This paper examines the impact and implications on initial teacher education (ITE) of the crisis brought about by the COVID-19 lockdown of schools and universities from the perspectives of four university providers in England. The start of the pandemic meant that, in England, schools were closed to all but vulnerable pupils and the children of…

This article examines the relationship between pre-service teacher education (ITE) for primary schooling and primary teaching in England between 1974 and 2014, and explores the "fitness of purpose" of the current system of preparing teachers for the classrooms of the twenty-first century. Our historical analysis suggests that, despite 40…

The paper presents a radical critique of the competence-driven initial teacher education (ITE) paradigm, focusing on the official standards for qualified teacher status in England and Wales, the legal basis for teacher education courses, and specifically the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). Broadly, the developing perspective here is…

Pre-service teacher education in England has been essentially school-based since 1992. The article offers a critique of this design from the perspective of a practitioner and researcher working in one of its most influential schemes. The fundamental problem described concerns an impoverished understanding of experience that underpins how beginning…

A plethora of research studies has found cooperative learning to be effective in promoting academic achievement with students of all ages. It has been suggested that key elements of cooperative learning are individual accountability and positive interdependence. Forty-four final-year teacher trainees participated in a study which compared the…

This paper investigates how teacher education programmes provide adequate preparation for its prospective teachers. It uses adult numeracy teacher education in the post-compulsory education sector in England as exemplar. Using findings from two research projects on adult numeracy teacher education courses, the article investigates the applications…

The purpose of this research is to undertake a comparative analysis of policy and practice in initial teacher education (ITE) in two parts of the United Kingdom. Although the education systems of England and Scotland have been characterised as experiencing considerable autonomy since the Act of Union in 1707, the new context of political…