As the holding of this conference suggests, the preparation of new teachers is a hot topic, and it is not an exaggeration to assert that both the structure and quality of teacher education programmes are the subject of international concern. If we are serious in our desire to improve teacher education, then rather than taking as our starting point questions such as “to what extent should central government direct change?”, we should begin by tackling two much more basic, and deceptively simple looking questions: - What knowledge do beginning teachers need? - How , and in what contexts, are they most likely to acquire that knowledge? Over the next hour, in addressing these questions, I shall be making the case for school-based teacher education and for the enhanced role of experienced teachers in teacher preparation, and shall end by outlining what I see as the challenges facing all of us who care about the quality of new entrants to the profession...

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