TEACHERS TELLING TEACHERS: EXPLORING STUDENTS’ MEMORIES FOR TEACHER EDUCATION

In the literature on teacher training, the use of students’ personal narratives is viewed as a learning tool and a research method, that can be used to reflect and understand how complex is the teaching and learning process. With the aim to explore student teachers’ memories and their influence on their ideas about teaching, a sample of 112 future teachers were asked to narrate their past experiences as students and reflect on them. The data collected show the profile of a teacher offering mostly creative and collaborative educational activities, able to listen to and support her/his students both from an educational and emotional point of view. The paper points out that an effective teacher is able to use the appropriate teaching strategies, to manage the class group and to provide each student with the adequate support and her/his socio-emotional skills.