ABSTRACT
It has long been argued that curriculum change is primarily a matter of changing the conditions of teacher learning (Darling-Hammond and Sykes, 1999). Teacher professional development, reflection, collaboration and classroom experimentation have been identified as contributing to teacher learning and improvements in classroom practice. However, teachers form only one side of the teaching and learning equation. A few years ago, for example, we observed the Grade 11 classroom of an experienced teacher who was trying to implement a new physics syllabus based on constructivist underpinnings. What we found was, that in spite of excellent professional support and the teacher’s best efforts, the students resisted his attempts to use more student-centred practices (Wildy and Wallace, 1994). The students were more comfortable with teacher-centred practices – lots of teacher talk, clear delineation of course content and practice in examination techniques – than they were with more inquiry, context-based approaches. The new strategies were seen by the students in this class as ‘wasteful digressions’ causing the teacher to quickly revert to his old ways of teaching.
