Making the 'theory-practice link' in an action learning framework: Report on a new pedagogical approach in an in-service kindergarten teacher education programme

Teacher education programmes are often front-loaded with theories. Students learn these theories first and then apply them in their supervised teaching practicum. There are two assumptions for sequencing theories before practice. First, good teaching is informed by theories. Second, these theories are the only valid knowledge for teaching even if the students are in-service teachers. These assumptions have the effect of privileging theories over other forms of knowledge and separating theories from practice by postulating a linear relationship between the two. We dispute a linear view of the 'theory-practice link' and propose instead a dialectical relationship between the two. It is from this standpoint that we have devised and field-tested a new pedagogical approach in teaching theories/practice that engaged in-service kindergarten teachers/principals in a collaborative, reflective inquiry of their teaching practice in an action learning framework. Specifically, two questions are addressed: First, how can we help our students to connect theories with practice? Second, how can we capitalize on their teaching experience to help them examine the theoretical input? In this paper, we present our teaching experience as well as what and how our students learned in this new pedagogical approach. Copyright © 2001 Action Learning Project.