{"title":"Navigating Tensions in Designing a Curriculum That Prepares Preservice Teachers for School-Based Learning","authors":"Carol Bertram, L. Rusznyak","doi":"10.25159/1947-9417/14677","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"A long-standing concern in teacher education is the variability in the quality of practicum experiences afforded to preservice teachers. Although some variability is due to their personal attributes, preservice teachers often find it difficult to connect theoretical insights to teachers’ classroom practices. These challenges can be exacerbated when teachers do not explain the reasoning for what they do and why. School closures during the pandemic provided South African teacher educators with an opportunity to address this concern. We participated in developing a national online module that prepares preservice teachers for school-based learning through guided lesson study. This article adopts a self-study approach to account for the curriculum choices in developing this module. Three tensions needed consideration: portraying teaching as an individualised pursuit and/or a social practice, focusing on generic and/or specialised pedagogies, and focusing on the tacit and/or explicit reasoning that teachers do. We account for how we worked within and between these tensions. A module of this nature potentially enhances school-based learning by making the reasoning of teachers explicit to preservice teachers. To achieve this potential and to advance work-integrated learning as a scholarship, the conceptual underpinnings of the module and its curriculum design must be open to reflection and scrutiny.","PeriodicalId":44983,"journal":{"name":"Education As Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Education As Change","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/14677","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
A long-standing concern in teacher education is the variability in the quality of practicum experiences afforded to preservice teachers. Although some variability is due to their personal attributes, preservice teachers often find it difficult to connect theoretical insights to teachers’ classroom practices. These challenges can be exacerbated when teachers do not explain the reasoning for what they do and why. School closures during the pandemic provided South African teacher educators with an opportunity to address this concern. We participated in developing a national online module that prepares preservice teachers for school-based learning through guided lesson study. This article adopts a self-study approach to account for the curriculum choices in developing this module. Three tensions needed consideration: portraying teaching as an individualised pursuit and/or a social practice, focusing on generic and/or specialised pedagogies, and focusing on the tacit and/or explicit reasoning that teachers do. We account for how we worked within and between these tensions. A module of this nature potentially enhances school-based learning by making the reasoning of teachers explicit to preservice teachers. To achieve this potential and to advance work-integrated learning as a scholarship, the conceptual underpinnings of the module and its curriculum design must be open to reflection and scrutiny.
期刊介绍:
Education as Change is an accredited, peer reviewed scholarly online journal that publishes original articles reflecting critically on issues of equality in education and on the ways in which educational practices contribute to transformation in non-formal, formal and informal contexts. Critique, mainly understood in the tradition of critical pedagogies, is a constructive process which contributes towards a better world. Contributions from and about marginalised communities and from different knowledge traditions are encouraged. The articles could draw on any rigorous research methodology, as well as transdisciplinary approaches. Research of a very specialised or technical nature should be framed within relevant discourses. While specialised kinds of research are encouraged, authors are expected to write for a broader audience of educational researchers and practitioners without losing conceptual and theoretical depth and rigour. All sectors of education are covered in the journal. These include primary, secondary and tertiary education, adult education, worker education, educational policy and teacher education.