Teacher Education, Training and Experience: Knowing What, How, When, Why and With

Abstract

Most teacher development programmes emphasise education and experience, the “what” and “how” of teaching. This article hypothesises that training is often overlooked as a powerful component of teacher development, consequently making achievement of expertise more problematic. Training can help the teacher move to higher levels of performance when the “what” and “how” are linked. Furthermore, it is suggested that transfer is a means of cementing this linking of the education, training and experiences of teachers so that on-the-job performance is sustained. Teacher educators need to know “why” some development strategies are used for transfer and, in particular, highlight those that provide understanding and experience “with” others.