Linking Theory and Practice: Changing the Pedagogy of Teacher Education

TLDR

Many countries are shifting to school‑based teacher education, revealing that the traditional theory‑application model is ineffective and that existing reflective approaches lack a coherent theoretical foundation. The study proposes a realistic approach to teacher education grounded in two theoretical frameworks. The authors develop two complementary frameworks: one framing knowledge with episteme and phronesis, and another describing teacher cognition and behavior across Gestalt, schema, and theory levels, supported by interview data and analysis of educator roles. Initial evaluations show that the realistic approach, which integrates the episteme/phronesis framing and the three‑level cognition‑behavior model, yields promising results in teacher education practice.

Abstract

The pressure towards more school-based teacher education programs, visible in many countries, creates a need to rethink the relationship between theory and practice. The traditional application-of-theory model appears to be rather ineffective and is currently being replaced by other, more reflective approaches. However, until now the variety of different notions and assumptions underlying these new approaches have not provided a sound basis for further development. Two related theoretical bases are presented for a new paradigm in teacher education. The first uses the concepts of episteme and phronesis to introduce a new way of framing relevant knowledge. The second is a more holistic way of describing the relationship between teacher cognition and teacher behavior, leading to a model of three levels in learning about teaching, the Gestalt level, the schema level and the theory level, which are illustrated by interview data. Building on these two theoretical, frameworks, a so-called “realistic approach” to teacher education is introduced. The teacher educator's role within this approach is analyzed as well as organizational consequences. First evaluative results are presented.