Teacher Practical Knowledge in Restructured High Schools

The extent to which teacher practical knowledge (TPK) was student centered and practiced school-wide in three high schools nationally recognized as pioneers in school restructuring was assessed. Ten teachers reputed for their student-centered pedagogy in each school were interviewed to collect data on TPK. Randomly selected, matched pairs of teachers and their students were surveyed to determine schoolwide agreement on TPK. Smallwood had 60% schoolwide agreement, Fairview 30%, and Bluehill 26%. A national panel of experts then used a 5-point Likert-type scale to assess TPK items according to student-centered pedagogical criteria. Smallwood High School data were analyzed as moderately student centered (3.67), followed by Fairview (3.50) and Bluehill (3.15). Teacher practical knowledge in these schools may have been a by-product of the contexts within which restructuring occurred. The findings indicated that the pedagogy practiced in Fairview and Bluehill may differ little from that of typical suburban-urban high schools.