scholarly journals Developing Communities of Praxis: Bridging the theory practice divide in teacher education

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael James Anderson ◽  
Kelly Freebody

Teacher education in universities is under pressure. In many new education policies there is a renewed focus on teacher quality, and therefore quality initial teacher education. In some countries this renewed focus has led to a resurgence of “alternative approaches” to teacher education such as Teach for America / Australia. One of the most persistent complaints about pre-service teacher education is that educational theory presented in these programs does not relate sufficiently to the real work of teachers. In an attempt to overcome these real or perceived divides, tertiary drama educators at the University of Sydney constructed a professional experience program based on both the community of practice model (Lave and Wenger, 1991) and Frierean notions of praxis (1972). The community of praxis approach emphasises the importance of integrating theory and practice to support the development of beginning teachers. This article outlines the development, implementation, and evaluation of this approach, including the reasoning behind its foundation and the theoretical and practical significance of such an approach for teacher-educators.

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 20-35
Author(s):  
Urip Sulistiyo ◽  
◽  
Muhammad Rusdi ◽  
Jennifer Clifton ◽  
Heather Fehring ◽  
...  

Professional experience is considered essential to enable pre-service teachers (PSTs) to implement what they have learned during their initial teacher education (ITE) programto school environments. There are multiple models of professional experience that address the issue of integrating theory and practice. This article reports on findings of the implementation of the Coaching Approach to Professional Experience (CAPE) modelin an ITE program in Jambi University, Indonesia. Using qualitative focus groups, this research focuses on the perceptions of PSTs, a school principal, mentor teachers, teacher educators(lecturer) and a coach regarding the implementation of the CAPE model. The research findings indicate that the role of the coach helped PSTs as they were able to individualise and focus on developing teaching skills. However, several weaknesses were also identified. In adapting the model to Jambi University’s context, the structure of the CAPE model was too general. The coach working with PSTs was not entirely free from her/his teaching duties, thus limiting the PST-coach interactions. This article discusses these findings and concludes by offering recommendations for future adaptions of the CAPE model in Indonesia and beyond.


Author(s):  
Lawrence Jun Zhang ◽  
Donglan Zhang

AbstractBeginning teachers are frequently heard making observations that the knowledge and skills they have acquired on the training programmes do not come handy when they want to apply them in their real-work situations. They have also reported lacking the ability to integrate theory and practice in reality. Henceforth, teacher-educators are faced with challenges of how to proportionally balance the two strands of pivotal knowledge that are necessarily connected with teacher-education curricula in pre-service teacher preparation. One of the approaches to examining the issue is to investigate student teachers’ dialogues for knowledge-construction to uncover the interaction patterns and strategies they use in negotiating lesson objectives and processes. Against such a background, this paper reports on a study of 24 student teachers receiving training in English language teaching on the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme at a teacher education institution in Singapore. It was intended to find out the negotiation processes in relation to lesson-planning objectives and how student teachers positioned themselves and others in the processes in the pre-service teacher-education classroom. Results show that student teachers were more concerned about surviving the first lesson than about promoting pupil learning in constructing knowledge about language teaching. The stronger peers’ dominance in the discussion process was taken for granted, suggesting that learning took place in a mutually beneficial and constructive manner and that student teachers’ willingness to cooperate and readiness to express themselves were indicative of their intention to maintain group cohesion and dynamics. These, in turn, are necessary prerequisites for student teachers to become collaborative and reflective practitioners.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 257-280
Author(s):  
Beth Dickson

The Faculty of Education at the University of Glasgow's reform of initial teacher education was undertaken on the basis of current research within a mature educational infrastructure. Within the university research knowledge was utilized in two ways: research on teacher education indicated that enquiry could become a key aspect of teacher identity; and it indicated the need for a curriculum for pre-service teachers in schools. Thus enquiry learning was embedded in schools and the new school-based curriculum had three elements: seminars; peer learning through learning rounds; joint-assessed visits. These innovations were positively reinforced by Teaching Scotland's Future (Donaldson, 2011). This series of reforms has implications for Wales and can be usefully analysed against the binary thinking which dominates discourses in teacher education; and Williams's thought on the vulnerability of emergent culture. Four binaries are identified and re-conceptualised: binaries of time, space, content and persons. The binary of time (initial and continuing teacher education is conceptualised a career-long process; the binary of space (school and university) is recast as a third space; the binary of content (theory and practice) is recast as different forms of knowledge permeating space and time; and the binary of persons is recast as a (university-based teacher educator and pre-service teacher) is recast as a triad which sets all three in dialogue. Implications include the deeper consideration of career-long teacher learning; and the role of the teacher educator. This emergent practice may be vulnerable to dominant practice.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Zhang ◽  
Donglan Zhang

