Getting Real: Exploring the perceived disconnect between education theory and practice in teacher education

Abstract

This article, inspired in part by the Levine report that criticizes teacher education programs in the United States for being out of touch with practices that work in real classrooms, is a self-study that explores the rift between educational theory, particularly theory that pushes for social constructionist, child-centered approaches to teaching, and teaching practices in majority African-American, inner-city schools. The authors conducted this year-long self-study to answer the question: What could the college's education program do to improve preparation for teaching in inner-city schools? Through their year-long collaboration in a middle-school writing classroom in an inner-city charter school, the authors examined what a prospective teacher learned in his education program that helped and hindered him and then explored how the successful approaches he developed as a new teacher could be incorporated into the college's preservice program.