Chapter 9: Developing Reflective Teachers in Context: The Impact of Professional Development Schools

There is a definite need for the preparation of teachers to be re-evaluated in order to coincide with the efforts of improving student learning and instruction. As more is revealed about human learning and knowledge, changes in educational structures, approaches, and instruction must also occur. Professional Development School (PDS) experiences have the power to influence the confidence and competence of pre-service teachers. Reflection is a crucial component that must be incorporated into every new and existing teacher preparation program. Reflective learning contexts of the Professional Development School offers a strong alternative to traditional methods instruction. Videotape reflection is one instructional strategy that may be easily employed to encourage teacher reflection in methods courses. In this case study, pre-service teachers revealed the impact of video reflection within a PDS context. The PDS, the situated learning context, the videotaped teaching sessions, and reflection created a collaborative interaction rich in the components for growth in teacher knowledge.