Inquiry Into The Educational Practice Curriculum In Canada

The quality of teacher education can be a decisive factor in whether school students achieve excellence. As a key part in linking theory and practice, the curriculum of educational practice in the preservice teacher education program is an integral part in promoting teacher candidates’ professional development. However, the truth is that Chinese universities, X University as an example, have been confronting quite a few problems. The purpose is unclear and narrow-visioned; the curriculum is more of form than of essence, and isolated from academic courses; there is no reflective mentoring, and the evaluation is not aimed to further teacher candidates’ teaching professional development. These problems are deeply rooted in "isolation from theories" in our educational practice curriculum.Set in China’s curriculum reform in teacher education, this dissertation studies the educational practice curriculum in OISE/UT’s initial teacher education program, aimed at enlightening and inspiring our educational practice curriculum.In a historical view of OISE/UT’s educational practice curriculum, it also evolved from zero to flourish, from isolation from theories to integration with theories. Today OISE/UT aims at educating standardized Ontario teachers, who meet Ontario’s Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession and Ethical Standards for the Teaching Profession. Besides, OISE/UT sets goals of developing teacher candidates’ professionalism of integrating education creed, knowledge and teaching competence into the field experience context. OISE/UT’s educational practice curriculum includes observation days, practicum, internship, education research, community activities and field experience in academic courses, all of which are interwoven with academic courses and scattered into the whole teacher education program.In the implementation process, participants,each clear about their own responsibilities, all collaborate together to help teacher candidates actively participate in the teaching or educational activities and reflect and inquire. To promote teacher candidates’ professional development and learn from assessment and evaluation, OISE/UT applies regular feedback, formative evaluation and summative evaluation, which are based on teaching profession standards, OISE/UT’s standards of practice and of teaching design.OISE/UT’s educational practice curriculum enjoys the following characteristics: comprehensive and guiding standards, effective integration with academic courses and distribution into the whole preservice teacher education process, detailed and reliable objectives in each stage and cooperation all along. All these have been improving teacher candidates’ professional development, and promoting associate teachers’ and college advisors’professional development as well.Because of sharing the same aim, which is to develop reflective practitioners, and going through quite similar problems of disintegration with academic courses, we can learn from OISE/UT’s successful experience. Firstly, we need the philosophy of all for teacher candidates’teaching profession, effective integration of practice with theory, and cooperation. Secondly, we need to set standards for the educational practice curriculum, and make clear of the aim of the curriculum. Thirdly, we need to have a broad viewpoint of the curriculum, and improve the curriculum structure and arrangement. Fourthly, we need to improve the quality of teacher educators, and encourage them to adopt reflective guide. Fifthly, the assessment and evaluation of the curriculum should adopt the principle of teacher candidates’professional development, and encourage teacher candidates’ self-evaluation.