Something else occurred to me...

A final thought in this series of posts on my work with teachers in professional development activities over the past two weeks. In reflecting on the second post, I find myself coming back to Grenier (2006) and the conceptualization of the development of expertise as one that is cyclical in nature. Grenier (2006) describes the development of expertise in museum docents and points out instances when expert docents go back to the novice stage in terms of subject matter expertise and/or certain skills when they take on new projects or new exhibits. I couldn't help comparing this to some of the struggles the high school teachers are having as they grappled with how to teach this new curriculum they are developing. Certainly, the teachers haven't lost any of their teaching expertise; however, they seem to be regressing in terms of confidence in using that expertise in a new area of content. This seems to parallel Grenier's docents' movements in and out of expertise as they worked to master new walking routes, new exhibits, and new knowledge.