Muhammad Ilyas Khan

Lecturer in Education, Hazara University, Pakistan.

PhD student, University of Leicester, UK

Email: ilyasjans@yahoo.com
Paper presented at TEAN conference, 18 May 2012 at
Aston, Birmingham

How did it begin?

Education as a process of
transformation from what to
what?
How?
Why?
The teacher as a the centre of
educational process
Teacher Education
The thinking teacher
Source:
http://www.khaledhosny.org/files/ima
ges/egyptian_education.jpg

From thinking to
REFLECTION.
Who is a thinking teacher?
What is reflection?
How is reflection
incorporated in the PGCE
and what is the impact of
theory-practice interaction
on the development of
effective reflective
teachers?

 What kind of initial teacher education (ITE) prepares effective,

reflective teachers?

An ITE that provides more theoretical grounding to student

teachers or one that prepares them on a more practical basis?

Or is it the one that caters to both theory and practice in equal
proportion?

What kind and form of theory helps in the effective preparation

of student teachers for their profession? What is the respective

role of the university and the school in effective ITE
programmes?

Is the current structure of the PGCE in terms theory-practice

and school-university suitable for preparing effective reflective

teachers or does it need to be restructured? What are the
factors that influence the theory-practice and university-school
aspects of the PGCE?

Theory-Practice
interaction

Teaching

Intricacy of the theory-

practice interaction
Theory(Teaching as a
science)

Practice (Teaching as an
art)

Three competing but not

exclusive positions:
Technical
rationality/Topdown model

Critical
understanding/
Critical
reflection

Artistry/practical
theorizing/Botto
m-up model

1.Technical/practical

focus
2. Critical focus
3.

Teacher as
technician/imp
lementer

Teacher as
transformative
intellectual

Teacher as
artist/practical
theoretician

Practical

theorising/collaborative
approach
1993;

(McIntyre,

Korthagen

and

Kessels,
1999;
Birmingham, 2004)

 A representative quote: educational theory is

nothing other than the name we give to the various

futile attempts that have been made over the last
hundred years to stand outside our educational
practices in order to explain and justify them. And
what I am going to propose on the basis of this
argument is that the time has now come to admit
that we cannot occupy a position outside practice
and that we should now bring the whole educational
theory enterprise to a dignified end. Carr (2006).

Previously OHear (1988) and Lawlor (1990)

Teaching as practical competence and as

craft

The

idea of teaching schools where new

entrants are provided training on job and
where trainee teachers can observe and learn
from great teachers. Michael Gove, Secretary
of State for Education.

School White Paper (2010), The importance of

Teaching, supports the idea of School-based

ITT and the Teach First concept

 Although the structure of the PGCE under this study

was two-third school-based, the White Paper seems to

propose taking the ITE (or rather ITT) further down the
school road in a bid to Reform initial teacher training,
to increase the proportion of time trainees spend in the
classroom, focusing on core teaching skills, especially
in teaching reading and mathematics and in managing
behaviour (DfE, 2010: 9).

White

Paper and the policy of the incumbent

government seem to be based more on some
ideological position (or rather a superficial form of it)
and less on any credible research regarding the role of
theory and practice and hence of the school and the
university in the preparation of beginning teachers.

 The what or subject-matter coming in the form of a

centralised curriculum

The how or teaching craft with a focus on skills

Possible neglect of the why of education/teaching
A teacher is not just a subject expert such as a

biologist or a chemist or a mathematician. In

addition The teacher needs to understand the
subject in its relation to other subjects and a part of
the overall education of students (Pearson, 1989:
147)

 Theory and practice go together

University and school cannot be exclusively

associated with either theory and practice

The balance of theory and practice and university-

school is adequate

Shifting the ITE completely to school will lead to

de-intellectualisation and de-professionalisation of

the teaching profession and the university,
therefore, has a vital role in the ITE

I think the two go hand in hand and naturally

you cant say right now we have done the
theory go and put into practice because I think
that all part of the reflection is using the theory
to inform your practice. So I think it should be
a constant practice of theory feeding into the
practice. But you got to have the practice; you
cant ever become a good teacher by just
theorising. So I think it should be integrated

 I actually think that to say that you have got theory

and practice as two separate things is a difficult one

there is this notion of cognitive apprenticeship
where um if you take apprenticeship traditionally as
being something practical, you know learning as
something like making furniture, or repairing cars.
That apprenticeship was very practical thing; have to
be done in a very practical work place. The notion of
cognitive apprenticeship as far as I can see is the
notion that actually is more about ways of thinking,
ways of approaching things but doing it in a practical
sense

 my issue with taking Higher Education out of

initial teacher education, is that it actually deintellectualises it and makes it into an apprenticeship
and it gives the impression that teaching is an easy
job

I think we have it about right in this course. We have

about two-third of their time in the school. When they

are in schools they are getting the practical practice
but they are also doing some theory. They are not
just on teaching practice because they have Directed
Tasks to do, they have reading to do while they are in
schools. So we dont let them go completely by just
saying off you go take over your class

 I think how we have got it at the moment is about

right in terms of the balance. But it does make for a

much pressurised year and a very demanding year in
terms of assignment work and practice. But we do
stress the importance of theory, the importance of
looking at other peoples research

Its better now. Its much more difficult now. We had

a very nice year, you know we felt very much like

university students, and we had a very nice leisurely
time then. We had an intensive attachment to a
school but only one attachment to one school. And
now you have to have experience in two schools
which is much better

 Previously theory was much more about things such

as history of education, and all such things but less

about more practically useful things such as
pedagogy, psychology and learning theories. So its
better now with more focus on such relevant
subjects and student teachers professional needs

If you make it too academic I am worried that you

lose teachers who are fantastic teachers but not

very academic or not academic in the way that we
see academic. They might be actually academically
very good but because of the way we look at it and
its all written work and then they might not just be
good at written work and then they lose out

 Birmingham, C. (2004) Phronesis: A model for pedagogical reflection. Journal of

Teacher Education, 55 (4), 313324.

DfE. (2010) The Importance Of Teaching. Retrieved July 7, 2011 from
https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/CM-7980.pdf
Khan, M.I. (2005c, May 15) Are All Teacher Training Programmes A Complete Waste Of
Time?. DAWN, p.25
Kessels, J. P. A. M., & Korthagen, F. A. J. (1996) The Relationship between Theory and
Practice: Back to the classics. Educational Researcher, 2(5), 17-22.
Korthagen, F., & Kessels, J. (1999) Linking Theory and Practice: Changing the Pedagogy
of Teacher Education. Educational Researcher, 28(4), 4-17.
Lawes, S. (2003) What, when, how and why? Theory and foreign language teaching.
The Language Learning Journal, 28(1), 22-28.
Lawlor, S. (1990) Teachers Mistaught: Training in Theories or Education in Subjects?,
London: Centre for Policy Studies.
McIntyre, D. (1993) Theory, Theorizing and Reflection in Initial Teacher Education. In
Calderhead, J. & Gates, P. (Eds.), Conceptualizing Reflection in Teacher Development
(pp.39-52), London: Falmer.
OHear, A. (1988) Who Teaches the Teachers?, London: Social Affairs Unit.
Pearson, A.T. (1989) The Teacher: Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, London:
Routledge.