Transmission and Interpretation

Teacher Assessment: social process and social product

“…At least within the current context in which she lived and worked, Marie's views and practice with respect to educational knowledge reflected that of Barnes & Shemilt's (1974) 'transmission teacher'. A transmission teacher believes knowledge and the criteria for its evaluation to exist in the form of public disciplines and that the teacher's task is to pass on such knowledge to uninformed pupils and evaluate learning according to such criteria.…”

Considerations of Content and the Circumstances of Secondary School Teaching

“…An earlier and similar study of British teachers in 11 secondary schools attempted to determine how teachers of different subjects differed in their assumptions about classroom communication and the use of written work in instruction (D. Barnes & Shemilt, 1974). An analysis of 125 of 246 questionnaires sent to teachers distinguished transmission from interpretation perspective teachers.…”

Exploratory Talk for Learning

“…It is by the way that a teacher responds to what a pupil offers that he or she validates -or indeed fails to validate -that pupil's attempts to join in the thinking. In an inquiry called 'Interpretation and Transmission' I found that the way teachers interact with their pupils is closely linked to their preconceptions about the nature of the knowledge that they are teaching (Barnes and Shemilt, 1974). If they see their role as simply the transmission of authoritative knowledge they are less likely to give their pupils the opportunity to explore new ideas.…”