manner. He shows that the consequent learning experiences are highly
valued by students and indeed by staff. Underlying the guiding prot-
ocols that inform this work with students is the assumption that
the behavioural changes required are fundamental ones. The protocols
provide initial support and guidance and signify clearly to students
I
the possibility of professional change. His work shows the value
of working upon and with active experience in the PGCE but while
it points to the extensiveness of change its own focus is on only
a partial if essential aspect of PGCE work. The high value accorded
to teaching practice is general throughout teacher education echoed
by students, university staff and teachers. Too frequently its value
is asserted at the expense of other aspects of PGCE. In the Alter-
native Course the focus was upon the provision of direct experience
which could be worked upon throughout the course.
students reflecting on their
In the research examples were given of
own experience of reading, discussion and encounters in school,
thereby extending and making sense of the experience so that its
lessons became part of their professional knowledge. It was suggested
that the construction of professional knowledge is both long term
and cumulative and that so far as initial teacher education is
concerned it remains unfinished,
learning and the effectiveness of
for it appears to be perennially
education. Schools and training
The capacity for professional
institutional contexts in providing
doubted in the practice of teacher
institutions often stand in oppos-
ition
each making
claims to their eminence as definers of the young
teacher’s reality.
Official support for one or the other
gives
credence to a view which is
based on
misconceptions of the
nature
of professional knowledge and capacity for learning. Personal exper-