ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the problems that result from student teachers’ prior experience of teaching. It reviews some approaches to these problems. The chapter considers different conceptions of research-informed Initial Teacher Education (ITE). It explains the benefits of research-informed reflection. The chapter examines some examples of research-informed reflection. It explores competing explanations and uses case study research to argue that one is preferable to the other. The chapter presents cases of student teachers whose engagement with and in research has informed their reflection in this way. As part of a larger drive to refashion state education as a ‘self-improving school system’ schools in England are being required to take a leading role in ITE. School teaching is an odd profession for the newcomer. Such is the nature of the educational ecosystem that, by the time student teachers start their courses of Initial Teacher Education, they have spent approximately 15,000 hours in classrooms, experiencing teaching vicariously at close quarters, as students.
