In light of Mary Laura’s latest post, and the many recent recommendations by education researchers and state and national leaders (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), Chiefs for Change (C4C), National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), and Secretary Arne Duncan, just to name a few), it’s about time to have the conversation on teacher preparation. There are programs out there which are doing a fantastic job preparing teachers for the realities of the job. But I think we can all agree, that most teachers step inside their classroom the first day on the job and have absolutely no idea what they are doing.
I am often ashamed to admit that I graduated from a teacher prep program. Sometimes I think about lying and saying I was an English major instead of an English Education major. The smiles of my audience at hearing “English” usually turn to looks of puzzlement, or even frowns, at the second word. Why? Because, let’s be honest, no one has any respect for colleges of education.
Your average teacher prep program lets everybody in the door, regardless of merit, and lets almost anybody graduate, whether or not they should be inside a classroom. Everyone in college knows the education classes are easy (101 uses for Popsicle sticks ain’t that far off); instead of writing research papers and studying for exams, I spent my days creating seating charts and classroom rules.
I’ve frequently heard colleges of ed described as “cash cows” because they cost so little to run and are used to fund other, more expensive programs (think biology, engineering, and computer sciences). Therefore, it’s in the best interest of the university to flood the program with candidates, and push them through to the end.
At the extreme, there are essentially two schools of thought on the issue: 1) colleges of education are in dire need of reform, and that that reform IS possible, and 2) colleges of education are basically, well, worthless… and that their facilities on college campuses would be better off housing copy paper and office supplies.
In reality though, I think we have more than two options.
In Florida, as in many other states, an initial teacher preparation program is not the only pathway to teaching. Anyone with a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution can enroll in a teacher prep program at a community or state college before they enter the classroom. A third option, which more and more teacher candidates are taking advantage of, is alternative certification. Anyone with a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution may enroll in a competency-based program through their local school district after they have landed a teaching job. The benefit of both of these paths is that a teacher candidate can get his or her degree in a content area and gain much more subject-area expertise on the front end.
I spent two and half years preparing to teach through a respected university, while most of my coworkers spent a whopping ZERO days in preparation before the first day. I don’t think I fared any better than they did, and I don’t think any of us fared very well.
There is a lot of research and evidence out there that I’d like to share, but first I want your opinions.
Teachers, how were you prepared and was it helpful?
What do you think teachers today need to learn in the classroom?
Are there some things that just can’t be taught?
Let’s hear your thoughts!
Sarah
/ December 20, 2012I was also prepared in the traditional way – through a top-tier university’s college of education. I did well in my classes, my peers were generally brilliant individuals, and we all said the same thing in the end: “I don’t feel ready.” We didn’t spend enough time in the classroom, in my opinion. There’s no way to learn how to teach by reading about it. You’ve got to jump in and do it. In my opinion, “student teaching” or “internships” need to last longer than one semester.
Secondly, teachers need to be held accountable from the get-go. Reviews should be rampant during the student-teaching period. Peer reviews, host-teacher reviews, and professor reviews taught me considerably more than any textbook ever could.
Finally, yes, there are things that can’t be taught. Just like some people are born with a “math brain” or a knack for design, some are born to be teachers. There are fundamental characteristics of the profession that cannot be taught. More importantly, when someone figures out s/he doesn’t have those characteristics, s/he should get out of the profession.
You aren’t doing anyone any good by loathing your job every day. In education, perhaps more than any profession, you have to love what you’re doing.
Matt
/ December 20, 2012Sara, great stuff! I think this is a great conversation to have–and unfortunately one that is not had enough in education circles. There are no silver bullets in education and learning from others–both successes and failures–is necessary to improve.
I was one of those people you spoke of who took advantage of an alternative certification route. My major was media communication with a concentration in journalism, and I picked up a minor in creative writing to go along with it–so, like you, I ended up teaching English. In my experience, (teaching at a school with 99% of the kids on free or reduced lunch), almost everything I taught regarding English came from two sources:
1. What I learned in my high school and college English courses.
2. What I learned on my own everyday as I spent hours each week reading various textbooks, non-fiction books on writing, and lesson plans from teachers all over the country online.
Virtually none of what I taught was learned through my alt cert program. Naturally, there were some bumpy spots along the road, and I was considerably better as a teacher my second year–heck even my second month–than I was my first.
However, where my alt cert program helped me tremendously was giving me three or four things that felt fully confident in my ability to implement the day I walked into the classroom. Stategies for classroom management, how to breakdown an overall teaching standard and flesh them out into units, techniques to check for understanding and collect data, and most importantly how to use that data to continually adjust what I was teaching to ensure my students were mastering the standards they needed to master.
What I quickly realized was, being a teacher–I mean really owning and controlling a classroom all to your yourself–is something that can’t be simulated. It doesn’t matter how many courses one takes in education theory, or how many observations you complete, there is no way to fully prepare you for your first day in the classroom. However, what a teacher prep program can do is instead of throwing as much crap against the wall as you can and hoping something sticks, give their future teachers a few foundational things they can master and be confident in on day one, and then support them with continued professional development (the school they teach at should play a big role with this too) as their strengths and weaknesses as a teacher become more fleshed out. This makes for much more efficient and structured development, much akin to differentiated lessons that we would give our students.
As to your last question, I do think there are a couple things that a person either has or they don’t. Teachers have to be eternal optimists by nature and they need to be able to adapt quickly to changes around them. I don’t think I ever had a day go exactly according to plan, and I certainly didn’t always reach the lofty goals I set for myself or my students. But if the teacher loses faith in their class or the teacher can’t adjust to the ever changing needs of their students, it quickly becomes reflected in the attitudes of the students.
Sara Clements
/ December 20, 2012After a bit of reflection, I have to admit there were a couple of courses which were invaluable to me: how to teach reading. We didn’t dwell on graphic organizers and child-appropriate literature, but on the science of reading. I realize now this was a state-driven push in the early 2000s, but regardless of who deserves the credit, I learned a lot. In addition, the courses were taught on the campus of a local elementary school. Half our time was spent learning and half was spent doing–a model which should be replicated. This same knowledge was reinforced during my first few years of teaching when I completed my reading endorsement. Judging by Florida’s top spot on the international PIRLS rankings (FL fourth graders were rated 2nd in the world for reading), I’m not the only teacher who has benefited from this type of instruction. If I had my way, every English and language arts teacher would be fully certified in K-12 reading–it’s too important!
maminnick
/ December 20, 2012That does sound like a fantastic course and is something I missed out on by going the alt cert route. That’s why I think these conversations can be so fruitful. Clearly there is no prep program that is doing everything perfectly, but we can pick and choose what worked best from each one and build a model path from there.