How to improve the relationship between theory and practice in teacher education

Abstract

The Expert in Teaching study pays special attention to the objective of connecting coursework more directly to practice in pre-service teacher education. The study was focused on developing better solutions to the problematic, weak, or even sometimes totally missing, link between theory (teaching at college) and practice (teaching internship) in teacher education. It has been stated over and over again, in several studies and reports, that teachers matter, so this was not the question in this study. The question was how teacher preparation can lead to more effective teachers. The objective of the study was to investigate whether selected actions had potential for bridging the gap between teaching at college and teaching practice, and to generate knowledge about difficulties and barriers that have to be overcome if these actions are to be implemented. Difficulties and barriers were found in the role performance of the three different parties in teacher education (college teachers, practice teachers and student teachers) and in the college teachers’ approach to teaching in which the responsibilities of the college teachers and the student teachers were unclearly differentiated and described.