Clinical Pedagogy and Pathways of Clinical Pedagogical Practice: A Conceptual Framework for Teaching About Teaching in Clinical Experiences

As the field of teacher education evolves to more clinically based educator preparation, understanding how to develop preservice teachers’ professional vision and pedagogy through reflection in and on practice in the clinical context is essential. The purpose of this article is to outline a conceptual framework for clinical pedagogy, or the art and science of teaching about teaching in clinical contexts. This article draws upon prior research of six clinical pedagogical skills (noticing, ignoring, intervening, pointing, unpacking, and processing) among clinical educators and sequences them into seven pathways of clinical pedagogical practice that clinical educators can use to foster preservice teacher learning. The clinical pedagogical skills and pathways of clinical pedagogical practice compose a conceptual framework for clinical pedagogy that has implications for how clinical experiences are resourced, how traditional roles for university supervisors and methods course instructors are reconceptualized, how future scholars of teacher education are prepared, and how future research can use this framework to deepen the knowledge base of clinical pedagogy.