Teachers’ Practices and Mental Models - Transformation Through Reflection on Action

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine

This contribution explores the relationship between teachers’ practices, teaching discourses, and teachers’ implicit representations and mental models, and how these dimensions evolve through teacher education. A teacher education course was designed and implemented in Argentina, emphasizing teacher intervention in personal narrative telling in kindergarten. Ten in-service teachers’ activities were analysed before and after the course, and a case study used content analysis of in-depth interviews to infer transformations in one teacher’s mental models.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Context of the Study

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 40 | Issue 6 | Article 2 | | --- | --- | | 2015
Teachers´ Practices and Mental Models: Transformation Through Reflection on Action
María Soledad Manrique
National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Argentina, solemanrique@yahoo.com.ar
Verónica Sánchez Abchi
University of Fribourg, Switzerland, [vssancheza@gmail.com](vssancheza@gmail.com) | | Recommended Citation Manrique, M., & Sánchez Abchi, V. (2015). Teachers´ Practices and Mental Models: Transformation Through Reflection on Action. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40 (6). Retrieved from [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol40/iss6/2](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol40/iss6/2) This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol40/iss6/2](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol40/iss6/2) Australian Journal of Teacher Education Teachers’ Practices and Mental Models: Transformation through Reflection on Action María Soledad Manrique National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) Argentina Verónica Sánchez Abchi University of Fribourg Switzerland Abstract: This contribution explores the relationship between teaching practices, teaching discourses and teachers´ implicit representations and mental models and the way these dimensions change through teacher education (T.E). In order to study these relationships, and based on the assumptions that representations underlie teaching practices and that T.E might affect these representations, a T.E course was designed and implemented in Argentina. The course focused on teacher intervention in personal narrative telling in kindergarten. It was based on a reflection-on action process. The personal narrative activities of 10 in-service teachers before and after the course were analysed employing the Process of Constant Comparison (Glaser & Straus, 1967). A case study was then conducted in order to infer possible transformations in one of the teachers´ implicit representations and mental models, through Content Analysis (Krippendorf, 1990) of in-depth interviews before, during and after the course. Keywords: teacher education, mental models, teachers´ practices, personal narratives Introduction This contribution is part of a broader research project focused both on preschool inservice teachers´ professionalization, through continuing professional development, and on children´s cognitive and linguistic development in at-risk populations.1 Within this research project, the main goal is to understand the relationship between teaching practices, teaching discourses, teachers´ implicit representations and mental models, and the way these dimensions change through teacher education (T.E) .2 A T.E course was designed as part of 10 teachers’ continuing education to answer these two questions: how do teaching practices and teaching discourses change after T. E.? What can practices and discourse tell us about changes operated in teachers´ implicit representations and mental models? By explaining how teachers are inclined to think (mental models) and act (teaching 1 The project “Teacher Education and subjective transformation. Change in mental models and practice.” is part of a broader project “Linguistic and cognitive aspects in literacy in minority groups” under GRANT: PIP 926/2012-CONICET 2 Teacher education is here understood as a life-long issue, as continuing professional development; encompassing all the courses and activities performed to continually acquire new qualifications along a teacher´s professional career. Vol 40, 6, June 2015 13 Australian Journal of Teacher Education practices) in different teaching situations, this study illuminates what Cochran-Smith (2005) calls the ‘black box’ of teacher quality. Teaching practices are understood as certain behaviours and actions regularly performed by teachers to turn reality into another reality (Barbie

FAQs

What relationship does the study examine among teachers’ practices and mental models?

The study investigates how teaching practices, teaching discourses, and teachers’ implicit representations and mental models relate to each other, and how they change through teacher education.

How was the teacher education course implemented in the study?

A teacher education course was designed and implemented in Argentina, focusing on teacher intervention in personal narrative telling in kindergarten using a reflection-on-action process.

What methods were used to analyze changes before and after the course?

Personal narrative activities of 10 in-service teachers were analyzed using the Process of Constant Comparison, and a case study inferred transformations through content analysis of in-depth interviews before, during, and after the course.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine