Example 6 from research – Moon (1998)

Moon (1998) carried out a review of ‘international perspectives on the initial education and training of teachers’ which addressed teacher education across some 10 countries, including the USA, France, the Netherlands and Germany. This was not a systematic review, but did include a wide range of research and programmes internationally. With respect to learning theory, Moon indicated that ‘In England, and in the USA, the Deweyian reflective practitioner, pragmatic tradition has come to dominate teacher education programmes. In France and Germany and much of continental Europe, a more knowledge focused interest in didactics and pedagogics has been central to the education and training process' (Moon, 1998: 24).

Moon identifies a tension between the English view of the ‘social role of the teacher’ (ibid: 25) and the greater concentration on didactics and subject knowledge in teacher education in many non-English speaking countries. There is even a suggestion that ‘the English language has come to see the terms didactic or pedagogue in derogatory terms’ (ibid: 25).