Core Practices in Teacher Education: A Friendly Critique

• In Event: 61.035 - What's "Core" to Teacher Educator Pedagogy? (Re)Considering the Meaning of Practice in Teacher Educator Development

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop a friendly critique of the practice-based teacher education movement. The paper argues that this movement has addressed some of the problems associated with teacher education, but has elided a series of critical questions that other bodies of literature would suggest are important. Drawing on literature from the learning sciences, school organization, and the author’s own six year study of American secondary schools, this paper delineates what has and has not been accomplished through the work on “core practices” and suggests directions for future research and action. This paper would fit well on a panel with empirical contributions about core practices, as the ideas raised here would hopefully lead to a lively discussion.

Author

• Jal David Mehta, Harvard University