How Can Student Teachers Elicit Experienced Teachers’ Practical Knowledge?

Abstract

In this article, two tools are described that student teachers can use to elicit their experienced mentor teachers’ practical knowledge: stimulated recall and concept mapping. The additional value of systematically examining experienced teachers’ practical knowledge by student teachers is that it, among other things, gives sight to the thoughts behind teachers’observable teaching. In addition, it provides opportunities to relate these underlying thoughts to theoretical and more abstract notions student teachers are confronted with in teacher education, and therefore it can lead to a more thorough understanding of other teachers’teaching and of their own (developing) practical knowledge. Suggestions are made as to how student teachers can use the tools in sessions with their mentor teachers.