Research on Pedagogical Approaches in Teacher Education

Most reports about teacher education focus more on curricular issues, such as what prospective teachers should learn, or on structural issues, such as the uses of professional development schools or the length of programs, than on issues of instruction. Neither the research literature nor the reform reports of the 1980s (Carnegie Forumon Education and the Economy, 1986; Holmes Group, 1986) had much to say about how prospective teachers should be taught.1 Yet in teacher education, attention to pedagogy is critical; how one teaches is part and parcel of what one teaches (Loughran & Russell, 1997). In the professional preparation of teachers, themedium is themessage. This chapter summarizes the research on how we teach prospective teachers and on how various approaches used by teacher educators might affect what teachers learn about teaching, including what they come to know or believe about teaching, as well as how they engage in the practice of teaching itself.