ABSTRACT
This chapter explores in some detail the problems and opportunities for acquiring and using theory during PGCE courses.1 These one-year full-time courses are required for graduates wishing to become qualified schoolteachers. 60 per cent of the time is spent on school experience and teaching practice, so the course has a very practical orientation with theory being confined to a relatively minor role. Teachers’ theoretical knowledge of the subject(s) they teach is not covered, though it is of course very important. But issues of how they represent and communicate subject matter are within its scope. Thus the theories under discussion will relate to classroom events, to school policy and practice, and to the effect of influences across the school’s boundary with the community.
