Productive Pedagogy as a Framework for Teacher Education: Towards Better Teaching

Not all graduates of teacher education programs become great teachers. Critiques of teaching quality consistently point a finger at teacher education, implying that if only teacher preparation was improved then better teaching would be more common. Teacher educators quite rightly identify all kinds of external factors that undermine their best efforts such as the poor funding of teacher education, class sizes larger than the average in secondary schools, and the socialising effects of school cultures. But most teacher educators can also accept that there are weaknesses and spaces for reform within their programs and that the countless reviews of teacher education (see Ramsey, 2000) have made some reasonable observations and recommendations. The long history of reform in teacher education is indicative of teacher educators’ own commitment to the seemingly never-ending quest for the preparation of better teachers. Nonetheless, and despite these initiatives, most teacher educators would acknowledge that there is still a long way to go in ensuring that graduates become great (or at least good) teachers.