This paper focuses on a critical teaching-learning issue: the relationship between research into effective teaching and learning and the reality of classroom practice. Our research aimed to identify key features of teaching practices in the implementation of the Mind Matters curriculum resource on Understanding Mental Illness (UMI). The UMI curriculum was developed by an external body set up to advance the national policy agenda on mental health. This curriculum design model may be vulnerable to disjunctions between the needs of the policy makers, curriculum designers and contemporary learning and teaching research. Further, the curriculum was implemented by teachers and processed by students in ways that might also diverge from ways that contemporary theories of learning and teaching suggest are effective.

Participants were teachers, students, school administrators and a teacher reference group (TRG). The study adopted a case-study approach and mixed methods to analyze data from questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations and proceeding of the TRG workshop.

Our research implicates broad sources that Bransford et al (2000) identify as mediating the impact of research on classroom practice.

We identified a range of filters that were found to intervene between teaching-learning research and the implementation of the UMI module in classrooms, namely: (1) mental models of teaching and learning that inform external curriculum design; (2) mental models of teaching and learning that inform teachers’ curriculum interpretation; (3) the preferred teaching practices that guide teachers’ enactment of instructional designs; (4) students’ knowledge of learning and of themselves as learners; and (5) the ways that new curriculum initiatives are positioned in educational systems.

This research highlights the importance of investigating how educational theory is represented in the authentic setting of classrooms and has implications for dissemination and uptake of research by curriculum designers and classroom practitioners.

Aims

This paper focuses on a critical teaching-learning issue: the relationship between research into effective teaching and learning and the reality of classroom practice. Ideally, research would lead to “very different approaches to the design of curriculum, teaching and assessment than those often found in schools today.” (Bransford et al (2000, p. 3)

A 1996 audit of Mental Health Education in Australian secondary schools led to a national imperative to incorporate teaching about mental health in schools. Government funding was allocated to development of the MindMatters (MM) curriculum which promotes a whole school approach to mental health promotion. Our research aimed to identify key features of teaching practices in the implementation of the MM curriculum resource on Understanding Mental Illness (UMI). This paper examines a range of filters that were found to intervene between teaching-learning research and the teaching and learning that occurred in classrooms.

Methodology/Research Design

Participants

Participants included teachers, students, school administrators and a teacher reference group (TRG). Teachers in three secondary schools where the UMI module was being taught agreed to participate. Data were obtained from 44 Year 10-11 students. The eight person TRG participated in a workshop, and three administrators were interviewed.

Method

We observed and audio-taped teaching of the UMI module (24 lessons in total) guided by the productive pedagogies framework (Gore, Griffiths, & Ladwig, 2001). We gathered questionnaire and interview data from the three class teachers and their students. Classroom observations and interviews focused on: changes in students’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioural intentions about mental illness; teachers’ perspectives about the UMI materials; teachers’ delivery of the UMI curriculum; teachers’ confidence to teach outside the core curriculum and/or their subject-matter field; and teachers’ professional development. We also convened a teacher reference group to consider our analysis of the classroom observations, questionnaires and interviews.

Findings

Our research implicates broad sources that Bransford et al (2000) identify as mediating the impact of research on classroom practice. The UMI curriculum was developed by an external body set up to advance the national policy agenda on mental health. This curriculum design model may be vulnerable to disjunctions between the needs of the policy makers, curriculum designers and contemporary learning and teaching research. Further, the curriculum was implemented by teachers and processed by students in ways that might also diverge from ways that contemporary theories of learning and teaching suggest are effective. These mediating sources introduced filters that impacted on the research-practice relationship.

We identified five levels of filtering, namely: (1) mental models of teaching and learning that inform external curriculum design; (2) mental models of teaching and learning that inform teachers’ curriculum interpretation; (3) preferred teaching practices that guide teachers’ enactment of instructional designs; (4) students’ knowledge of learning and of themselves as learners; and (5) ways that new curriculum initiatives are positioned in educational systems.

Curriculum design

There appeared to be a disjunction between mental models (Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 2003) held by the UMI curriculum designers about ideal teaching-learning environments and what was possible in classrooms. For example, the module contained more material than teachers could cover despite the considerable allocation of lesson time. Teachers also found difficulty differentiating which content was core and which was discretionary. Importantly, time constraints had the potential to lead to superficial treatment of profound mental health issues.

Teachers’ mental models of teaching and learning

Interviews with teachers and administrators illustrated that some teachers appeared to hold mental models of teaching and learning that positioned the teacher as the director of learning and as the fount of knowledge. Such mental models did not include, in a substantial way, a place for students to take an active role in their learning. Concepts such as student autonomy and control over learning were not strongly represented. Contextual constraints had the potential to lead teachers to regard active and constructive participation by students as a management issue, constrained by community and student attitudes, teaching resources, time pressures and class size.

Teaching enactment of instructional designs

Teachers generally indicated confidence in their ability to teach the UMI module. This contrasted with TRG concerns about teachers dealing with mental health issues that were often outside their area of expertise. These two perspectives suggest a blurring between conceptions of general pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1986; 1987). Classroom observations supported teachers’ accounts that favored a teacher-directed approach to teaching, relying on the supplied materials and using an expository style of delivery combined with teacher-led question-answer sessions.

Students’ learning:

At the group level, students’ knowledge, attitudes and behavioral intentions relating to UMI improved from pre- to post-teaching. Qualitative data indicated changes in students’ conceptions about mental illness. Some students reported not having the opportunity and time to engage with learning about mental illness at a deeper level. Students’ prior knowledge about strategies for learning (such as role plays, or searching the internet) substantially impacted upon students’ capacity to engage with UMI learning activities. Teacher and student perceptions of the module (e.g. suitability of activities) appeared to be mediated by each teacher’s pedagogical decisions about appropriate proportions of teacher-directed or student-directed activity.

Educational systems

Teacher and administrator interviews and TRG feedback indicated problems with: scope and sequence; the value placed upon different areas of the curriculum through supports such as resources, teacher professional development; the crowded curriculum; and constructive alignment between assessment and subject matter.

Theoretical and Educational Significance

This study adopted a case-study approach and mixed-methods to analyze multiple sources of data on the extent to which documented knowledge about effective teaching and learning is enacted in the teaching of a nationally mandated curriculum resource. A five level framework was used to highlight filters that operate in the translation of contemporary theory and research about teaching and learning into an authentic teaching-learning enterprise.

This research reinforces the importance of investigating how educational theory is represented in classrooms and supports Bransford and colleagues’ (2000) argument that the classroom use of research on learning and teaching is an important site for research.