learning from experience
public perceptions of learning to teach English
If one were to listen to many politicians and policy makers talk about teacher education, one would think that learning to teach English involves simply three things:
- learning theory in teacher education courses at university; then
- learning practical skills on the job (such as on teaching rounds or practicums in schools); and finally
- learning how to make connections between these two separate and detached worlds.
As pre-service teachers of English continue to learn, it becomes apparent how inadequate an understanding this is of learning to teach. But leaving that aside for the moment, such a simplistic notion of learning to teach – one, for instance, that unproblematically separates theory from practical skills - raises a few questions about teacher education that should surely give pause for thought:
 Are pre-service English teachers blank slates or empty vessels? Do they come to their pre-service education course with no knowledge of theory, literary or otherwise?
Have preservice English teachers never thought about the ways that various ideologies or theories operate within, or act upon, their worlds?
Do preservice English teachers bring to their learning no prior knowledge or experience of teaching and learning within schools or elsewhere?
How do the so-called ‘connections’ between theory and practice come about?
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