Teaching Practices Grounded in Foundational Knowledge, Visions, and Contexts

Abstract

Drawing on our experiences as teacher educators in two programs designed specifically to prepare teachers for particular contexts, this article illustrates how we design our courses to help new teachers link foundational understandings to specific teaching practices in particular school and classroom contexts. We describe our integrated approach, in which candidates learn theory and practice simultaneously, breaking down the dichotomies of theory and practice while connecting to specific contexts or settings and understanding the relationship of practices to visions of good teaching.