Describing Teacher Education: A Framework and Illustrative Findings from a Longitudinal Study of Six Students

This article presents a theoretical framework and illustrative findings from a longitudinal study of teacher preparation and learning to teach. The study followed 6 elementary education students enrolled in 2 contrasting programs through 2 years of undergraduate teacher education. One goal was to describe what students learned in relation to what they were taught. A second goal was to appraise the content and import of the lessons learned and consider how they contributed to preparation for teaching. To accomplish these goals, we developed a framework that relates empirical description and analysis with normative questions about teacher education. In this article, we describe briefly the framework and the study and then present 2 sets of findings from 4 of the 6 case studies. The framework identifies a central task for teacher preparation and offers a model of teacher learning. The findings illustrate the power of these ideas for describing the thinking of teacher candidates and the influences on their learning. Together the findings and framework can help teacher educators clarify the special mission of preservice preparation and consider the kinds of learning opportunities that are especially appropriate at this stage of learning to teach.