Teacher Preparation Model Research Articles

Teacher Educator Identity in a Culture of Iterative Teacher Education Program Design: A Collaborative Self-Study

Faculty in the School of Education have collaborated to re-envision teacher education at our university. A complex, dynamic, time-consuming and sometimes painstaking process, redesigning a teacher education program from a traditional approach (i.e. where courses focus primarily on theoretical principles of practice through textbooks and university-based classroom discussions) to a model of teacher education that embraces teaching, learning and leading with schools and in communities is challenging, yet exciting work. Little is known about teacher educators’ experiences as they either design or deliver collaborative field-based models of teacher education. In this article, we examine our experiences in the second implementation year of our redesigned teacher education program, Teaching, Learning, and Leading with Schools and Communities (TLLSC) and how these unique experiences inform our teacher educator identities. Through a collaborative self-study, we sought to make meaning of our transformation from a faculty delivering a traditional model to educators collectively implementing a field-based model, by analyzing the diverse perspectives of faculty at different entry points in the TLLSC development and implementation process. We found that our participation in an intensive field-based teacher preparation model challenged our notions of teacher educator identity. In a culture of iterative program design, this study documents the personal and professional shifts in identity required to accomplish this collaborative and dynamic change in approach to teacher education.

Clinically Based Models of Teacher Preparation

A teacher preparation institution critically reviewed current programs and began moving toward a clinically based model. One focuses on Middle Grades/Secondary Math and Science, another focuses on Secondary English Language Arts, and a pilot project focuses on Elementary with a minor in either English/Language Arts or STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
 Keywords: teacher education, clinical practice, and clinical teacher preparation

Co-teaching: Towards a New Model for Teacher Preparation in Foreign Language Teacher Education

This overview article focuses on the co-teaching model, an innovative and comprehensive model for student teaching experiences that provides opportunities to foreign language preservice teachers to develop their knowledge base about teaching and learning foreign languages while gaining in other areas: autonomy, collaboration, and agency. The article begins with a brief history and description of co-teaching, a comprehensive literature review that highlights successful elements of the co-teaching model, as well as an analysis of benefits and challenges of its implementation based on prior research in other content areas. We then discuss how the co-teaching model is aligned with the 2013 ACTFL/CAEP’s Program Standards for the Preparation of Foreign Language Teachers and offer guidelines to implement the proposed co-teaching model in Foreign Language teacher preparation programs. Concluding remarks include final reflections and future research directions.

An Integrated Model for STEM Teacher Preparation: The Value of a Teaching Cooperative Educational Experience

An Integrated Model for STEM Teacher Preparation: The Value of a Teaching Cooperative Educational Experience

The Teacher as Commodity: What We Lose in a Captive Market

As state legislatures and noneducation agents become increasingly involved in regulating the preparation of teachers, the long-term consequences of the resulting policies—which prioritize economic efficiency over investments in the cultivation of a stable, professionalized workforce—are of concern. This article uses insights from political economy to examine the model of teacher preparation that derives from these sources, with particular attention devoted to Indiana's Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability.

Constructing a New Model for Teacher Preparation: A Collaborative Approach

Legislative changes over the past several decades have led to an increase of students with disabilities in general education classrooms. Although teacher preparation has changed to include more content about diversity and disability, student achievement data suggest that though students with disabilities have been physically included in classrooms, teachers may not be prepared to provide access to content for these learners. The authors argue for a shift in teacher preparation to a more collaborative approach beginning with ourselves as teacher educators. A framework for increased and purposeful collaboration across stakeholders is provided that incorporates context, self-assessment, a critical review of collaborative efforts, action planning, and evaluation.

Changes in teacher education in Thailand 1978–2014

This paper reviews the long attempt to transform teacher education in Thailand. Although a brief summary of educational systems and models of teacher preparation from 1892 to 1973 has been provided, the prime focus of the paper is on presenting changes in teacher education from 1974 to the present day, against the backdrop of key political and social forces.

Preparing Secondary History Teachers: Implementing Authentic Instructional Strategies during Pre-service Experiences

An investigation of how secondary history teacher education candidates implemented research-based instructional practices for instruction is described as a model of pre-service teacher preparation for social studies teachers. Cohorts of candidates participated in a five-year project while enrolled in a discipline-specific capstone senior methods course and subsequent student teaching experiences. Candidates were surveyed and interviewed concerning their use of, and feelings about, twelve instructional strategies developed with a focus on authentic history pedagogy. Surveys were administered three times: before the secondary social studies methods course, after the methods course, and after student teaching. A variation on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model was used to measure the levels of use and stages of concern of the candidates. Artifacts of practice, including lesson plans from a model unit plan and actual student teaching, also were analyzed to document use of the strategies. Results indicate an increasingly high level of implementation of and comfort with the strategies, as well as the developmental nature of the process. Implications and recommendations for pre-service activities in history teacher education are presented.

Responding to the Call to Prepare Highly Effective Teacher Candidates in the United States: The Curriculum Redesign Effort in Advancing Teacher Education

This article supports the notion of high quality clinical teacher preparation models and lays out an argument for investing in professional education that is organized around more coherent systems for cultivating clinical practice. This article outlines the creation and implementation of a clinically-based teacher preparation program. Project CREATE, the result of the contributions of university faculty, administrators, and P-12 stakeholders, proposes strict admission criteria, extensive field experiences, and the integration of field-based assignments and collaborative mentoring by university and P-12 faculty to address criticisms aimed at traditional models of teacher training.