Abstract Beginning teachers are frequently heard making observations that the knowledge and skills they have acquired on the training programmes do not come handy when they want to apply them in their real-work situations. They have also reported lacking the ability to integrate theory and practice in reality. Henceforth, teacher-educators are faced with challenges of how to balance proportionally the two strands of pivotal knowledge that are necessarily connected with teacher-education curricula in pre-service teacher preparation. One of the approaches to examining the issue is to investigate student teachers’ dialogues for knowledge-construction to uncover the interaction patterns and strategies they use in negotiating lesson objectives. Against such a background, this paper reports on a study of 24 student teachers receiving training in English language teaching on the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme at a teacher education institute in Singapore. It was intended to find out the negotiation processes in relation to lesson-planning objectives and how student teachers positioned themselves and others in the processes in the pre-service teacher-education classroom. Results show that student teachers were more concerned about surviving the first lesson than about promoting pupil learning in constructing knowledge about language teaching. The stronger peers’ dominance in the discussion process was taken for granted, suggesting that learning took place in a mutually beneficial and constructive manner and that student teachers’ willingness to cooperate and readiness to express themselves were indicative of their intention to maintain group cohesion and dynamics. These, in turn, are necessary prerequisites for student teachers to become collaborative and reflective practitioners.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Tilson ◽  
Susan Sandretto

Purpose The purpose of this New Zealand study is to analyse the influence of the literacy course from an initial teacher education degree, to support beginning teachers to view themselves as policy actors, not mere policy subjects. In our role as teacher educators, we sought to support beginning teachers to find freedom within the constraints of official literacy policy to include multiliteracies. Design/methodology/approach Using de Certeau’s dialectic of strategies and tactics, the authors critically analysed the influence of the literacy course. The data included an assignment from the literacy course, an end-of-literacy course survey and a follow-up interview six months into their first teaching position with a group of five beginning primary school teachers. Findings The findings shed light on our apparent inability to support beginning teachers to see themselves as policy actors/subjects. The analysis reveals the beginning teachers’ tactical responses to our strategies intended to position them as policy actors. The analysis also illustrates how the tactics the authors deployed were viewed as strategies by the beginning teachers, ironically further solidifying the literacy policy they had sought to critique and destabilise and (re)positioning them as policy subjects. Originality/value de Certeau’s framework supported the illumination of the complex interplay of strategies and tactics deployed by ourselves and beginning teachers as the authors sought to support them to identify the freedoms within the constraints of official literacy policy. Any future attempt to develop beginning teachers as policy actors/subjects will benefit from the careful examination of the strategies and tactics at play in initial teacher education.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 90-104
Author(s):  
Maria A. Flores

This paper draws on previous empirical work and reflections on initial teacher education after the implementation of the Bologna process in Portugal. It focuses on issues of knowledge and competences developed under the new legal framework, particularly as far as the research component is concerned. As initial teacher education occurs at a Master level, the research dimension was assumed as a key feature of the new model being practicum one of its key distinctive and most innovative elements. The need to enhance the quality of initial teacher education and to reinforce the link between theory and practice and between research and teaching was at the forefront of the restructuring process at the University of Minho, particularly regarding practicum. The paper concludes with a summary of the positive aspects and issues that deserve further attention.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8574
Author(s):  
Rebecca Weicht ◽  
Svanborg R. Jónsdóttir

Entrepreneurial education offers valuable opportunities for teachers to foster and enhance creativity and action competence, which are also important for sustainability education. The University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) is a leader in the development of entrepreneurial education in teacher education both in Wales and internationally. The objective of this article is to shed light on how an entrepreneurial education approach can help foster social change. The aim of this study is to learn from teacher educators at UWTSD about how they support creativity, innovation, and an enterprising mindset in their learners. A case study approach is applied. By analysing documentary evidence such as module and assignment handbooks, we explore how teacher educators at UWTSD deliver entrepreneurial education for social change. Our findings indicate that UWTSD’s development of entrepreneurial education in teacher training has enabled constructive learning, cultivating creativity and action competence. We provide examples that display how the intentions of the Curriculum for Wales and entrepreneurial education approaches of the UWTSD emerge in practice. These examples show outcomes of the entrepreneurial projects that evince the enactment of social change. The findings also show that the educational policy of Wales supports entrepreneurial education throughout all levels of the educational system.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Liv Gjems ◽  
Inge Vinje

<p>In several European countries, teacher education is regulated by national plans that emphasise pedagogy as the central subject. Pedagogy shall include research-based knowledge, as well as having a strong connection between theory and practice. We have interviewed teacher educators about what they emphasise about theoretical and practical issues in the subject of pedagogy. Though they have to follow the curriculum, they express that they have different conceptions and emphasise different issues both in theoretical and practical pedagogy. Their answers point to the challenges between the establishment of a professional autonomy and the control the national curriculum imposes them The teacher educators were quite vague about their teaching about research-based knowledge. They expressed that they need support, time and possibilities to discuss the content in the curriculum and how to educate high qualified teachers.</p>


1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 176-181
Author(s):  
Ian Abbott ◽  
Caron Coldicott ◽  
Moss Foley ◽  
Prue Huddleston ◽  
Peter Stagg

The Economics and Business Studies Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at the University of Warwick has been at the forefront of developing links between initial teacher education and business. The latest stage in this process occurred in January 1996 when 22 PGCE students undertook a three-day residential course established in a partnership between the University of Warwick, Understanding British Industry (UBI) and the UK Post Office. This course was the first of its kind in the UK to be sponsored by an individual company and has been designed to provide a model which can be used in all areas of initial teacher education links between business and initial teacher education. The authors address practical and theoretical issues relating to the development of links between business and initial teacher education. The broader theoretical issues considered include the significance of this type of activity in relation to the changes taking place in initial teacher education in England and Wales, such as the development of competencies, the role of continuing professional development and the appropriateness of the model. The authors also address the practical implications of working with business, and the development of a residential programme in a crowded timetable, and assess some of the curriculum materials produced by students.


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