A reflective account of a preservice teacher’s effort to implement progressive curriculum in field practice

This essay presents a reflective account of a preservice teacher’s experience in her fieldwork practice. The author, a professor in the preservice teacher’s education institute, acted as a critical friend and joined in the reflection as an equal. Based on the voices of the preservice teacher and a group of primary teachers, this essay presents a genuine description of the participants’ story. It tells about the preservice teacher’s progressive educational beliefs in the implementation of project learning: catering to diversities, adopting authentic learning methods, and promoting cooperative learning. The in-service teachers rejected this progressive pedagogy, dismissing it as too playful and undefined, and they suggested that it creates classroom discipline problems. The author connects this teacher’s experience to the specific areas that provide necessary conditions for reform: teacher professionalism, professional knowledge, and the organizational structure of schools. Copyright © 2011 Francis W. Parker School, Chicago. All rights reserved.