2017 Volume 26 Pages 112-122
This study devised a teacher education program that encourages straight masterter’s students (graduate students who entered from faculties directly) to alternate between theory and practice. The program is intended to help graduate students gain experience in linking theory and practice concretely, and to reflect on the development of their own 'knowledge' through their education.
In order to realize the program, we formed a 'five-step procedure'. This procedure consisted in pre-structuring, using experience, structuring, focusing and theory with a small 't', and learning contents of the professional graduate school with practices and arranged learning contents based on three relations between theory and practice. For the procedure's last step, students were required to form a 'Gestalt' with the description of their own life history and their awareness of internal 'knowledge'.
This academic year, we carried out part of the program to examine our graduate students' learning processes. We concluded that some graduate students tried to interrelate different leaning contents with one another and to reflect consciously on the development of their own knowledge. Some other graduate students, however, failed to bring themselves into such self-reflection on their knowledge development. Further studies will be necessary to diagnose more specifically each step of 'five step procedure' and to link theory and practice more clearly to enrich instructional methods.
