Student Teacher as Researcher: Accepting Greater Responsibility for Learning about Teaching

Student teachers' learning about teaching can be substantially enhanced through teacher preparation if a student teacher as researcher stance is adopted. Through this approach, student teachers can develop more meaningful and sustained ways of focusing on their learning about teaching by extending reflection into more systematic inquiries into practice. In so doing, the value and intent of student teachers as researchers can be a most empowering outcome. However, such an approach requires teacher educators to trust that student teachers can (and should) accept more responsibility for their own learning about teaching. This paper examines one way of developing a student teacher as researcher approach in teacher education that (hopefully) helps to challenge the more traditional role of teacher educators directing student teachers' learning about teaching.