Effective tool to enrich Preservice Teachers’ Experiences

Dolk, M., & Den Hertog, J. (2008). Narratives in teacher education.  Interactive Learning Environments, 16(3), 215-229. DOI:10.1080/10494820802113970

 

In the Netherlands, student teachers are challenged to produce narratives of paradigmatic classroom situations through a multimedia interactive learning environment (MILE). It is a program presented to help prospective teachers develop narratives as a tool to construct meaning and to bridge the division between theory and practice. (Dolk and Hertog, 2008). It is computer-based and contains a database of real classroom teaching. Thanks to this tool, student teachers will be able to widen their observations. Moreover, by constructing narratives preservice teachers will be helped to reflect upon their own teaching practices. According to Dolk and Hertog (2008), this narrative approach implies a redesign of teacher education. A six-step curriculum design framework is introduced to construct meaning through narratives. Those six steps are: observing, sharing, and discussing observations, analyzing, reflecting, developing narrative knowledge, and expanding the personal repertoire, and generalizing the situation into a didactic for teacher education. What is more, student teachers construct their understanding of teaching not only through personal practical experience but also through sharing and discussing their constructions with their peers to continue enriching their learning process.