The name is absent

322

for subject method departments is to develop explicitly, or impli-
citly both a theory and a practice (Burgess in Meek and Miller, 1984).
Insofar as it is based on their subject and professional concerns

and

especially if it is developed in relative isolation from work

in schools it may

be Unreceptive to areas of importance which may

be the proper concern of PGCE students. In the research school

groups were shown exploring the subject method orientations to wider

social and political issues.

The possibility of such work is argu-

ably the result of the composition

duration and location of the

school group in the PGCE.

The school group at its best gives

students a distance

_zand

from /a space to look at their method department

reducing the pressure to opt

in or out of particular theoretical

or

formulations

of practice that otherwise might occur.

Without the

and somewhat

tutorial group with a responsibility for and

link to practice.

Sub-

departmental

boundaries and therefore school

group and method group

size influenced by internal

effectively

together

and within the Alternative

Course as many as