Classroom model alone stifles critical thinking
I am writing in response to your recent article by Derek Sankey, headlined 'Theory aside, students need to get back in the classroom' (Education Post, April 8) which argued for a model of teacher education based primarily in the schools.
As someone who has developed teacher education programmes in a number of countries and has seen the impact of a range of approaches to this challenge, I have to take issue with the assumption that simply exposing student teachers to schools will allow them to develop the necessary skills to become good teachers.
Research on schools demonstrates the powerful nature of the school culture, which can be very resistant to change, despite changing external circumstances. Young teachers who learn only through apprenticeship models tend to repeat the patterns they see around them, not learn to think critically about what they do and why they do it.
A university-based approach to teacher education is not about 'the injection of education theory', as Sankey describes it, but an introduction to reflective practice that supports professional growth throughout the teacher's working life.
The pace of change is undoubtedly increasing in the 21st century and future graduates will need skills and understandings different from those that guaranteed success in the last century. Their teachers will need to be able to respond to this changing world and rethink traditional ways of doing things.
