Source: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 37, Issue 2,
pages 155 - 173 (May 2009).
The outcomes of a two-pronged 'real-world' learning project, which aimed to expand the views of pre-service teachers about learning, pedagogy and diversity, will be discussed in this article.
72 fourth-year and 22 first-year students, enrolled in a Bachelor of Education degree in Queensland, Australia, were engaged in community sites outside of university lectures, and separate from their practicum.
Using Butin's conceptual framework for service learning, the authors show evidence that this approach can enable pre-service teachers to see new realities about the dilemmas and ambiguities of performing as learners and as teachers.
The authors contend that when such 'real-world' experiences have different foci at different times in their four-year degree, pre-service teachers have more opportunities to develop sophisticated understandings of pedagogy in diverse contexts for diverse learners.
Related items:
- Learning for Professional Life: Student Teachers' and Graduated Teachers' Views of Learning, Responsibility and Collaboration
- Mentors' Written Lesson Appraisals: The Impact of Different Mentoring Regimes on the Content of Written Lesson Appraisals and the Match with Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions of Content