The%20Tomorrows%20of%20Teacher%20Education

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The Tomorrows of Teacher Education

• Robert R. Hite, Ph.D.
• Visiting Associate Professor
• Doctoral Study in Teacher Education
• The Ohio State University

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Thank you
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The Hite Family Farm
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Only one degree of separation

• 65 was / is alive !

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A Context for Our Discussionsome recent
headlines on teaching and teacher education
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William Sanders (1997)

• What we have consistently found inresearchis
  that the single largest factor affecting academic
  growth among students is the teacher. The
  teacher makes all other effects pale in
  comparison.

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The Abell Foundation (2001)

• This process, known as teacher certification,
  is neither an efficient nor an effective means by
  which to ensure a competent teaching force.
  Worse, it is often counterproductive.

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Rod Paige (2002)U.S. Secretary of Education

• We must move from producing education majors to
  producing teachers

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The Abell Foundation (2001)

• The most consistent finding is that effective
  teachers score higher on tests of verbal ability

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Rod Paige (2002)

• Is current teacher preparation adequate to meet
  the demands of No Child Left Behind?

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James W. Fraser (2001)Education Week

• People have lost confidence in the traditional
  routes to certification through an
  undergraduate or graduate program on a college
  campus. Many people have lost confidence, they
  are angry at the old system and at those of us
  who have been part of it.

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James W. Fraser (2001)Education Week

• The current system is seen as part of the
  problem and not part of the solution.

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Charles B. Reed (2002)CSUS Chancellor

• When graduating good teachers becomes a high
  priority, all other disciplines will benefit.

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So, where is it that we begin to discuss this
issue of the Tomorrows of Teacher Education?
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The Overarching Question

• What is the purpose of schooling across this
  country?

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Is it

• to ensure that students meet the minimum scores
  on a set of prescribed proficiencies?

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Is it

• making sure children become what someone else
  wants them to become?

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Or, is it

• helping children to become the very best they
  can become as individuals?

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Is it

• graduating a person who has passed a series of
  proficiency tests?

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Or, is it

• graduating individuals who are prepared to go
  out into the world to live full and productive
  lives, and who in some way positively impact the
  lives of others?

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Individuals who can

• reason and make decisions based on data
• generate new knowledge and create new ideas
• use critical thinking skills
• interact well with others and foster a sense of
  stewardship

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• We must care about the minds and be passionate
  about the hearts of our young people!

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I suggest

• that until we decide what the purpose of
  schooling is for the children of this nation, the
  Tomorrows of Teacher Education are now and will
  forever be blurred.

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Extending the Overarching Question

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• What is the purpose of teaching agriculture to
  the children of this country?

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• What is agricultural literacy for all children?

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What are the Tomorrows of Teacher Education?
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Teacher educators will need to

• be engaged with the P 12 community to create
  schools that are learning communities
• rethink the pathways to and the locations for
  teacher preparation
• rethink the academic preparation of candidates
• model dynamic facilitation of learning for ALL
  children
• provide ongoing entry level support of program
  completers who are new to the workforce
• raise the profile of teacher education to make it
  an institutional and a national priority

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1 Be engaged with the P 12 community
to create schools that are learning communities
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• which is critical to ensuring that achievement
  gaps across racial, ethnic, and economic groups
  are closed and the academic performance of ALL
  students soars

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• must break down the barriers that isolate
  teachers and students while creating and
  sustaining small and well-focused learning
  communities villages where educators
  collaborate with each other in the best interests
  of children

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• must structure schools around what we know about
  how students and teachers learn and grow

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• must create places of inquiry where there is a
  sense of cooperation and ownership on the part of
  students, teachers, administrators, and parents
  for teaching and learning places where children
  find meaning through engagement in the work

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• tell me and I forget, show me and I
  may remember, involve me
  and I will understand.

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• It is our responsibility to have in every
  classroom a teacher who cares that every student,
  every day learns and grows and feels like a real
  human being.
• - Don Clifton, SRI

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• must prepare our candidates, along with
  ourselves and our graduate students, to be
  innovators of new classroom and school designs
  designs based on how students best learn

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2 Rethink the pathways to and the locations
for teacher preparation
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Preparation Pathways
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From the perspectives of a poet
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• need to think about practice theory
  practice as a plane rather than a sequence
  preparing candidates to teach with students
  rather than in isolation from students

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• charter colleges of education places where
  people can come, explore, and make sense and make
  meaning of teaching while preparing to teach

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3 Rethink the academic preparation of
candidates
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• depth versus breadth jack of all trades and
  master of none!

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• an issue of understanding versus coverage

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• appropriateness of content relevant for P 12
  students

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• Content Pedagogy

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4 Model dynamic facilitation of learning for
ALL children
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• practice what we preach

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• teach those who come, rather than those we
  might wish would come

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• must focus our attention on ALL students and how
  each best learns, rather than how we best teach
  take students from where they are and allow them
  to become the very best they can possibly become
  at this point in time

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• It is like a wagon train heading across this
  great expanse of learning, no one will be thrown
  overboard no one will be left behind. Together,
  we are ALL going to get there.
• - Chauncey Veach

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• model best and promising practices for our
  candidates

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• must learn how to facilitate learning and then
  move to the sideline to allow students to begin
  to take responsibility for their own learning
  we must learn how to teach with our mouths shut!

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5 Provide ongoing entry level support of
program completers who are new to the workforce
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• must address where it is that our responsibility
  ends for the preparation of our candidates, if it
  ever does

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6 Raise the profile of teacher education to
make it an institutional and a national priority
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• must be instrumental in bringing P- 12 and
  higher education leadership together to engage in
  action oriented work regarding teacher education,
  making the preparation of teachers the work of all

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• must allow ourselves to be changed by engaging
  others from the professional education community
  to be involved in our struggle to move forward

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And so I would ask you
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• as a teacher educator, how are you going to
  develop the civic courage to influence the
  creation of schools that are truly learning
  communities?

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• as a teacher educator, how are you going to help
  blaze new trails for preparing teachers and
  expand the settings where teacher preparation
  takes place?

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• as a teacher educator, how are you going to help
  ensure program completers have strong, solid
  academic preparation appropriate for teaching
  agricultural literacy to ALL students?

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• as a teacher educator, how are you going to model
  dynamic facilitation of learning for ALL children?

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• as a teacher educator, how are you going to
  provide ongoing entry level support for your
  program completers who are new to the workforce?

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• as a teacher educator, how are you going to be
  proactive in raising the profile of teacher
  education to make it an institutional and a
  national priority?

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• YOU are the ray of hope for the future of
  teacher education!

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May I challenge you to go forth and make a
difference in the lives and the learning of the
children of this nation by enthusiastically
mobilizing the forces to advance the quality of
teacher preparation across this country.
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• If we continue to think about teacher education
  as it is, it will remain as it is. If we
  interrupt our paradigms, and begin to dream about
  what teacher education could become, it will
  become what it should or could be.

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• We must be the movers and the shakers of the
  village NOT the keepers of the village!

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• We must rethink and rearrange the dispositions
  of the profession to forge ahead to

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• the Tomorrows of Teacher Education!

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T H A N K Y O U !