Pre-Service Teacher Learning in Community-Based Contexts: Insights for Teacher Preparation and Community Connections

In this commentary, two university instructors working with groups of pre-service teachers they had in common outline their approach to community-based learning for their students. Our narrative explores our community-based program for pre-service teachers at the University of South Florida. Our study reveals that our students’ cycles of professional growth in their courses with us were well-aligned with Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory. Kolb’s theory outlines the following sequence as providing a path for effective learning – for our purposes here, for pre-service teachers. This identifies concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation as a path for effective learning. We explain here how this pathway blends theoretical knowledge with practical, hands-on experience, offering our pre-service teachers a rich, immersive learning environment. We propose ways in which this program could positively influence approaches to teacher preparation.