The name is absent

209

Group and discussion of earlier school group transcripts indicated

that

active learning experiences

which are often

personal

encounters . that

the basis

for

learning.

Too

often in

teacher education teacher

educators

are

cut

off from such

learning

experiences when

they take

school

and the related

working comes

embody

own rationale

Experience is

seen as

the great teacher

and the

chalk face appears to embody its own

lessons.

Members of the Research Group showed that frequently teachers saw

the reality of school experience in this way and tended to dismiss

14
Institute based experiences as largely irrelevant.

a) Using knowledge of the school

Both the Research Group and work with the school groups suggests
that the reality of school experience alone is too diverse to consti-
tute an adequate base for professional knowledge. Analysis and under-
standing of them is a critical part of learning for them and it is
these activities that are implied in the work of the school group.

Two dimensions of this knowledge are isolated here. Both can be
developed through the organisation of the course. The first is the
articulation and use of knowledge generated in and about the school

the group is based in.

The second is the appreciation of differences,

for

example

of other forms of organisation or curriculum.

These

dimensions to do with

school

are isolated here

from

con-

ventional course^-' sound