Responsive Teaching: A "Difficult Balance"?

Responsive forms of practice, where teachers make thoughtful decisions about, and changes to, their actions in the immediate act of teaching have been acknowledged as the “gold standard” for the profession due to the... [ view full abstract ]

Responsive forms of practice, where teachers make thoughtful decisions about, and changes to, their actions in the immediate act of teaching have been acknowledged as the “gold standard” for the profession due to the potential for aligning teaching to learners’ needs (Parsons and Vaughn, 2016). However, a concern has been voiced about how straightforwardly connecting responsive practice with the needs of learners, treats adaptability as a “technical teaching practice…invoked by the teacher” (Vagle, 2016).  

To sketch out a wider frame for the adjustments teachers make to their practices, this study conducted a qualitative investigation of six secondary physical education teachers recognised for their responsive capabilities. There were two inter-related phases to the research project: the first phase involved individually tracking six teachers in their school contexts and observing 88 lessons; the second phase involved conducting a semi-structured interview with each teacher to explore the insights gained during the observations.   

Close analysis revealed that participants enacted a repertoire of teaching approaches by ‘responding’ to situations in the immediate act of teaching, confirming one aspect driving their practices was the desire to meet the needs of learners. A striking finding, which is not adequately captured in existing literature, was that teachers and learners shaped the dynamics of the classroom, requiring negotiation of learning intentions and teacher judgement about adjusting practices against the changeable nature of teacher-learner relationships. One participant summarised this dynamic picture as a “difficult balance” between remaining alert to the “enthusiasm” of learners while fostering relationships with them and maintaining a degree of control in relation to learning goals for classes.     

Parsons, S. A. and Vaughn, M. (2016) Toward Adaptability: Where to from Here? Theory Into Practice, Vol. 55:3, 267-274.   

Vagle, M. D. (2016) Making Pedagogical Adaptability Less Obvious, Theory Into Practice, Vol. 55:3, 207-216.