Courses / Module

In almost all European countries one becomes a teacher educator without any formal qualification, preparation or induction into the role (Kosnik, 2008). Two key European Commission policy documents, The Green Paper on Teacher Education in Europe (Buchberger, Campos, Kallos & Stevenson, 2000) and Supporting Teacher Educators for Better Learning Outcomes (European Commission, 2012) have highlighted concern about the lack of training for and induction into the teacher education profession, including appropriate methodologies for working with adult learners. Teachers who become teacher educators encounter a mid career transition, with the ensuing changes in professional identity and a need to acquire new professional knowledge and understanding. Because their backgrounds are in school teaching and learning, beginning teacher educators have high levels of understanding and competence in pedagogy. But they need not only to be able to teach, but also to teach teaching (Loughran, 2010). This module focuses on developing the knowledge and capabilities required for the discipline of teacher education. It examines the kinds of knowledge developed and employed by first order practitioners i.e. teachers, and the ways in which such knowledge is developed for use by second order practitioners i.e. teacher educators (Murray, 2002; Loughran, 2014; Dolan, 2019).