ABSTRACT
Higher education institutions have long argued that they have a distinctive and critical role to play as partners in initial teacher education. This research offers an evaluation of this claim by exploring the contribution of higher education alongside the school-based input it is intended to complement. Using a case study approach within a well-established ‘collaborative’ partnership, focused on advice about choosing appropriate lesson activities, data were collected from 18 university-based sessions, and from the weekly mentor meetings of four experienced mentors. Despite important differences between individual schools, a high level of consistency was found between the partners in terms of their substantive recommendations. Where the university tutors' input was clearly distinctive from that of school-based mentors was in the explicit nature of the procedural advice given to trainees, the sources on which each drew in making their recommendations, and in the extent to which ideas were subjected to critical scrutiny.
