Teacher Training Isn't Dumb; Teacher Training Policy Is (original) (raw)

Yeah, but's that keep teachers from embracing an active curriculum

Young Children, 2005

is an associate professor at Ohio University in Athens and is working on a textbook for preservice teachers on the development and teaching of mathematics for children from birth through third grade. His special interests are the development of mathematics knowledge in children under the age of six and how infants and toddlers construct mathematics knowledge.

Alternative Teacher Training in Review

Similar to the workplace, there's a common assumption amongst the worker bee masses that "school sucks". Mark Twain said, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." Albert Einstein had a similar quote, which he stated that "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." The autocratic dominated classroom censors democratic virtues and practices, and even the teachers are afraid to question, criticize, or oppose teaching paradigms being crammed into their brains in Normal Schools. While both Robert Holland and Linda Hammond make many interesting points regarding Teacher Training Schools (aka "Normal Schools"), they seem to have structured the debate about public schools into a debate between regulation vs. deregulation of Normal Schools. For Robert Holland, the problem for him is the government, which is ironic, because universal public schools exist solely because of the government. Equally appalling is how Linda Hammond pretends as though no

Journal of Teacher Education 2012 Hiebert

Articles The thesis of this article is that working directly on improving teaching—the methods used to interact with students about content—is the most productive option for improving classroom instruction. To support the thesis, we identify three ways that educators and policy makers have worked to improve teaching: (a) recruit more talented people, (b) improve the qualifications of teachers entering or already in the profession, and (c) improve the instructional methods that are implemented in classrooms. These approaches are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, the combination of all three might be optimal. But our goal in this article is to highlight the value of the third approach because it is often overshadowed in policy discussions by the first approach and treated by educators as a by-product of the second approach. We argue that these priorities should be reversed. The first two approaches share a focus on the qualities of the people who teach. The first—recruiting more talented people—apparently assumes that teaching skills are innate, or at least correlated with general measures of intelligence or exceptional achievement. More talented people will somehow know how to deliver more effective instruction. The second—improving the qualifications of prospective and practicing teachers—recognizes that people need to be trained to teach well. But this approach shares with the first the assumption that improved teaching flows from the qualifications of the individuals who teach. The third approach, to focus on the methods of teaching rather than the people who teach, is unusual enough in the United States that we begin our argument by trying to make the more familiar approaches look strange and problematic. We then present a more recent version of the second approach—improving the qualifications of teachers—that resolves some, but not all, of the problems we identify. We then contrast this updated second approach with directly studying and improving the methods of teaching. Our description includes a potpourri of inconclusive evidence that we believe supports increasing the prominence of this third approach. Finally, we examine a series of reasons that explain why attention to the people who teach, despite the evidence, remains the U.S. preferred strategy for improving teaching.

Teacher Training Policies and Determination Of Inadequacies

Asian Journal of Contemporary Education

Research conducted in this study aims to determine teachers' opinions regarding how the primary school teacher training policies of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) can be improved. For this purpose, 50 teachers working in primary education institutions were selected to determine the study group. Teachers' opinions were collected through semi-structured interviews. Within the framework of the data obtained from the semi-structured interview forums, it has been tried to determine what are the points that are not considered sufficient in the primary school teacher training policies. Based on the results obtained, there were negative or unpopular opinions regarding teacher training, opinions about the training program adopted, opinions on teachers' competence, opinions on which gains should be prioritized in teacher training programs, opinions about which courses and topics should be included in teacher training programs, and opinions on teacher training in ge...

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN TRAINING AND TEACHER BELIEFS

In recent years thousands of students have entered into US public schools. Many teachers feel burdened and drained as how to teach these children. Because of this many teachers harbor negative feelings towards ELL students. This paper reflects current attitudes in an elementary school in the Southwest region of the United States.

No Teacher Left Unqualified How Teachers

In this paper, we examine the NCLB definition of a " highly qualified " teacher, the combined nature of federal and state highly qualified mandates , and how science teachers and their principals in one large, urban district have responded. In particular, we report on the kinds of licenses that teachers of science hold; the relationship between science teachers' qualifications and teaching assignments, both within and outside of their licensure; and the extent to which these trends vary across different student populations , subject disciplines, and over time. In addition, we present principal-and teacher-interview data from eight case-study schools and district-wide teacher-survey data to shed light on our findings and show how the NCLB definition of highly qualified is understood and regarded by teachers themselves. The data show that progress has been made in assigning teachers with demonstrated content knowledge in the specific science subjects they are assigned to teach, however the rate of change is slower for some students populations and science disciplines. Moreover, both teachers and principals adapt to these mandates in a variety of ways, some of which reflect the intended and unintended consequences of these policies.

THE silent teacher: Spoken and unspoken rhetorics and the politics of training reform

2005

One of the precepts of Game Theory states that whoever starts the game is more likely to win. This paper explores the game of training reform and particularly its impact on teachers who certainly do not make the rules. It traces the impact of the Training Reform Agenda from 1990 to its echoes of Victorian Minister Kosky’s 2002 statement, 'Knowledge and Skills for the Innovation Economy'. The study considers the effects of these reform rhetorics on curriculum and teachers’ work. It considers who speaks and who must remain silent when curriculum decisions are made. The author focuses particularly on education and training in jewellery design and other arts education as she explores what is spoken and what is unspoken in the politics of training reform. Reference to learning that is, or should be, rich in thinking and creativity leads to a critique of many of the assumptions underpinning Training Packages and to Ross’s concept of artistic ‘mental slavery’. The author goes on to consider t...

Different Conceptions of Teacher Expertise and Teacher Education in the USA

This paper describes the implications for the work if teaching and the curriculum if teacher education programs if three dijftrent views if teaching expertise and teacher education (prcrftssionalization, deregulation and social justice) that have competed with each other for dominance in the USA since the inception if formal teacher education in the nineteenth century.