Educators and policymakers worldwide are reimagining teacher preparation through the lens of the science of learning and development (SoLD). This blog series, based on insights from EdPrepLab’s World Café webinars, highlights global strategies for aligning teaching practices with what we know about how students learn best.

The teacher preparation program I attended after I graduated from college was a 1-year apprenticeship program that led to teaching certification. We learned to teach by observing and sometimes teaching during the day, followed by classes after school hours, where we learned a set of practices from the teachers in the school. Later, we tried out the practices with the students. This was one version of practice-based teacher education, and it prepared me well to teach in settings similar to the elementary school where I learned to teach, though not for the urban schools of Philadelphia where I taught after graduation. That experience led me to explore the multiple meanings of practice and how it is used in teacher education on a global scale.

Practice is a relatively common word that is used across professions and activities. We talk about a doctor’s practice, a contemplative practice, and also a teaching practice. People also talk about practicing the piano and practicing teaching. At times, practice suggests an organized set of knowledge, an accepted way of acting, or a group of people who coordinate their activities. Scholars and educators often write about practice in contrast to theory, with practice more connected to action and theory connected to the beliefs behind those actions. More often, scholars write about the ways that practice, theory, and research are inseparable. A teaching practice includes both what is taught and how it is taught.

Increasingly, teacher education programs around the world have looked for ways to emphasize practice. In 2010, a U.S. blue-ribbon panel proclaimed that teacher education must be “turned upside down” so that practice would be the basis for learning to teach. In that same year, a government coalition in the United Kingdom promoted practice and the application of teaching skills in learning to teach. 

Programs that focus on practice often vary in terms of what they emphasize, such as where learning to teach occurs, the content of courses, selection of instructors, and length of time needed to become a teacher. Scholars use a variety of terms for centering practice in teacher education. The most common term in the United States, and increasingly around the world, is practice-based teacher education (PBTE). While PBTE takes many forms, its emphasis is that practice—rather than theory or in combination with theory and research—is essential for learning to teach. The term school-based training is more commonly used in the United Kingdom and indicates the location of initial teacher education outside of the university and in schools. In the Netherlands, some educators use the term “realistic” teacher education to indicate the centrality of student teachers’ experiences in the design of teacher education curriculum. Each of these movements highlights the importance of learning from field placements and the centrality of practice in learning to teach.

Across the world, practice teaching, student teaching, and clinical preparation are commonly understood as connecting the more theoretical knowledge taught at the university with practical knowledge and experience that occurs in classrooms.

Practice teaching is often conceptualized as a time and place to practice what is learned in the university classroom. The length and quality of clinical placements vary across the world and have shifted over time. In some instances, placements last only a few weeks, whereas other models include a full year of supervised student teaching. What and how student teachers learn in practice settings is key to the design of many teacher education programs. 

Linda Darling-Hammond and her colleagues at the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) have introduced a set of practices based on the principles of the Science of Learning and Development (SoLD) that are key for the preparation of teachers. SoLD practices provide foundational guidelines for designing initial teacher education programs based on research on exemplary programs. Understanding how to incorporate the basic practices outlined in the LPI report provides the basis for ongoing discussions among teacher educators across the globe about how to adapt these ideas to local contexts. We know that the work of preparing teachers with practice at the center will always vary substantially according to local contexts. By learning from one another in conversations across the globe, we can continue to refine and reimagine high-quality teacher education.

Kathy Schultz is Professor of Education and Dean Emerita at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education.