School models of teacher development: two cases for reflection

Abstract

In this article, the author attempts to show how the introduction of a more school-based approach to initial teacher education in England has highlighted the role played by school mentors in conceptualising teacher development. The article focuses on a problem identified through her work as a university tutor within a cluster of schools involved in the Postgraduate Certificate in Education course with the Crewe School of Education (Manchester Metropolitan University). The problem was that the sequential progression of the training programme was not always mirrored in the development of the student teachers. One point where that progression sometimes broke down was the transfer to a second school. The author examines the significance of school context for two student teachers with reference to students' self-reports, end of school experience reports and interviews with school mentors in two schools. The extent to which the schools make a version of reflective practice explicit in their models of teacher development is discussed. These conceptual models are linked to the ways in which students are mentored in school. The article ends by suggesting that reflection on action in the school context is important if student teachers are to be enabled to practise effectively in school situations which are new to them.