A developmental constructivist approach to pre-service teachers' ways of knowing

The purpose of this study is to apply the Women's Ways of Knowing (Belenky, Chinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986; New York: Basic Books) conceptualization to the thinking exhibited in interviews of preservice teachers. Thirty two students (24 female, 8 male; aged 20-53 years) near the end of their teacher education program at an urban university were interviewed acid their thinking was classified as predominantly received, subjective, procedural, constructed, or a mixture of two categories. More than half the students demonstrated significant amounts of procedural or constructed thinking. Examples of how students used different kinds of thinking in their teacher education program are provided and implications for teacher educators are suggested. The implications for teacher education of the Women's Ways of Knowing approach is also discussed. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd