Motive and Motivation in Learning to Teach

Every summer for the last ten years I have taught the first course in our teacher education program, entitled “Learning, Teaching, and Schooling in a Diverse Society.” In the very first few days I ask the students to write a “Learning Autobiography.” My aim is to provide an occasion for these prospective teachers to reflect on their own trajectories as learners: to think about when and how they learn most effectively and about the conditions that facilitate or impede their learning. As I explain when giving them this assignment, it is only when we understand what we mean by “learning” that we can talk sensibly about what is involved in “teaching”.