The Academic Quality Of Prospective Teachers

For decades teacher education researchers, organizations, and policy makers have called for improving teacher education by creating clinically based preparation programs (e.g. CAEP, 2013; Goodlad, 1990; Holmes, 1986, 1995; National Association for Professional Development Schools, 2008; National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Educators, 2001, 2010; Zeichner, 1990). According to the NCATE Blue Ribbon Report (2010), this approach requires extensive opportunities for prospective teachers to connect and apply what they learn from school and university based teacher educators. Similar to preparing medical professionals, clinical practice in teacher education requires the complex and time intensive work of supporting teacher candidate ability to link theory, research, and practice as well as on-going inquiry into best pedagogical practices. Therefore, clinically intensive programs expect prospective teachers to blend practitioner and academic knowledge throughout their programs as "they learn by doing" (NCATE, 2010, p.ii). However, most of the literature to date on clinical practice has been conceptual and often relies on describing program design. The purpose of this book is move past description to study and understand what teacher education programs are learning from research about innovative clinical models of teacher education. Each book chapter highlights research about how programs are studying a variety of outcomes of clinical practice. After an introductory chapter that helps to define and situate clinical practice in teacher education, the book is organized into four sections: (1) Outcomes of New Roles, (2) Outcomes of New Practices, (3) Outcomes of New Coursework/Fieldwork Configurations, and (4) Outcomes of New Program Configurations. The book wraps up with a discussion that looks across the chapters to find common themes, share implications for teacher educators, and set the course for future research.

Teacher quality is the single most important school-related factor influencing student success. The author examines the body of research on the subject of teacher quality to draw conclusions about which attributes makes teachers most effective, (experience, preparation programs and degrees, type of certification, specific coursework taken in preparation for the profession, and teachers' own test scores), with a focus on aspects of teacher quality that can be translated into policy recommendations and incorporated into teaching practice.

This volume offers insights from modeling relations between teacher quality, instructional quality and student outcomes in mathematics across countries. The relations explored take the educational context, such as school climate, into account. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is the only international large-scale study possessing a design framework that enables investigation of relations between teachers, their teaching, and student outcomes in mathematics. TIMSS provides both student achievement data and contextual background data from schools, teachers, students and parents, for over 60 countries. This book makes a major contribution to the field of educational effectiveness, especially teaching effectiveness, where cross-cultural comparisons are scarce. For readers interested in teacher quality, instructional quality, and student achievement and motivation in mathematics, the comparisons across cultures, grades, and time are insightful and thought-provoking. For readers interested in methodology, the advanced analytical methods, combined with application of methods new to educational research, illustrate interesting novel directions in methodology and the secondary analysis of international large-scale assessment (ILSA).

This report is organized around the following themes: (1) supply and demand for quality teachers (scholastic attainments of prospective teachers at the high school and college levels, demographic and social forces having an impact upon the recruitment of qualified students); (2) programs for teacher education (liberal education, subject specialization, professional education); (3) accountability for teacher education (state standards for teacher education programs, accreditation of teacher education programs); (4) resources for teacher education (school of education funding, allocation of resources for research and development, advanced degree programs); and (5) conditions necessary to support the highest quality of teaching (teacher salaries, advancement opportunities, work environments, status, autonomy). A broad analysis of each of the issues is provided and supported by empirical findings. A series of 16 recommendations is proposed to address the need for change and improvement. Included among the appendices is a listing of testimony presented at the commission hearings. (JD)

This book presents case studies of two highly successful teacher education programs. It is part of a three-volume series that includes seven case studies. It documents the goals, strategies, content, and processes of teacher education programs that are widely acknowledged as exemplars for preparing prospective teachers to engage in skillful, learner-centered practice. Using observations, interviews, and surveys, researchers examined all aspects of each program of study and clinical practice. The book documents the capabilities of prospective teachers who graduate from these programs by examining the teachers' own work during teacher education and in the field, interviews with faculty and administrators in the schools where graduates teach, and surveys of principals. The book also examines what policies, organizational features, resources, and relationships have enabled these programs to succeed. Features common to the programs include a clear, shared vision of good teaching; well-defined standards of practice and performance; extended clinical experiences; and extensive use of case study, teacher research, performance assessment, and portfolio evaluation. The two case studies are "Trinity University: Preparing Teachers for Tomorrow's Schools" (Julia E. Koppich) and "Teacher Education at the University of Virginia: A Study of English and Mathematics Preparation" (Kathleen K. Merseth and Julia E. Koppich). (Papers contains references.) (SM).

Building on John Loughran’s latest work Developing a Pedagogy of Teacher Education, this book focuses on how individuals enact pedagogy in the context of teacher education. With teacher educators actually teaching while showing student-teachers how to teach, the quality of teacher education improves. Bringing together contributions from internationally known teacher educators, a school administrator who supports teachers’ professional learning, someone studying to become a teacher educator and someone studying to become a teacher, the book examines enacting educational and pedagogical values in personal practice and developing the interpersonal relationships that are so essential to quality teaching and learning. Each chapter illustrates an individual working to better understand the processes of teaching and learning and then modifying personal practices to enact a productive pedagogy of teacher education. This collection extends the rich literature emerging from the field while also focusing explicit attention on the challenges of enacting a pedagogy of teacher education.