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From Dewey’s legacy to Schon’s epistemology of practice : reconceptualizing reflective teacher education

University of British Columbia

It has been suggested that "the ultimate justification for curricular decision making in professional education is normative: a conception of a set of desirable understandings, skills, and dispositions" (Tom and Valli, 1990, p. 389). But, normative considerations alone are not sufficient as a rational ground for programmatic deliberations. Teacher education program development needs also the support of some adequate understanding of professional knowledge for teaching (PKT), or professional knowing, and learning to teach. As Soltis (1981) persuades us, "the more adequate of our grasp of what we understand as 'knowledge', the more we can consciously, responsibly, and morally play the role of an educator" (p. 104). Program development in teacher education has traditionally been guided by fragmented thinking that takes PKT as something external to those who are learning to teach. The task of teacher education is to pass on or provide access to research findings and academic scholarship and/or intellectual skills, including the what and how of reflective practice/teaching/inquiry in the current Reflective Teacher Education (RTE) movement. It is argued in this study that an adequate epistemological grounding should be indispensable to any (alternative) orientation towards teacher education. The widespread interest in RTE is often attributed to Dewey's theory of reflective inquiry and/or Schon's epistemology of practice. But it is waiting to be explored whether the theses advanced by Schon and Dewey, respectively, could provide adequate theoretical underpinnings for establishing RTE as an alternative orientation towards teacher education. This study finds Schon's epistemology of practice to be inadequate for providing an epistemological foundation for professional education programs. The model is inconsequential to teacher education program development due to its internal conceptual difficulties, its dichotomous tendency towards the relationship between theory and practice, and its narrow focus on the world of practice. Dewey's thesis is pertinent to teacher education today not because it might entail a prescription of reflective practice. Rather, it offers theoretical implications that help to bring the issues of knowledge (PKT), inquiry (learning to teach), and action (teaching) intimately together. In light of Dewey's thesis, the problem of knowledge in teacher education should be seen as a problem of prospective teachers constructing their PKT through an on-going inquiry into teaching so as to be able to act in an intelligent manner in the classroom. Teacher education programs should be designed to assist prospective teachers in taking better control and direction of their inquiry. To guide their own practice, program developers and teacher educators should ask themselves: What is professional knowledge for teaching? How are professional knowing and learning accounted for? What is the role of theoretical studies and practical experience in learning to teach? What should and can be done to ensure that the learning opportunities provided in a pre-service teacher education program will contribute to, not hinder or block, prospective teachers' professional growth?

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-04-07

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/6847

Educational Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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