'It happened just like we talked about' : using scenarios to develop professional identity in pre-service teachers

In 2006, an intensive one-year Graduate Diploma of Education course leading to registration as a teacher was introduced in universities in Queensland. In the first few years of the course there was concern from professional associations and schools that a one-year course (when compared with a four-year undergraduate course of two-year Graduate Diploma course) allowed insufficient time to 'become a teacher'. At James Cook University, the Cairns Professional Advisory Group (a board of representatives from professional experience schools, comprising teachers, principals and union and employer groups) expressed deep concern at the observed inability of some Graduate Diploma pre-service teachers to assume a professional identity as a teacher, and reported some considerable conflict in the workplace as a result. This chapter outlines how scenario-based learning (SBL) and speculative-based scenarios were selected as a teaching and learning strategy to develop professional identity for Graduate Diploma pre-service teachers. [Author abstract]