The paper argues that it is not wise to encourage reflective teaching in general without first establishing clear priorities for the reflection that emerges out of a reasoned educational and social philosophy. It does not accept the implication that exists throughout much of the literature that teachers' actions are necessarily better merely…

Four traditions of reform in 20th century U.S. teacher education are described: academic, social efficiency, developmentalist, and social reconstructionist. Each tradition is illustrated with examples from both early and contemporary teacher education programs. Following the presentation of the reform traditions, the heuristic value of the…