Ani br I dge

Related to this concept of active engagement is the concept of learning as the construction of personal meaning. In this view of learning, the teacher does not learn solely by acquiring new informa­tion or knowledge about teaching (such as new procedures or techniques), but through thinking about new ideas in the light of past experience, fitting new ideas into her or his thinking, and re­appraising old assumptions in the light of new information. New


Part One Introduction Why a book on observation?
information is therefore absorbed in a way that is creative, dynamic and personal and that will mean something different to each person receiving the information. The way a teacher learns, therefore, cannot be pre-ordained by the trainer. Freeman (1989) argues that in order to be effective, instruction has to offer the trainee 'the opportunity to engage with the material on an individual basis and assess [herself/himself] as a learner in the process' (Freeman 1989).

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   Following on from this notion of the personal construction of meaning is the point that teachers themselves are the primary initiators of their own development. The spirit of inquiry, the wish to reflect on one's own teaching, perhaps to explore other paths, comes from within the practitioner; it cannot be imposed from outside and then measured by some objective assessment tool. Likewise, the teacher is the one to determine and define their own end-point or expected outcome. Essentially all adult learning is voluntary; the motivation that steers and nourishes learning comes from within the learner, in our case, the teacher-learner.
   
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