Recasting the Pitfalls of Experience in Teacher Preparation for the Current Context

In 1985, Sharon Feiman-Nemser and Margret Buchmann published the foundational article, “The Pitfalls of Experience in Teacher Preparation,” describing three primary pitfalls in teacher learning: (1) familiarity, (2) two worlds, and (3) cross-purposes. As three teacher educators, we find that the pitfalls remain salient 40 years later, and we note both continuity and change. Here, we argue that revisiting these pitfalls 40 years later enables us to recast the enduring challenges in ways that better account for the current moment. For each pitfall, we offer questions to the field to consider how inherent tensions in learning might better support robust teacher learning and development.