ABSTRACT
After almost 30 years as a teacher educator, I believe that I understand in complex rather than superficial ways the essential changes in perspective required of a new teacher and how pre-service practicum experiences interact with education courses. While teaching often looks easy, acquiring habits of good teaching and making explicit the principles of one’s pedagogy take time. Acquiring the habits of good teacher education and making explicit the principles of a pedagogy of teacher education add further layers and additional time. I now understand more fully the evolution of my own practices and my own values in response to the complexity and challenges of pre-service teacher education. Personal experiences in the teacher education classroom and in school classrooms as practicum supervisor have stimulated major changes in my values. In addition, my research on learning to teach has enabled me to listen to those who are learning to teach in ways that would not have occurred in the education classroom alone.
