Fostering meaning-oriented learning and deliberate practice in teacher education Larike H. Bronkhorst * , Paulien C. Meijer, Bob Koster, Jan D. Vermunt Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Education, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80127, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands article info Article history: Received 15 December 2010 Received in revised form 20 May 2011 Accepted 27 May 2011 Keywords: Student teacher learning Professional development Teacher education programs abstract Meaning-oriented learning and deliberate practice may be expected to promote student teachers’ continuous professional development. We interviewed twelve expert teacher educators to explore their understanding of these concepts, as well as pedagogies to stimulate them in teacher education. The experts understood deliberate practice in two ways: an enactment conceptualization focusing on pupil learning, and a regulation conceptualization focusing on teacher learning. Pedagogies were operation- alized in twelve design principles, which integrated ideas previously scattered in the literature, and added to it with respect to anticipatory reflection, diverse ways of “modeling”, and student teacher agency in creating a powerful learning environment. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Meaning-oriented learning and deliberate practice in teacher education “What students learn is directly related to what and how teachers teach; and what and how teacher teachers teach depends on the knowledge, skills, and commitments they bring to their teaching and the opportunities they have to continue learning in and from their practice.” (Feiman-Nemser, 2001). It is increasingly recognized that currently teacher education programs in different parts of the world may not secure successful lifelong teaching practice (Lieberman & Pointer Mace, 2008). The pace and size of educational reforms witnessed worldwide necessitate learning throughout the profession. Seeing that systematic support for teacher learning during the profession is scarce, this means that teacher education programs bear a dual responsibility (Russel & Loughran, 2007). They have to prepare their student teachers for current practice by fostering the fundamentals of teaching (Grossman, Hammerness, & McDonald, 2009), but also insure that student teachers learn how to continue learning successfully after teacher education has been completed (Fairbanks et al., 2010; Kremer-Hayon & Tillema, 1999). Currently, the international teacher education literature discusses each of these responsibilities sepa- rately; one school of thought revolves around student teacher learning and another around professional learning and the develop- ment of expertise. In this article we combine concepts from both schools, representing ideas and experiences from various parts of the world, and argue that together meaning-oriented learning and delib- erate practice represent the crux of what it means to (learn to) learn as a teacher. However, pedagogies, here defined as instructional strate- gies, to stimulate meaning-oriented learning and deliberate practice are not readily available. Drawing on expert teacher educators as informants, this article sets out to shed light on the conceptualization of meaning-oriented learning and deliberate practice in learning to teach, as well as to describe ways in which they can be stimulated in teacher education. 1.1. Challenges in learning to teach These two responsibilities of teacher education are not without well-documented challenges. The American scholar Darling- Hammond (2006) summarized a great deal of the international research on learning to teach by formulating three challenges unique to the profession: the apprenticeship of observation, the problem of enactment and the complexity of teaching. First of all, in learning to teach student teachers have to address initial beliefs resulting from their extensive educational experience as a student. Lortie coined the term “apprenticeship of observation” to describe this phenomenon (Lortie, 1975). These beliefs are resistant to change (Pajares,1992), but not always beneficial to learning to teach as they tend to be somewhat traditional. Second, student teachers not only have to learn what a teacher should know, but also how to put gained knowledge into action, which has been labeled the “problem of enactment” (Kennedy, 1999). Successful enactment requires the formulation of intentions e based on teaching knowl- edge, coupled with procedural knowledge of how to use that knowledge in action and the chance actually to do so in practice. All of these steps are notoriously difficult and not always adequately * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ31 30 2532231; fax: þ31 30 2532200. E-mail addresses: l.h.bronkhorst@uu.nl (L.H. Bronkhorst), p.c.meijer@uu.nl (P.C. Meijer), b.koster@uu.nl (B. Koster), j.vermunt@uu.nl (J.D. Vermunt). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate 0742-051X/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2011.05.008 Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 1120e1130