What defines excellence in education? Wikpedia defines teacher education as "the policies and procedures designed to equip teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the school and classroom. The process of mentoring is also relevant." This would support my belief that effective classroom teachers are not born, they're made. Just as we demand our children receive a quality education, so we should see that a quality education is what our "teacher-in-training" receives. It is not enough to simply know the subject of what is to be taught. As Ms. Hammond mentioned in our text, "one of the greatest flaws of the 'brightest person myth' is that it presumes that anyone can teach what he or she knows to anyone else. However, [this person has] a very difficult time understanding how to convey material that they themselves learned effortlessly and almost subconsciously." (p. 359) It is frustrating for both the student and the teacher when the teacher knows what information he/she needs to impart, but the student continually is not able to understand that information. Rather than support the idea that "anyone can teach" or that teaching is best learned by "trial and error", we should see that "teachers who have greater knowledge of teaching and learning are more highly rated and are more effective with students."(text, p. 354)
The greater quality of teacher education would no doubt lead to higher student achievement. Teacher education, in my opinion, would then include academic learning, pedagogical studies, mentoring programs, support networks, team-learning and collaboration, as well as continuing professional development. This in turn would increase the creativity and innovation of teaching methods and increase our students' performance. The education of our children is the education of future doctors, lawyers, police officers, judges, firemen, teachers, pastors, and other leaders in our community. Knowledge and skills learned in the school years will prepare the students to be productive citizens in our democratic society. As Dr. Scott mentioned in class, "Nothing is more important than the teacher."
Funding is also important, for without it we could not provide strong educational programs needed for our students and teachers. Education should be a top priority; we should ensure all children receive a quality education. Funding that is targeted to public schools will see the greatest return on taxpayer money and will strengthen the entire economy. Andrew Benson said, "If Ohio is to prepare all its children to succeed in the 21st century, we must direct resources toward strategies that are proven to work and we must give schools a reliable stream of revenue that eliminate the need for an excessive number of levies." (found on www.schoolfundingmatters.org) Education is the most important component of who we are a s a nation. Funding must be there to support our schools, our students, our teachers and our teacher training programs. We must look at new and innovative ways to support the education system. We dare not say that our schools are not important, for they are the key to our success as a nation, both for today and for tomorrow.
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I watched the video that had Governor Strickland answering questions. He stated that education effects us a all. The doctors who treat us, our police and firemen are all products of our school. It is important that we all contribute to funding our schools so that our students can become active members of our society. Both teacher preparation and funding are crucial elements when providing a good education for all students.
ReplyDeleteNancy, We both would agree with the importance of teacher preparation for producing qualified teachers in the field. Your definition from Wikpedia defines teacher education as "the policies and procedures designed to equip teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the school and classroom. The process of mentoring is also relevant." Are most colleges and universities equipping students with these abilities? I’m not so certain. In Robert Holland’s article “How to Build a Better Teacher”, I found it enlightening that in the early 1990’s, Rita Kramer took a nationwide tour of leading schools of education. She reported the “emptiness of teacher preparation” with “little depth in history, mathematics, science, or literature”. Also, recently, Heather McDonald toured Education Schools, and concluded that the knowledge gained at these schools was “Anything But Knowledge”. She also noted that “today, Teacher College mandates courses in multicultural diversity and has students act out ways to “usurp the existing power structure.” These conclusions may appear overly harsh, but I personally can see where they are grounded. There have been many courses that I have taken to acquire licensure which have left me wondering what there value has been in educating me for the teaching profession. I have been left to sometimes feel it has been a waste of time and money. So many courses deal with this inclusive, multicultural lingo, yet do not provide the knowledge that actually teaches you how to provide differentiated instruction. They stress Howard Gardner’s “Multiple Intelligences”, but don’t provide a course on showing all the different ways to present instruction that would be suited for each individual student. In other words, they tell you about it, but don’t show you how to implement the instruction. Where are the courses that instill “critical thinking”?
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt in my mind that better teacher preparation is the answer. When reading "How to Build a Better Teacher" the point is stated that "without knowing how to use these tools well and how to diagnose their students learning needs things such as course taking, curriculum content, testing, and textbooks make little difference. We can get all the money we need but the fact of the matter is that unless we know how to properly use the resources given to us nothing is going to change. Our colleges need to revamp their education programs and find new ways of introducing a better teacher preparation program that will create a more twenty first century environment to the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI love Nancy's comment "Effective classroom teachers are not born, they are made". In addition to that thought, I think teaching is not for everyone and it takes a special type of person to succeed in the profession. Our education system needs to be rebuilt and as a country we can't ignore the obvious...change is inevitable. Teachers need to have a solid support system and having a union isn't good enough. Of course these changes will not take place over night but hopefully the new "standards" will improve the quality of education and it's method of delivery.
ReplyDeleteNancy, while reading your post, I found myself nodding along, but I also found myself asking, What about those teachers who are natural teachers and were born, not made? There are some of us out there who went through the courses that were supposed to make us into teachers, already knowing that "knowledge" which we were almost subconsciously born with. Am I saying that those people stood to learn nothing form teacher prep? No. I am saying that some teachers possess the skills needed naturally and I think it is an interesting consideration.
ReplyDeleteI thought your post was very interesting. I agree that education does make a good teacher but I also think that the basics skills of a teacher are born. I think the caring, patience, and those types of skills are something you are born with but to actually supply your students a good education needs to be learned. I like the part when you mention our students are the future doctors, fire fighters, and so on so shouldn't the people teaching them these skills up to the point of becoming these professions be just as if not more important than the professions themselves. I just mean often we look at people with higher educations as being to smart for this field. I highly disagree because to be able to prepare our students for only possible job we should have various amounts of background knowledge and have the skills to teach it to others. So I think some skills we are born with as teachers but we need to be trained on how to use them effectively as teachers.
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