Beyond the practicum: Integrating content, pedagogy and practice in teacher education

Teacher education courses have three broad components - subject matter (content), learning theory (pedagogy), and professional experience (the practicum). Traditionally, these three components have been taught separately but teacher education faculties are increasingly expected to integrate all three and to provide more extensive school-based experiences for pre-service teachers. Nevertheless increasing the time pre-service teachers spend in schools does not automatically lead to improved learning outcomes for teacher education graduates. This paper describes the experiences of faculty staff at the University of Canberra in delivering content and pedagogy to pre-service teachers through Teaching Clinics in school classrooms. The benefits and challenges of integrating content, pedagogy and practice through school-based delivery are discussed.