Why do many beginning teachers not cope with the reality of schools? Why do beginning teachers often revert to conventional teaching methods when they hit the classroom? Why do 30% of new teachers leave in the first five years? At the beginning of the 21st Century we need a better way of educating preservice students by using a program design that mirrors how to best learn about teaching and portrays it as a complex profession.
This book does not promote one particular teacher education design, but rather how to think about it. Key to such thinking is considering teacher education design as a combination of links, not independent elements to promote quality learning by preservice teachers. The four key links considered in this book include conceptual links across the university curriculum, theory-practice links between school and university settings, social-cultural links amongst the participants and personal links that shape the identity of teacher educators. Collectively, these are the missing links of teacher education design.
This ground-breaking, internationally oriented book brings together a number of excellent contributions on new directions in the design of teacher education programs. Moreover, the ideas are connected through a clear and stimulating conceptual framework that has the potential to guide effective innovation in the field.
Fred A.J. Korthagen
Professor, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Teacher education program design demands a conceptualization built on strong interlinked foundations so that coursework and practice complement each another as a dynamic whole. Hoban offers an outstanding explication of exactly that through his Missing Links in Teacher Education. In so doing he offers a way of enhancing the quality of teacher education programs for those scholars passionate about, and committed to the work of teaching and learning about teaching. The Missing Linksoffers a provocative challenge to all involved in teacher education program design.
John Loughran
Foundation Chair, Curriculum & Pedagogy
Monash University, Australia
