Getting Acquainted with the Classroom

 

 

Dolk, M & Den Hertog, J. (2008) Narratives in teacher education, Interactive Learning Environments, 16:3, 215-229, DOI: 10.1080/10494820802113970 

In this article, Dolk and Den Hertog first reflect on the constraints prospective teachers find in connecting theory and practice. Thus, they consider it is essential to gain experience in real contexts and take reflection as an upmost condition for learning. In this account, they reveal how teacher trainees develop narratives of pragmatic classroom experiences in primary teacher education using a digital environment, i.e. observing and analysing footage evidence recorded in the classroom (Maths lessons). The authors give evidence on the student teachers’ motivation and the different perspectives they acquire all along the process by means of perceiving every occurrence during the classes, which influences on the trainees’ impressions and on the way they report on every event of each recording. This approach has been aimed at the construction of educational meaning through student teachers’ narratives.