Innovation and teacher change: an exploratory study of the impact upon TAFE panelbeating teachers of the introduction of student reference notes in plain English

This Study explores the impact on teachers of the introduction of Student Reference Notes in Plain English. The Notes were written for Stage One Panelbeating Students in N.S.W. TAPE Colleges. The study used Naturalistic Inquiry methods to undertake individual and comparative Case Studies of four Panelbeating teachers. The impact of the Student Reference Notes was found to be related in part to the degree to which the teacher's underlying beliefs about learning, corresponded with the Wholistic' theory underlying the Notes. The degree to which the teachers had changed their teaching practices was found to be dependent on the quality and degree of the teacher's Theorising' or thinking about their practices. The study concluded that teacher-theorising was the most important factor in the process of teacher change. A model of teacher development was proposed from the findings of the study and the implications of the model for teacher development discussed.