Teacher Learning in a Community of Practice: A Case Study of ...

In the next extract, Ben referred to the 'market days' that he and Beth had organised at
their school and the interest that it had aroused amongst the pupils.
MM:
Ben
Can you describe the EMS activities that you've been involved in at your
school?
Yes, a lot, a lot. We came here from the first workshop. we. we know we
practised marketing. We had three market days and we made a lot of money.
There's three moneys. three market days and the kids were so impressed.
they bought our items and we made money.
And we have now gardens from this project. that's why we sell spinach; we
sell carrots and all that. The children are learning entrepreneurial skills. And
we want to involve them. Now we want to involve more classes in market
days. but the time is always a problem. The time is very short.
Here Ben (like Beth) had thus created an interest in the EMS learning area through the
market days.
In the above extracts from Ben's final interview, Ben asserted that his knowledge ofEMS
had changed, laying claim to 'a lot ofdifference'. An analysis ofthe second observation
ofhis teaching later in this section, however, revealed that Ben's 'content knowledge'
and 'pedagogical content knowledge' ofEMS was indeed scant and inadequate.
However, we begin with the first observation ofhis teaching.
6.3.5.1 The first observation of Ben's teaching
The following extract from Ben's lesson observation report illustrates his approach to
teaching his grade six EMS class. Ben indicated that the purpose ofthe lesson was to
establish the concepts 'primary sector', 'secondary sector' and 'tertiary sector'.
First lesson observation report: Ben
When Ben and r entered the class. there was absolute silence. All pupils immediately stood
up to perform the greeting ritual. r was introduced and was given a practiced applause (two
slow claps. followed by four quick claps and then another five quick claps).
Ben came across as a very authoritarian teacher. He was very formal in his approach and
spoke with a stern voice. I wondered how this normally congenial and softly spoken person
had suddenly transformed into an 'army commander' marshalling his troops.
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