Learning to Teach

First published in 1979, Learning to Teach explores the major educational challenges of its era, offering a unique perspective on teacher training. The book is rooted in an experimental training course for secondary teachers at the University of Melbourne, where students actively engage in the process of learning to teach. It serves as an implicit response to both the ‘Black Papers’ backlash and the progressives’ ‘wait and it will happen’ approach.

In this course, students play a significant role in shaping their learning journey, including the assessment of their own work. Written from their perspective and drawing heavily on their diaries, the book captures their transformation as they navigate the often painful, yet rewarding, experiences of becoming teachers. Readers are immersed in the tense, exhilarating, and sometimes hair-raising process of putting ambitious and daring educational principles into practice. The insights gained from this experiment have far-reaching implications for teacher training and professional education worldwide.

The author, who led the Melbourne experiment, demonstrates how meaningful experiences can illuminate the path for student teachers when theory is consistently connected to action. The program fosters an unusually close collaboration between the teacher-training institution and the schools where students practice, challenging widely held assumptions such as “students will only work for marks” and “keep them at arm’s length.” As a result, Learning to Teach is not only a valuable resource for teacher educators in tertiary institutions but also for practicing teachers in schools.