An inquiry, case based approach to teacher education : findings and implications

Inquiry and case based approaches to professional education have been popular in Australian universities during the last decade. These approaches use cases, issues and/or problems derived from everyday practice as a basis for learning about a profession within a context of the learners taking a major responsibility for decisions about their own learning. This article uses the experiences of the Master of Teaching (M.Teach) degree at the University of Sydney in Australia to consider the advantages and limitations of inquiry and cases as the foundation for pre service teacher education. It draws own evaluation and case study data to reflect on the use of cases to prepare teachers to work in a post-industrial context.