"Teaching is a lot more than just showing up to class and grading assignments": Preparing middle- level teachers for longevity in the profession (original) (raw)
2017, Middle School Journal
The university’s teacher preparation program has implemented and continually refined a professional development school program, with extended university-school relationships in its middle-level certification program. This program offers dialo-gue, targeted learning activities, and intensive field-based experiences to help ease preservice teachers from student iden-tity to teacher identity. Preservice teachers spend several seme-sters working under the guidance of practicing middle-level teachers before assuming control of their own classrooms, miti-gating potential reality shock and improving middle-level teacher retention. This program has led to higher than average 5-year retention rates for middle-level teachers. Recommendations for other teacher preparation programs are included. Keywords: middle level, professional development schools, tea-cher attrition, teacher preparation, teacher retention
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