Introduction : professional preparation and the study of educational situations

Abstract

What exactly does the professional education and training of teachers involve? For sure in the initial stages there must be much practical experience under the guidance of those ah-eady skilled at the job. But what kinds of knowledge and understanding must teachers also acquire if they are really being prepared to carry out their responsibilities intelligently, with good grounds for the complex judgements they make about curricula, specific teaching methods, issues of discipline and so on? These are long-standing and very fundamental questions for all those involved in professional preparation. But in recent years they have received even more concerted and critical attention and the whole rationale of the nature and place of educational theory in teacher-training has been reconsidered. As a result new pattsrns of training are being developed and in this paper I wish first to outline something of the new approach that has emerged and the role of theory within it.