Linking Practice and Theory: the Pedagogy of Realistic Teacher Education

Introduction Teacher education finds itself in a critical stage. The pressure towards more school-based programs which is visible in many countries is a sign that not only teachers, but also parents and politicians, are often dissatisfied with the traditional approaches in teacher education In some countries a major part of preservice teacher education has now become the responsibility of the schools, creating a situation in which to a large degree teacher education takes the form of 'training on the job'. The argument for this tendency is that traditional teacher education programs are said to fail in preparing prospective teachers for the realities of the classroom (Goodlad, 1990). Many teacher educators object that a professional teacher should acquire more than just practical tools for managing classroom situations and that it is their job to present student teachers with a broader view on education and to offer them a proper grounding in psychology, sociology, etcetera. This is what Clandinin (1995) calls " the sacred theory-practice story " : teacher education conceived as the translation of theory on good teaching into practice. However, many studies have shown that the transfer of theory to practice is meager or even non-existent. Zeichner and Tabachnick (1981), for example, showed that many notions and educational conceptions, developed during preservice teacher education, were "washed out" during field experiences. Comparable findings were reported by Cole and Knowles (1993) and Veenman (1984), who also points towards the severe problems teachers experience once they have left preservice teacher education. Lortie (1975) presented us with another early study into the socialization process of teachers, showing the dominant role of practice in shaping teacher development. At Konstanz University in Germany, research has been carried out into the phenomenon of the "transition shock" (Müller-Fohrbrodt et al. It showed that, during their induction in the profession, teachers encounter a huge gap between theory and practice. As a consequence, they pass through a quite distinct attitude shift during their first year of teaching, in general creating an adjustment to current practices in the schools and not to recent scientific insights into learning and teaching.