Shulman The signature pedagogies of the professions of law, medicine, engineering, and the clergy: Potential lessons for the education of teachers.

Shulman, L. (2005). The signature pedagogies of the professions of law, medicine, engineering, and the clergy: Potential lessons for the education of teachers. Presented at the Math Science Partnerships (MSP) Workshop, Teacher Education for Effective Teaching and Learning. National Research Council’s Center for Education in Irvine, CA. February 6-8.

“Professional education is a synthesis of three apprenticeships – a cognitive apprenticeship wherein one learns to think like a professional, a practical apprenticeship where one learns to perform like a professional, and a moral apprenticeship where one learns to think and act in a responsible and ethical manner that integrates across all three domains” (p. 3).

“’Signature pedagogies of the professions’ are not eternal and unchanging. Even though they seem remarkably stable at any one point in time, they are always subject to change as conditions in the practice of the profession itself and in the institutions that provide professional service or care undergo larger societal change” (p. 5).

“What happens when people who are used to being invisible, to burrowing down when faced with a pedagogical challenge, suddenly or regularly find themselves visible, accountable, and if you will, vulnerable? You inevitably begin to experience higher levels of emotion in a classroom. There’s a sense of risk. There’s a sense of unpredictability. There’s a sense of – dare I say – anxiety. And for some, anxiety morphs into terror” (p. 11).

“As a psychologist, I would argue that a certain measure of anxiety is adaptive for learning. It’s good to be a little anxious; it leads to more attention and vigilance. But while moderate anxiety is adaptive, terror is paralyzing, nad one ofhte great pedagogical challenges is to create an environment that is simultaneously risky but not paralytic” (p. 12).

“Terror occurs in the absence of control” (p. 12).

Features of signature pedagogies:

• habitual
• routine
• visible
• accountable
• interdependent
• collaborative
• emotional
• unpredictable
• affect-laden

Three kinds of descriptors: (1) pedagogies of uncertainty, (2) pedagogies of engagement, and (3) pedagogies of formation