New Perspectives on Theory-to-Practice: Implications for Transforming Teacher Education and Child Outcomes

Noting the importance of the relation-ship between theory and practice to the quality of early childhood educa-tion, this paper deals with two issues: (1) translating available empirical and theoretical knowledge into effective practice, and (2) what Lilian Katzs work, collectively, would then indicate for a model of teacher and caregiver preparation that would yield the best possible practitioners. The paper points out that to transform teacher preparation, certain streams of thought can be considered as a way to recon-ceptualize the theory-to-practice issue in a way that can serve to generate a conceptual schema for framing Lilian Katzs far-ranging work in early child-hood education into a new, transfor-mational model for teacher preparation. Among the notions to be considered are a reciprocal process for integrating theory and practice, the concept of the mental model, hermeneutics in devel-opmental work, and nonlinear dynami-cal systems theory. The paper then discusses the Katzian Early Child-hood Teacher Preparation System, in-cluding guiding principles, goals, cur-riculum, delivery, professional devel-opment, indirect practice, and faculty characteristics. Lets call a one-year moratorium on dinosaurs. Lilian Katz As a nation, were simply not taking advantage of how much we have learned about early development over the past 40 years. This statement by Jack Shonkoff, chair of the committee formed by the National Acad-emies (2000) and produced by the National Research Council an