ABSTRACT
The Foundation Teaching Studies (FTS) course at The Nottingham Trent University developed out of alternative ways of thinking about the way in which students might learn how to teach. It is a traditional approach which takes students through a number of discrete course components in the university interspersed with blocks of teaching practice in schools where they are expected to apply the knowledge they have gained. This raises issues about what is important to know and in what order — decisions which are made by the university and which may not relate to the perceived needs of the student. As the students see it, this widens the gap between what goes on in the university and what they are centrally concerned with, which is the activity of teaching children in schools. In broad terms this may be seen by the students as a gap between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’.
