Action Inquiry
Action Inquiry Buford Manion Grand Canyon University EDA 555 Shawn Feaster Johnson, Ed. D. April 19, 2010
Learning To Teach By being Learner’s First
Introduction
Nationally, there appears to be a growing recognition that teacher education programs do not fully prepare beginning teachers for the rigors of school teaching. However, rather than attempt to defend the need for universities to be able to meet this demand, I believe that it is more important to realistically appraise what is possible in teacher preparation - and what is not. Hence, it is more than reasonable to assert that teacher preparation programs are, by nature, inadequate and incomplete.
Dissatisfaction with teacher preparation programs may then be unduly exacerbated by attempting to achieve that which is not possible (fully preparing a beginning teacher to ‘cope’ with the demands of teaching) by responding to the multitude of requirements/expectations/competencies for beginning teachers (for example, such skills as those outlined by Reynolds, 1992; 1995). In so doing, it appears that an overarching understanding of what teacher preparation can be, and how it might be enacted, is pushed aside by the perceived need to pack the curriculum with all the knowledge, skills, attributes and practices necessary to address the multitude of demands that are perceived as needing to be addressed. Sadly, this approach to teacher preparation often means that there is a substantial lack of common understanding as to what could/should be done.
Therefore, in order to begin to seriously question how to prepare teachers in such a way that they might cope with the realities and demands of teaching and to be equipped with a theoretical background to translate into their teaching, we need, as Ashton (1996) has pointed out, a shift in the approaches to teacher education.
This questioning of what we do and why in teacher preparation has become increasingly
Learning To Teach By being Learner’s First
Introduction
Nationally, there appears to be a growing recognition that teacher education programs do not fully prepare beginning teachers for the rigors of school teaching. However, rather than attempt to defend the need for universities to be able to meet this demand, I believe that it is more important to realistically appraise what is possible in teacher preparation - and what is not. Hence, it is more than reasonable to assert that teacher preparation programs are, by nature, inadequate and incomplete.
Dissatisfaction with teacher preparation programs may then be unduly exacerbated by attempting to achieve that which is not possible (fully preparing a beginning teacher to ‘cope’ with the demands of teaching) by responding to the multitude of requirements/expectations/competencies for beginning teachers (for example, such skills as those outlined by Reynolds, 1992; 1995). In so doing, it appears that an overarching understanding of what teacher preparation can be, and how it might be enacted, is pushed aside by the perceived need to pack the curriculum with all the knowledge, skills, attributes and practices necessary to address the multitude of demands that are perceived as needing to be addressed. Sadly, this approach to teacher preparation often means that there is a substantial lack of common understanding as to what could/should be done.
Therefore, in order to begin to seriously question how to prepare teachers in such a way that they might cope with the realities and demands of teaching and to be equipped with a theoretical background to translate into their teaching, we need, as Ashton (1996) has pointed out, a shift in the approaches to teacher education.
This questioning of what we do and why in teacher preparation has become increasingly
References: Ashton, P. (1996). Improving the preparation of teachers. Educational Researcher, 25(9), 21-22+35. Berry, A., & Loughran, J.J. (2000). Developing an understanding of learning to teach in teacher education. Korthangen, F.A.J., and Kessels, J.P.A.M. (1999). Linking Theory and Practice: Changing the Pedagogy of Teacher Education Loughran, J.J. (1996). Developing reflective practice: Learning about teaching and learning through modelling Loughran, J.J. (1997). Teaching about Teaching: Principles and Practice, In Loughran, J.J. and Russell, T.L Loughran, J.J., and Russell, T.L. (1997). Meeting student teachers on their own terms: Experience preceeds understanding, In (Richardson, V Munby, H., & Russell, T. (1994). The authority of experience in learning to teach: Messages from a physics method class Northfield, J.R., and Gunstone, R.F. (1983). Research on alternative frameworks: Implications for science teacher education Northfield, J.R., and Gunstone, R.F. (1997). Teacher Education as a process of Developing Teacher Knowledge Reynolds, A. (1992). What is a Competent Beginning Teaching?: A Review of the Literature. Review of Educational Research 62(1), 1 - 35. Reynolds, A. (1995). The Knowledge Base for Beginning Teachers: Education Professionals’ Expectations versus Research Findings on Learning to Teach Schön, D.A. (1983). The reflective practitioner:How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books. Schön, D.A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass van Manen, M van Manen, M. (1999). The Language of Pedagogy and Primacy of Student Experience. In Loughran (Ed.) Researching Teaching: Methodologies and Practice for Understanding Pedagogy