240
new ’audience
ɪakes
quite
fresh demands to summarise the group’s
observations in the school and insofar as this calls for a
more
reflective
and general view previously discussed theory
incorp-
orated .
Through this process
professional
knowledge
ay be produced
and applied.
The
task of coming together
to discuss issues is one
that teachers are often involved in.
It is the basis for some prob-
ationary teacher support programmes and yet it is not easy. To be
productive
it requires teachers whose professional
development
has
shown the value of the enterprise and given experience of its practice.
Not all established staff have this and traditions of English edu-
cation emphasising the autonomy of the teacher behind closed doors
do little to further it. It is in its engagement with and its defini-
tion of professional knowledge and what it is for
that initial teacher
education can make
its particular contribution.
Theory points towards
the young teacher’s work in the classroom and also to the wider cont-
ribution that he or she can make in the school.
In these extracts it is both tutors and students who are concerned
with understanding and with constructing professional knowledge.
Whilst the tutors’ awareness both of educational literature and
of the practical contexts in which it is being used is important,
their task here is not simply one of transmission but more importantly
of enabling students to develop their knowledge both of theory and
of practice and to conduct their own explorations of the interrela-
tionship .
The emphasis is upon the student’s work and debate and discussion
is one element of this. Course work enables students to reconsider
and present their positions which under 1ines the necessity for such