Learning about and through teaching : Course work and practicum during initial teacher education

This paper reports on findings from the final pilot of a survey (N=811) to be used by multiple New Zealand initial teacher education providers to measure graduating teacher perceptions of how well their programmes prepared them to start teaching. The survey, commissioned by the Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand (TEFANZ), is their proactive response to the political accountability demands that are a feature of teacher education internationally, and to the need for higher education to take a lead in the accountability ‘narrative’ (Shulman, 2007). This paper focuses on the perceptions of graduating student teachers regarding the learning opportunities provided to them during their ITE programmes. It compares opportunities during course work and practicum and suggests that more attention should be given to both components to ensure that student teacher learning is maximised in teacher preparation programmes