Collective Improvisation in a Teacher Education Community

As has been well illustrated in the other books in this series, the notion of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices has been taken up by teachers and teacher educators as they have searched for new ways of better understanding the complex work of teaching and learning. Self-study appears to be attractive to practitioners because a self-study approach to researching practice is largely driven by their questions, issues and concerns. Therefore, one immediate value of self-study is in the way it can inform and almost immediately influence practice. This book, edited by Linda Farr Darling, Gaalen Erickson, and Tony Clarke offers an in-depth investigation of the CITE program (A Community of Inquiry in Teacher Education) and is one of the few examples of that which might be described as an institutional self-study (Loughran, 2005). As such, the book illustrates the level of commitment and concern that these teacher educators have for their teacher education practices and forthe learning about teaching of their student teachers. They demonstrate that it is crucial to question the taken-for-granted and that in so doing, to be careful to seek to be appropriately responsive to disconfirming data.

This book details a teacher education initiative called A Community of Inquiry in Teacher Education, which seeks to transform learning to teach from an experience based on the acquisition of skills to one centered on the cultivation of certain dispositions.

This book tells the story of the teacher education initiative known as A Community of Inquiry in Teacher Education (CITE), which has aimed to transform learning to teach from an experience based on the acquisition of skills to one centered on the cultivation of certain dispositions. This book features the perspectives of those who have participated, including university-based instructors, school partners, former students, and graduate student researchers. Each contribute a different and valued voice to the whole composition. The result is a collection that chronicles some of the lessons learned through their many experiences. The book represents multiple viewpoints on what counts as reform in teacher education and includes the voices of students (aspiring teachers) who are rarely asked to contribute to such projects.

Visions.- Looking Back on the Construction of a Community of Inquiry.- Learning in Synchrony.- Seeing the Complexity of the Practicum.- Enjoying Their Own Margins: Narratives of Innovation and Inquiry in Teacher Education.- Improvisations.- In Open Spaces.- Practicing What We Preach: Helping Student Teachers Turn Theory into Practice.- Social Studies Education in School.- Learning By Design: A Multimedia Mathematics Project In A Teacher Education Program.- Teacher Educators Using Technology: Functional, Participative, and Generative Competencies.- Virtually Aesthetic: The Cite Cohort's Experience Of Online Learning.- Learning to Teach Technology: the Journey of Two Beginning Teachers.- Mid-Course Feedback on Faculty Teaching: a Pilot Project.- Portfolio as Practice: the Narratives of Emerging Teachers.- Revisions.- Complexity Science and The Cite Cohort.- "The Filter of Laws": Teacher Education and the British Columbia College Of Teachers' Teaching Standards.- Stepping Lightly, Thinking Boldly, Learning Constantly: Community and Inquiry in Teacher Education.- Stepping Lightly, Thinking Boldly, Learning Constantly: Community and Inquiry in Teacher Education.