Preparing pre-service teachers for open- Plan up-scaled learning communities; Preparing for complexity

Abstract

Clark (1988, p. 9) noted that teaching is "complex, uncertain, and peppered with dilemmas." More than two decades later, perhaps this comment could be made even more emphatically (Santoro, Reid, Mayer, & Singh, 2013). How best then to prepare pre-service teachers for the differences inherent in the nuanced and multi-faceted work of teaching in open-plan learning communities? We would argue that novice teachers require preparatory experiences that afford productive participation in the culture, narrative, and community of practice of being a teacher. This chapter draws from current critical perspectives on teacher education, and ecological accounts of influences on teachers' and pre-service teachers' adaptive and interactive practices in the settings (see Greeno, 1994). Teacher graduates are often perceived to have inadequate capacity to enable them to adapt to the diversity of contemporary learning environments and diverse student populations (Darling-Hammond, 2006; Zeichner, 2006). One means of addressing these criticisms is to improve the cohesion of preparatory experiences through building productive partnerships between university and school-based learning (Eames & Coll, 2010; Grossman & McDonald, 2008; Koc, 2011). In addition, consideration needs to be given to recent changes to the shape, form, and activities of schools and education.