This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Labaree, D. F. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

On the Nature of Teaching and Teacher Education

Difficult Practices that Look Easy

Michigan State University

The effort over the past 150 years to create an effective and respected system for preparing teachers in the United States has not been easy. A large body of research on the history of teacher-education reform is a tale of persistent mediocrity and resistance to change. The author’s aim in this article is not to revisit this sad story, but to examine an old and enduring problem that has long blocked the path to a truly professional education for teachers, that teaching is an enormously difficult job that looks easy. The author explores the roots of the gap between the reality and the perception of learning to teach by first spelling out some of the characteristics of teaching that make it such a difficult form of professional practice. He then examines key elements in the nature of teaching that make the process of becoming a teacher seem so uncomplicated.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. M. Kennedy Knowledge and Vision in Teaching Journal of Teacher Education, May 1, 2006; 57(3): 205 - 211. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. F. Labaree Life on the Margins Journal of Teacher Education, May 1, 2005; 56(3): 186 - 191. [PDF]

				J. K. Fenimore-Smith Democratic Practices and Dialogic Frameworks: Efforts Toward Transcending the Cultural Myths of Teaching Journal of Teacher Education, May 1, 2004; 55(3): 227 - 239. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. F. Labaree The Peculiar Problems of Preparing Educational Researchers Educational Researcher, May 1, 2003; 32(4): 13 - 22. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. Ben-Peretz The Impossible Role of Teacher Educators in a Changing World Journal of Teacher Education, January 1, 2001; 52(1): 48 - 56. [Abstract] [PDF]