Conscious Reflection and Implicit Learning in Teacher Preparation. Part II: Implications for a balanced approach

A previous linked paper (Tomlinson, 1999) considered recent work in psychology on implicit learning and connectionism as renewed support for the anti-rationalist tradition associated with Ryle and others. By way of a re-consideration of the knowing how-knowing that distinction, it proposed a non-reductive view embracing various kinds of interplay between procedural and descriptive kinds of knowledge in the acquisition and implementation of skilful capability. The present paper examines the implications of these ideas for our understanding of what student teachers bring to their courses of initial preparation, further underlining Lortie's 'apprenticeship of observation' idea. It goes on to suggest that the medium of interactive video offers much-needed help to counter this by simultaneously harnessing the power of implicit learning and providing a concrete, flexible resource for reflective analysis.