Raising awareness of classroom constructs: An application of Kelly's repertory grid technique

Abstract

This article argues that Kelly’s repertory grid technique allows prospective teachers and their trainers to gain critical-reflective depth when they respond to statistically computed relationships between the poles of pairs of constructs in their group and personal grids. Using ten classroom-specific scenarios as elements, we elicited approximately 800 constructs from a cohort of prospective teachers in the first stage of this awareness-raising project. From these, 12 constructs were selected to include in a repertory ratings grid. Tentative hypotheses about the meaning making within the group and for each indivudal were formulated. These hypotheses were tentative trainer-formulated accounts which could only be accepted or rejected by the participating cohort of teachers in “dialogically accomplished” task-response sequences based on relational subjectivity. Writing tasks were formulated requiring the teachers to validate or reject these tentative hypotheses. These responses were logged and used as evidence of critical-reflective analyses directed at meaning making.