ABSTRACT
This chapter will examine the role and function of masters and mistresses of method in training institutions as teacher exemplars who bridged the theoretical and practical divide. Links will be made between the role of these historical personnel and the current development of the role of specially designated ‘super’ or ‘advanced skills’ teachers in schools. Masters and mistresses of method traversed both the practical world of school and the theoretical world of training institution, and had the potential to span that seemingly intractable gulf between theory and practice in formal teacher training. As demonstrators of good practice, giving ‘master classes’ to their student teachers, it is not too difficult to see links between the method masters and mistresses of the past, and the advanced skills or superteachers of the present.
