graduating teachers as well as‘close and continuous integration of practice and
research’in programme design. The report also proposes that teaching should
become a postgraduate profession managed through the support of different path-
ways into teaching.
1.1.4 Conclusion
Although the man focus of this discussion has been on initial teacher education (or
what in England the policymakers insist in calling Initial Teacher Training), the
ongoing professional learning and development of teachers as they progress
through their careers is also a matter of considerable significance and is the focus
for a significant number of contributions to this volume.
Teacher education and professional development have become something of a
political battleground since the 1980s. In order to ensure that we continue to prepare
teachers of the highest quality in all phases of schooling and college and across all
curriculum areas it is crucial to take great care over the arrangements for profes-
sional preparation and training. There is a danger in politicians exerting their ide-
ological prejudices, which may well be partly based on their own experiences of
school, as a pupil. Rather, educationists should be examining the evidence to make
judgements about the most appropriate forms of teacher preparation and indeed
Fig. 1.2 Teaching for better
learning model
12 I. Menter et al.