Linking theory and practice: Changing the pedagogy of teacher education

The pressure to more school-based teacher education programs, visible in many countries, creates a need to rethink the relationship between theory and practice. The traditional application-of-theory model appears to be rather ineffective and is currently being replaced by other, more reflective approaches. ... Two related theoretical bases are presented for a new paradigm in tacher education. The first uses the concepts of episteme and phronesis to introduce a new way of framing relevant knowledge. The second is a more holistic way of describing the relationship between teacher cognition and teacher behavior, leading to a model of three levels in learning about teaching ... which are illustrated by interview data. Building on these two theoretical frameworks, a so-called "realistic approach" to teacher education is introduced. The teacher educator's role within this approach is analyzed as well as organizational consequences. First evaluative results are presented. (DIPF/orig.)