<span>Research confirms that the quality of instruction learners experience day-to-day matters for learner achievement more than any other school-based factor. Yet teachers beginning their careers across a range of contexts routinely report that they are unprepared to enact high-quality instruction on day one. Thus, the quality and content of pre-service teacher preparation programmes features prominently in learner success. Research reveals that purposeful coordination between teacher preparation programmes and the school districts with which they partner, tightly aligned curricula and field experiences, and extensive clinical practice can improve teacher preparedness (Darling-Hammond &amp; Bransford 2007). The purpose of this article was to conduct a survey among selected universities offering Bachelor of Education (BEd) foundation phase programmes, to determine the role of work-integrated learning (WIL) in facilitating the preparedness of pre-service teachers to teach reading literacy. The results indicate that there is an urgent need to focus on the following aspects as they relate to WIL and its integration with reading literacy-specific content: the purpose of WIL as it relates to reading literacy; the degree of integration between coursework, specifically reading literacy and practice-based experiences (i.e. practice teaching); the relationship and partnerships between university lecturers and teachers and district officials; and the training of teachers to support the pre-service teachers.</span>

Background:The theory and practice divide is a persistent conundrum in teacher education. Moreover, foundation phase literacy teacher education is no exception because such graduates are expected to acquire knowledge and skills to address the challenges of the classroom.Objectives: This article focuses on the application of an integrated approach to literacy teacher education.Method: This conceptual article is structured to reflect how common pedagogical choices such as service learning, situated learning, reflection, and student support were used to design and enable integrated student learning experiences within teacher preparation programmes.Results: By exploring the educational value of these pedagogical choices that informed the integrated approach, I developed an integration framework to inform the pedagogy of literacy education. Conclusion and contribution:The integration framework reflecting the catalytic pedagogical choices could guide teacher educators regarding the approaches to address the persistent conundrum in overcoming the theory and practice divide in teacher preparation programmes.

South African Foundation Phase teacher education programmes are criticised for not delivering critical and creative students who can rightfully take their place in an ever-changing world.Moreover, the demand for developing teacher education programmes that are of high quality and lead to meaningful development of teachers as well as several national and institutional teacher education policy changes has led to revisions to approaches to assessment. The aim of this article is to indicate how portfolios can be used as a reflective learning tool in assessment.A qualitative exploratory case study is presented where Foundation Phase teacher education portfolios were analysed thematically to establish whether portfolios promote learning through students' engagement in reflection. We argue that student reflections through portfolios have the potential of enhancing the process of thinking about learning, thereby encouraging students to think about more than just their marks, but also their personal development and growth.An analysis of the data showed that students developed the ability to reflect as they progressed through the portfolio, albeit superficially. There were strong indicators that the portfolio tasks enabled different levels of reflection and learning. We found that the students had not developed the ability to assess their own teaching or learning, and it made us realise that we need to do more probing for such critical thinking about the way we implement the portfolio task.Portfolios hold much value for summative assessment purposes, but it is important to acknowledge its value to enable assessment for learning. Therefore, a mind shift is needed towards alternative uses of portfolios in teacher education programmes as well as how they can Barends, Lebethe, Jacobs Portfolios as assessment for learning: A case study 41 be used for sustainable assessment. The construction of learning portfolios with an explicit focus on learning could bring about important changes for Foundation Phase teacher education students, as it enables them to become more aware of their own learning and growth and could serve as a form of professional development for pre-service teachers that could also serve them well when practising as in-service professionals.