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Repeatedly in the research students commented upon the pressures
upon staff that too frequently
resulted in student needs being unart-
iculated or unrecognised.
For staff and students time and discussion
have quite different meanings
and the sharing of the seminar space
may
some way to
allowing
those meanings to be understood
and
worked with. This is not a pattern that stresses induction
and
explanation prior to experience which frequently characterises commun-
ication from the school to the students in its care. In place of
this a structure is required which stresses the complexity of the
students’ contact, their need to become a part of the institution.
and from there gradually to increase their understanding.
This
understanding will be built up from an increasing range of experi-
ences and reflections which may change in focus and in balance but
which in its entirety
should become a part of the student teacher.
A wide ranging knowledge of school is essential to professional
competence and practice and should for`
a basis for further develop-
ment and education
A model for initial training could extend and elaborate what has
been said above with little reference to the training institution.
school-based teacher education. At in-service level both the practice
and the rationale has been forcefully argued and it is probably no
accident that such ideas are persuasive at a time when whole school
policies and local initiatives are seen as vital (Asthon et al 19δ3)∙
This is not the place to argue the potential conservatism of such
an approach but its widespread implementation would result in far
reaching shifts in power and control within teacher education. Its
institutionalisation would affect both the knowledge base that teacher