For Methods Instructors

Methods instructors tend to dominate their courses telling preservice teachers what to do, how to do it, and then criticizing their efforts afterwards. Teachers‐in‐training seldom are given an opportunity to think for themselves. Yet, once involved in the profession, teachers are constantly confronted with situations requiring them to teach in areas for which they have not been prepared. They are expected to implement current innovations in their classes and work with curricular materials based on new or different philosophies; they are given classes different in age, grade, or level from those they customarily teach; they may even be assigned subjects in which they are not certified. Because teachers continually face new and changing situations, they should be prepared to learn how to learn on their own. Designing learner‐centered methods courses which shift the major responsibility for the teaching and the learning to preservice teachers promotes less dependency on the instructor, whose role changes from that of lecturer and demonstrator to resource and guide. If we expect teachers to foster independence in learning in their students, we should provide teacher training experiences which encourage similar independence in the teachers themselves

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