Expert and Novice Teacher Decision Making

Abstract

The thinking and decision making of expert and novice teachers were compared before, during, and after teaching. The novices were five student teachers, and the experts were their five cooperating teachers in a suburban elementary school. Audiotaped planning interviews, videotapes of lessons, stimulated recall interviews, post-teaching interviews, delayed self-reports, and relevant printed materials were analyzed us ing the constant comparative method. The expert teachers thought about learning from the perspective of the student and performed a cognitive analysis of each learning task during planning, which they adapted to the needs of students during teaching. In contrast, novices used specific lesson objectives to form structured lesson plans that they did not adapt to meet student needs during teaching. Models for expert and novice teacher decision making are proposed, as well as implications for teacher education.