Towards An Integrated Model Of Initial Teacher Education

The relation between theory and practice in Pre-service teacher education is an oldproblem which persists throughout many years and it is a difficult problem which has beenrather stubborn. I chose this “how do we integrate theory and practice”as my researchproblem for several reasons. The first, this problem relates to the quality of teacher trainingand becomes more important. However, the “theory into practice”model of teachereducation has been unable to adapt to the new requirements of new era. At the same time,Pre-service teacher education has been plagued by the abruption of theory and practice.Wehave to answer four questions in order to resolve this difficult problem. First, why is thisproblem too stubborn to resolve? Second, what is the ideal status about the relationship oftheory and practice in teacher education? Third, how do we understand the elapsed andcurrent models of teacher education and what kind of experiences and lessons can weachieve from the diachronic and co-tense analysis? Fourth, what should we do in order toeffectively resolve the rupture between theory and practice in teacher education?This study was supported by three modules which contain the theoretical analysis,practical investigation and strategic research. The aim of the theoretical analysis is to deductthe ideal natural state of theory and practice from the teaching and teacher educationproperty. The complexity of teachers’ work decides teachers’ professionalism and thusdemands that teacher education should be a professional education. Comparing with theacademic professional education and vocational education, professional education is anintegrated education and so teacher education should be an integrated education. It is alogical prerequisite and a theoretical basis for the integration of theory and practice toclarify the teacher education professional attributes. Then I analysis all disposals ofrelationships between theory and practice in different disciplines such as ancient Greecephilosophy, leaning psychology and sociology of positivism with the purpose of extracting aanalytical framework which is full of the interdisciplinary nature and integration ofmulti-dimensional vision. The analytical framework is make up of four-dimensional andtwo-level which are proportion dimension, the quality dimension, structural dimension,context dimension and the epistemological level and ontology level of teacher view.I select two information-rich, distinctive and advanced countries’ pre-service teachereducation programs as my analysis samples and demonstrate why the problem is sostubborn using the four-dimensional two-level analysis framework in practical investigation.They are three models in the diachronic and concurrent trajectory of teacher educationprograms’ development. The three might best be characterized as: the apprenticeship mode;applicatory mode and integrated mode. The apprenticeship mode holds the following to bethe case: practice preponderate over educational theory in the proportion dimensions; as theattributes of theory and practice, they are technology-oriented educational practice andexperience-oriented educational theory in the quality dimension; of course, external factorsexert an influence on the program, such as the shortage of teacher due to the rapideconomic development in the cultural dimension, and the embodiments of philosophicalepistemology on relation between theory and practice manifest the intuitive concept andcommon sense view; The applicatory mode holds the following to be the case: educational theory becomes more and more nevertheless education practice decline in the ratio ofdimensions; theory should be learnt and then applied to practice in the structural dimensionwhich has been called technical rationality; the purpose of the theory is the pursuit of aprofessional image and the aim of the practice is the verification of the theory in the qualitydimension; Factors affecting this model include logical positivism and progressivism; andthe embodiments of philosophical epistemology on relation between theory and practice ischaracterized as applicatory view. The points associated with the integrated model involvefollowing ideas. the ratio of theory to practice almost achieve a balance; educationaltheory is interlaced with practice and the time of the intercourse is just right in the structuraldimension; theory value base should be acknowledged but its function has changed, and thenature of the practice has changed at the same time. Those who held integrated mode willexpect to construct their understanding of both teaching and training as they haveexperienced and theory converts application into critical understanding and practicebecomes professional reflective practice rather than technique in the quality dimension;factors affecting this model include economic rationality, the New Right and educationaleffectiveness; and the embodiments of philosophical epistemology on relation betweentheory and practice is characterized as creative view and reconstruction view. The viewabout theory and practice in each model will determine view about teaching and learningthemselves and about learning to teach and the profession of professional training.All the efforts such as theoretical analysis and mode investigation, as implied above,help us clarify the problem’s stubborn root and learn the experiences and lessons from thepast patterns, in the purpose of constructing an ideal teacher education model whichintegrates all of dimensions.The main conclusions of the study are as follows:The first, the problem of rupture in theory and practice is so stubborn because wecommonly used one-dimensional perspective to recognize this contradiction and ourframework are confined to the single dimension and the corresponding single-dimensioncountermeasures of the complicated problem. We pay too much attention to the ratio of thetheory to practice rather than structural dimension, quality dimension, contextual dimensionand epistemology.The second, the complexity of teaching and learning activities order teacher to makeprofessional judgment in complex situations and put into practice.teacher education is aprofessional education which is in practice and for practice comparing with vocationaleducation and academic professional education. The uniqueness of this practice embodies its"professionalism" that includes professional judgment,professional decisions andprofessional execution. Teacher education is professional education and its theory andpractice should be integrated. However, the integration of theory and practice isthree-dimensional rather than binary which considers composition, structure, ideas andcultural background.The third, the intergrated modle of teacher preparation has made important changescomparing to the traditional model.The quality of theory and practice become the focus ofteacher education rather than the proportion of theory and practice. The structure of “theoryinto practice” become “theroy in practice”and the framework of thinking has changed fromadditive idea to multiplicative thinking. The most important is culture transform. this"integration" is not a simple sum of educational theory and educational practice, involving afundamental shift in elements structure concept cultural aspects of teacher education. The fourth,there are three models in the diachronic trajectory of teacher educationprograms’ development and they call our attention to the shortcoming of the past modes.The failure of disposal of the theory and practice is not only about the proportionalimbalance but also about anamorphic quality, one-way structure, contextual constraint andsuperficial cognition.The fifth,what we need ideal model is a multi-faceted integrated mode which containwhat we have summarized “four dimensions and two level” framework. Thus, we need aplea for a new epistemological approach to determine the relationship between theory andpractice; this can be achieved through putting some practice into theory and deducing somepractical principles from practice. We need to take following measures to achieve our objectof integration. The specific strategies include promoting integration of theory and practice incurriculum design which contain structure and substantive integration as well as adding casestudy and introducing mentors into the fields of teacher education. Educators help studentteacher understand public theory and encourage them to understand what is mean to be ateacher by virtue of enquiry, reflection, and deliberation. Both university and school shouldadapt oneself to each other in culture and establish a mutually beneficial community. Themost important thing is to improve the identity of prospective teachers and help themtransform themselves.