Abstract
This article is a review on student teacher (ST) learning in second language teacher education (SLTE) and it aims to establish a context for ST learning for professional development in SLTE research and frame its contribution to the current research literature. To achieve this, it conducts an overview on concepts of interest, and it places in perspective some of the key previous findings relating to the research at hand. Broadly, it is to serve as a foundation for the debate over perspectives of second/foreign language (S/FL) student teachers’ (STs’) learning to teach through their professional development with reference to both coursework and practicum contexts.Keywords: student teacher learning, second language teacher education (SLTE), professional development
Highlights
When we refer to teachers we tend to characterise them as ordinary individual human beings and social beings
Both aspects must be considered for a working overview of teachers’ developing professional beings, which is, obviously, necessary for the purposes of the present discussion (James, 2001). Given that these – personal and social – complicated, complex and multi-dimensional aspects contribute to the constitution and development of teachers’ professional identities, this journey begins when the individual becomes a learner of teaching at their teacher education institutes
It even begins before they go to their institutions, through their preconceptions and beliefs as students; the student teachers’ (STs’) time frame is most relevant, as the sphere of influence of teacher development does not extend to before the decision to become a teacher is made
Summary
When we refer to teachers we tend to characterise them as ordinary individual human beings and social beings. Based on Freeman’s and Johnson’s (1998a) and Ur’s (1996) views, the present review uses the term ‘education’ to describe the process to refer to the more varied and general learning that leads to the development of all aspects of the STs as individuals and members of society. Development has a broader scope, including long-term concerns such as how a teacher can be encouraged to grow, to explore new avenues and ideas, and, thereby, to avoid professional atrophy or the feeling that he or she has done it all before (Freeman, 1982) This position is based on some evidence from the research in SLTE over the last decade, which has focussed on a shift from searching for better ways to train teachers to trying to describe and understand the process of how they learn to teach through their self-awareness or reflection. It is hoped that understanding these aspects of ST’s professional development will contribute to our understandings of STs developing identities as professionals, informing both pedagogy and policy
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