and begins to build an understanding of the influence of purpose, participants and contexts in shaping the learning of teaching and teaching about teaching. By exploring learning through contexts and approaches to self-study, the purpose and value for practitioners in these situations is highlighted. These contexts include the sites in which teacher education occurs (universities and schools) and the situations in which teachers and teacher educators place themselves to better understand the complex world of teaching and learning. It also involves understandings of approaches to teaching and teacher education that can only be examined by practitioners researching their own practice and making explicit the purpose for such study. The chapter concludes with the synthesis of the issues considered being illustrated in action through a case-study of learning through self-study. The case-study is designed to highlight how self-study can lead practitioners to develop insightful understandings of practice that also lead to meaningful changes in practice and, of illustrating how such learning might be conveyed and understood by others.