Learning to teach and teaching to learn: Exploring microteaching as a site for knowledge integration in teacher education

Abstract

Educating prospective teachers is a complex task particularly where epistemological issues are concerned. Teacher education programmes comprise a range of subjects and courses that draw on different disciplines. In addition to the chosen subjects in which students specialize, courses in pedagogy, subject didactics, and practicums constitute core parts of the curriculum. While programmes are differently organized in different institutions and country contexts, and a variety of models exist, they are also found to include many of the same key components (Zeichner and Conklin 2008; Hammerness and Klette 2015). This calls for the reconfiguration of knowledge in at least two steps: (1) disciplinary knowledge generated from research and/or practice needs to be adapted to the professional education and its specific curriculum context; and (2) knowledge from different disciplines and areas of specialty needs to be integrated to develop competencies in practical teaching.