Learning about learning through teaching.

This research reports on the second phase of an inquiry into student teachers' beliefs and practices with respect to teaching and learning in a community-based arts project. Student teachers' beliefs about how people learn, their approaches to teaching and their understandings about how others and themselves learn are examined. The research presents data drawn from an examination of students' teaching portfolios assembled following their delivery of teaching activities during a course project. Insights into students' understanding about young children, motivation and learning are offered as well as some thoughts on how teacher education programs might be better able to develop student teachers' pedagogical knowledge through such projects. Issues related to authentic tasks and learning outside the traditional classroom - for both teacher education students and children - will be discussed.