A Comparison of Two Plans of Teacher Education

Abstract

CONCERN HAS been expressed over the most effective distribution of educa tion courses within the four-year program for the preparation of elementary school teachers. Normal schools and colleges of teacher education tend to spread their professional courses over the four years, while universities and colleges of liberal arts often place such courses at the junior and senior level. Unfortunately, the relative effectiveness of these plans has received little re search attention. The standard pattern for preparing elementary school teachers at the State University Teachers College at New Paltz, New York, for many years has in cluded thirty-six hours of professional education distributed over the entire four years of the college program. This pattern is called Plan I. In Sept em ber 1950, an experimental curriculum known as Plan II was instituted. Plan II placed the thirty-six hours of required education courses in the junior and senior years. Approximately one-half of the entering freshmen were selected at random to follow the experimental program. Four years later, in June and August 1954, most of these students, following Plan I or Plan II, had complet ed degree and state certification requirements and were available for empl o y ment as elementary school teachers. By spring of 1955, most of these gradu ates had been teaching for about seven months. It was appropriate, therefore, to gather data from and about these teachers so that the relative effectiveness of the two plans could be compared. Two kinds of data were collected: those related to the graduates' careers in college, and those related to the graduates' professional careers after seven or more months of teaching. Several major questions were raised relative to the graduates' success in college and in teaching.