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To move beyond this there should be careful delineation of the stages
and the status of the change that is being initiated in teacher
education. Experiments and alternatives are now vital in relation
to the necessary changes in teacher education. The linking together
of schools and training institutions and the exploration of partnership
in teacher education, should produce diverse forms and structures
in teacher education and this will be the situation faced by the
new validating council. Uniformity and the art of the possible
should not be practised at the expense of what is desirable and
there is little sound experience on which to base new conceptions
of practice. Central to the Alternative Course and to the research
reported here is the practice of partnership but the links that
were basic to the work were forged a decade before Partnership
received official sanctioning and encouragement at all levels.
Undoubtedly the change in the official climate is encouraging but
from the evidence of Patrick et al (1982) the changes that have
occurred in both schools and training institutions over the period
are much less so.
The learners in schools are the pupils and schools are under pressure
to raise standards.
They are becoming both more and more publicly
accountable at
time when their products in
some
schools are of
declining Signficance for a sizeable majority of their pupils.
Unemployment
is becoming linked
with educational failure in an official
view
that demoralises
schools
and their pupils.
At the same time
the group of pupils for whom school may be visibly successful -
the VI Form is undergoing re-organisation and re-location. Shrinking
secondary rolls, staffing cuts and re-deployment affect curriculum
organisation and the opportunities for innovation and change. Such