Toward Teacher Education Research That Informs Policy

Abstract

This article investigates the extent to which researchers are currently engaged in a shared research program that offers systematic evidence of the classroom impact of organized venues (preservice as well as inservice) for teacher professional learning. The article stems from concern about policies rooted in suspicion that teacher education is either ineffective or tangential to improving outcomes for students, as well as earlier findings that far too little teacher education research has been designed to address that suspicion with data (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Yoon, Duncan, Lee, Scarloss, and Shapely, 2007). An analysis of 196 articles published in 2012 in four leading teacher education journals internationally found only 1% to report large-scale mixed-methods studies, only 6% to examine the impact of teacher education on teaching practice and/or student learning, and most of the rest to be conducted within rather than across silos. Three recommendations for strengthening teacher education research are offered.