Search results for: Theory practice relationship

This article examines the gap between the theory and practice of teaching by reporting a study that researched the inconsistencies between student teachers' best teaching strategies and their most commonly employed ones. Specifically, the authors investigated: (1) the considerations that contribute to the inconsistencies in the student teachers' conceptions of teaching; and (2) the enhancing factors of the teacher education programme which help to close the gap between the theory and practice of teaching. The findings revealed three main dimensions of consideration attributing to the inconsistencies in the conceptions of teaching: pre-training experience, teaching context and student needs.

This article focuses on the relationship of the higher education (HE) (theoretical) component of the teaching qualification to the (practical) placement experience that student teachers undertake. This study approaches the data through the concept of 'community of practice' aiming to interrogate its usefulness as a theoretical idea that can illuminate the experience of student teachers. The participants are student teachers studying on a Post Graduate Certificate in Education, Post-Compulsory Education (PGCE PCE) for teachers of adult literacy course in the UK.

This article describes the process for change undertaken by one early childhood teacher preparation program. While the changes were spurred in part by increasing emphases on standards and assessment systems, faculty noted concerns with how this framed the program and with how students negotiated learning in this system.

A core question of teacher education—“What can I do?”—plagues courses on race in particular ways. Teachers routinely search for “concrete” applications of “theoretical” ideas about race, question the potential for “everyday” activity to dismantle inequality “structures,” and wrestle with the need for both professional and personal development on racial issues. In this article, the authors discuss how these three core tensions surfaced in one race-oriented teacher education course. The authors suggest that to create inquisitive and efficacious teachers, teacher educators can encourage teachers to keep all three tensions in play for the duration of their careers.