Integrating Coursework in Methods With Practice: Purposeful Support for the Theory-to-Practice Morass by Providing the “Information Needed When Needed”

• In Event: Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: Intersections of Theory, Belief, and Pedagogical Practice in the Classroom

Abstract

Pre-service teachers’ use of problem solving in a pedagogical-methods course and its applications in their student-teaching experience were examined. Research suggests that theories and methods may influence beliefs but have little impact on practice. Support of pre-service teachers for more robust applications of prior-learning included self-selection of six problems of practice emerging from their student-teaching, which were investigated for research-based information, to discover applications to address the problem within their local fieldwork context. Using qualitative methods focused on narratives, representative data included interviews, work samples from coursework. Findings indicate that allowing participants to self-select topics of inquiry in a pedagogical-methods course increased direct application of methods and strategies in participants’ fieldwork teaching experience, and directly addressed the fieldwork social context.

Author

• Paula M. Carbone, University of Southern California