Wandering into Inquiry

When I was asked by our SMWP director if I wanted to participate in an Advanced Institute this summer, I jumped at the opportunity, head first, without thinking about the already packed plate I have--teaching three online courses, I3 conference, committee plans--not to mention being wife, mother, housekeeper, laundress, etc.--and am now embarking on my first real inquiry project. As a teacher for just shy of 20 years, I've used an inquiry approach in my daily teaching life, but rarely in such a systematic and organized manner. Therefore, this is truly new territory for me, trying to study my teaching and my students' learning with an eye toward a public audience--you. If you're following me, you'll learn that I am not afraid to learn by trial and error--there will be errors. But, I'll learn none-the-less. What do I want to learn, you might ask. My question focuses on the disconnect--dissonance--between university coursework in teacher preparation and the practical work of field experiences. I've often observed that students in our program embrace the ideologies of process oriented instruction or a context based approach for literacy instruction while in the undergraduate courses safely conducted on the university campus; however, as the students approach and enter extended field experiences, the disconnect begins. So what happens? How to teacher education programs help pre-service teachers sustain the theoretical foundations gained in programs of study as they enter field experiences? How do we break the cycle of dissonance?