Professional experience is viewed by governments, schools, universities and pre-service teachers as a crucial, and for some, the most important element of initial teacher education. Pre-service teachers (PSTs) consistently cite time in schools as the most valuable part of their teacher education programme. High-quality professional experience…

This paper explores one implementation of an extended, structured, collaborative professional experience program. Its context is a new partnership between a university and a professional experience school. The program draws on elements of Instructional Rounds and Lesson Study, framed around a learning community model of professional experience for…

We present a sustainable and innovative model for pre-service teacher paired professional placements called the Teaching School model. The Teaching School model was piloted initially in partnership with a Metropolitan University and a P-12 College located in Melbourne's northern suburbs in 2013. It was expanded in 2014 to capitalise on an existing…

The Federal Government in Australia has recently established Centres for Excellence in Teacher Education. These Centres represent a power shift towards schools in teacher education and away from centralised bureaucracies and university faculties of education. Given this shift, it is interesting to examine other historical and current school-based…

This review examines the kinds of relationship between research and practice that have been envisaged in programmes designed to provide opportunities for beginning teachers to engage in "research-informed clinical practice". Although the terminology varies, scope for inclusion is defined by an intention to facilitate and deepen the…

Positive relationship building between the university and the schools that receive their pre-service teachers are crucial to developing quality educators fit for the teaching profession. This paper presents an overview of a mentor workshop that was introduced by the professional experience unit of a regional university in Australia. The aim of the…

Recent curricular reforms associated with teacher education practicums in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia are identified; and two different conceptions of teaching practice are discussed: teaching as an applied science and as reflective practice. The structural and political context of the practicum is also discussed. (IAH)

In Australia at present, there is no central agency for the accreditation of teacher education courses. This paper examines the implications for Australian Schools of Education of the key issues of accreditation of courses and faculties, licensing of beginning teachers and advanced certification, and continuing professional development of teachers…

This paper traces the origins of professional development schools (PDSs), describes their characteristics, examines a network of PDSs, considers the place of PDSs in developing the teaching profession, addresses problems and concerns associated with developing and sustaining PDSs, and draws implications for teacher preparation and the teaching…

The supervision of neophytes in all professional vocations is a complex and multifaceted process and not really achieved without adequate training and experience. This project's aim was to develop innovative, problem solving, teaching resources in the form of "case knowledge" episodes to provide "strategic knowing" activities…