Integrating theory and practice

Learning to teach L1 language and literature

Abstract

Against the background of the central dilemma in teacher education of the relationship between theory and practice, this article presents a teacher education approach that strongly emphasizes the use of theory in learning to teach, on the assumption that teaching is also an intellectual activity, and not simply 'practice'. We take the subject pedagogy, in this case of Dutch language and literature, as a starting point for our approach to teacher education, in an effort to align it as closely as possible with key educational theories. Furthermore, we encourage our students to engage in reflection informed by the theories they have been reading: discourses concerning different aspects of teaching and learning, resulting in instrumental, academic, and critical reflection. Therefore, we present a theoretical framework that is used by our student teachers to understand and examine their teaching. This approach can be summarized in the final task asked of our student teachers: an analysis of their own teaching, using key incident analysis. To illustrate, we describe and illustrate the work of Jennifer, a student teacher.