Thinking, language and learning in initial teacher education
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Date
2016
Authors
Taylor, Nick
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
Initial teacher education (ITE) serves as a bridge between
prospective teachers exiting the school system to enrol in teacher
education faculties, on the one hand and newly qualified teachers
(NQTs) who are embarking on a career in schooling on the other.
The present paper describes the language and thinking skills
student teachers bring to their ITE programmes and the conditions
faced by NQTs when they enter schools on the other side of the
chalk face. This is the context within which we ask the question:
To what extent are the universities providing the teachers required
by the school system? While a review of the literature, together
with new evidence emerging from the Initial Teacher Education
Research Project (ITERP) study, indicates that the answer to this
question is by no means unequivocally positive, the Department of
Higher Education and Training (DHET) has issued new regulations
aimed at addressing the gap between current programmes and
the demands of schooling. We conclude by arguing that the quality
of ITE will only be improved once teacher educators move their
practices closer to those of practitioners in the strong professions,
which are characterised by the development of a strong theoretical
knowledge base, from which effective protocols of practice may be
derived and which is continuously interrogated by the practitioners
themselves. We suggest that the place to start on this quest is the
instruction of prospective primary school teachers in early literacy
and numeracy.
Description
Keywords
Pre-service teacher education, Knowledge for teachers, Inferencing skills, Professional knowledge
Citation
Taylor, N. (2016). Thinking, language and learning in initial teacher education. Perspectives in Education, 34(1), 10-26.