195education programs were extended to 3-year diplomas, and since the 1980s, univer-
sities have provided 4-year undergraduate Bachelor of Education programs and
postgraduate programs of 1 or 2 years.
In more recent years, the role of universities in the development and delivery of
teacher education has come under intense scrutiny (Darling-Hammond & Adamson
2013 ; Mayer, 2014 ). There has been a movement since the turn of the twenty-first
century to shift teacher education from universities back to schools (Broadley,
Ledger, & Sharplin, 2013 ) under the supervision of school-based mentor teachers,
with relatively minor input from university-based teacher educators. This is particu-
larly evident in the United Kingdom where there has been a move away from
university- based teacher education to a school-based apprenticeship model of train-
ing (Robinson, 2006 ). This model of school-based teacher education has also
touched Australia with the re-emergence of teacher internship programs including
the Teach for Australia model (Broadley & Ledger, 2012 ; Dinham, 2014 ) and
12-month internships. Interestingly, Kamenetz ( 2014 ) reported that one in five
teachers in initial teacher education in the United States of America was trained in
alternative certification programs.
Whilst current education policy and initial teacher education reforms are increas-
ingly directed at strengthening the practice component within initial teacher educa-
tion with greater emphasis on school experience rather than university-based
learning (Mattsson, Eilertsen & Rorrison, 2011 ; Mayer, 2014 ), research also high-
lights the importance of teachers’ theoretical and content knowledge to support stu-
dent learning (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005 ). Empirical studies show
effective initial teacher education programs are those that develop preservice teach-
ers’ content and pedagogical knowledge, have an academically rigorous core cur-
riculum underpinned by an enquiry approach connecting theory to practice and
provide extensive supported teaching practice (Allen, Howells, & Radford, 2013 ,
Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005 ). The challenge for many initial teacher edu-
cation programs has been to balance pedagogical theory and professional practice
(Ure, Gough, & Newton, 2009 ). The four different models of school immersion
programs showcased in this chapter aim to purposely integrate university theory
with school experiences to ensure the initial teacher education programs were aca-
demically robust and incorporated strong university and school partnerships.
Immersion Programs in Initial Teacher Education
Whilst there is a general agreement for extensive supported experiences in schools
that are meaningfully connected to university coursework, how this is actualised has
been problematic. The divide between university theory and professional practice
(Brady, 2002 ; Smedley, 2001 ) has also been observed in other professional pro-
grams such as accountancy (Albrecht & Sack, 2000 ; Stanley, 2010 ), nursing and
medicine (Feng et al., 2013 ). The above studies found that students who were
12 Immersion Programs in Australia: Exploring Four Models for Developing...