Linking practice to theory in teacher education: A growth in cognitive structures

There are doubts about the effectiveness of teacher education regarding professional behavior of pre-service teachers. Theory is part of teacher education, but is not embedded in teaching practice. This research examines whether a curriculum succeeds in linking theory to preservice teachers' experiences. In this study, 136 first year pre-service teachers carried out a case test and a card-sorting task, both before and after a specific curriculum program. Measurements show that pre-service teachers' cognitive schemata had grown, that their conceptual knowledge had expanded and that they experienced a linkage of practice to theory to a reasonable degree within the program.