Formação de professores para a educação especial: uma discussão sobre os modelos brasileiro e italiano

Com os recentes avanços legislativos no sentido da massificação da inclusão de alunos com necessidades educacionais especiais nas escolas regulares, emergem discussões sobre as mudanças requeridas na formação de docentes para o atendimento desta nova demanda. O objetivo deste estudo foi discutir os modelos brasileiro e italiano de formação de professores para atuar na educação especial. Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa documental, analisando textos legais de ambos os países que versassem sobre o tema. A Itália foi o primeiro país na Europa a promover o fim das escolas especiais e a inclusão de todos os alunos com deficiência nas escolas regulares. Ainda neste país, nota-se que as diretrizes governamentais são claras com relação à capacitação de professores para atuar com alunos com necessidades educacionais especiais. Por outro lado no Brasil, embora tenham ocorrido grandes avanços no que se refere à legislação que sustenta a formação docente, ainda existe uma carência de parâmetros mais específicos sobre os conteúdos mínimos necessários para que os professores tenham maiores subsídios para promover a inclusão com qualidade.

Building Bridges in Teacher Education: Creating Partnerships With Parents

This study investigated the learning experiences, outcomes, and perceptions of graduate students in a collaboration and consultation course focusing on parent-professional partnerships. The course was designed as a teacher preparation model that envisions teachers, school psychologists, and families learning together to build effective partnerships to better student outcomes. Nineteen graduate students seeking a degree in special education or school psychology were provided multiple opportunities to engage in experiences with parents of children with disabilities, including having parents embedded in the course for the entire semester. Data were collected utilizing multiple methods and included a family/professional partnership survey and focus group discussions conducted both pre- and post-course, as well as a Learning Objectives and Activities Survey. Analyses of qualitative and quantitative data indicate a change in students' knowledge, beliefs, dispositions, and experiences of parent-professional partnerships.

A Global Context for Instructional Leadership: Implications for Teaching and Teacher Preparatio

Various school systems across the world are facing a plethora of global changes and realities that dictate rethinking instructional practices and professional training of teachers. Pressures on schools to promote conceptual knowledge and relevant skills for all students to be successful in the technologically advanced world in order to succeed in the competitive world continue to mount. Similarly teachers are constantly facing the challenges dictated by the universal culture that exerts a huge power on learning and teaching as manifested in today's classrooms. Thus there is a need for paradigm shift which underscores the need to prepare globally competent students and teachers in the technologically advanced world. This paper focuses on the vital role of teachers as instructional leaders who undertake their tasks and responsibilities within the local and global contexts of schools. It delineates a workable model for teaching and teacher preparation in global environments by establishing a set of goals for both students and teachers as a blueprint for skillful interaction in the complex world. Drawing on pertinent research and literature in the field, the discussion introduces an instructional leadership model conducive to producing promising educational outcomes. Finally, implications for curriculum planning, pedagogical practices, and teacher education are drawn while suggesting specific guidelines and ingredients for educational success.

Early Care and Education Matters: A Conceptual Model for Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Integrating the Key Constructs of Knowledge, Reflection, and Practice

There has been a great deal of discourse in the field of early care and education concerning the experiences, skills, competencies, and education level needed by early childhood teachers to ensure that quality teaching and learning take place in the early years. The purpose of this article is to describe an early childhood teacher preparation program developed by a Child and Family Development Department at a large, urban, state-funded university in the hopes that we can further the discourse on how the field can ensure quality teaching and learning in both ECE and university classrooms. We propose a conceptual model that is built around three key constructs: knowledge, reflection, and practice and describe our approach to preparing early childhood educators. Using qualitative data from student reflections and course syllabi and quantitative data on the experiences and perceptions of graduating seniors, we hope to present promising practices in early childhood teacher education and provide support for our contention that the quality of early childhood teacher education matters.

Transforming Special Education Teacher Education: A Reaction to the Report Transforming Teacher Education through Clinical Practice: A National Strategy to Prepare Effective Teachers

Policy makers, university teacher education faculty, school leaders, and government officials are asking the same question: How do we recruit, prepare, and retain effective teachers who will produce desired student outcomes in every classroom? This complex question garners distinct opinions depending on the queried stakeholder, but most agree that significant improvement is needed in the processes of teacher preparation and induction (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Greer & Meyen, 2009; Sykes, Bird, & Kennedy, 2010; Wang, Odell, Klecka, Spalding, & Lin, 2010). An argument can be made that the need for improvement is most urgent within the field of special education teacher preparation (Brownell, Sindelar, Kiely, & Danielson, 2010; Piper, 2007; Pugach, Blanton, & Correa, 2011; Simonsen et al., 2010; Sindelar, Brownell, & Billingsley, 2010) . To illustrate, recent achievement data for students with disabilities provides striking evidence of the critical need for improvement in areas of literacy, graduation rates, and other postsecondary outcomes (e.g. National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2009; Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Levine, & Garza, 2006). There is substantial variability in the numerous factors that contribute to the struggles of students with exceptionalities on measures of academic and social success (see Skiba, Poloni-Staudinger, Simmons, Feggins-Azziz, & Chung, 2005; Wagner et al., 2006). Many complex factors influence a teacher's impact on student achievement, which leads to the need for us to continue to examine and reform our current models of teacher preparation. Thus, teacher educators and practitioners must continue to investigate and evaluate the effects of new and existing policies, programmatic structures, and individual practices on outcomes of interest and disseminate those findings. Although calls to reform teacher education and P-12 instruction for children with exceptionalities are not new (Vaughn & Fuchs, 2003), it is clear that new thinking is needed to overcome traditional barriers to academic and social success for individuals with exceptionalities. However, despite the critical need for improvement, teacher preparation models within special and general education largely remain fixed to traditional methods that reflect the status quo as opposed to evidence-based practice (Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, & Wycoff, 2009; Brownell, Griffin, Leko, & Stephens, 2011; Sykes et al., 2010).

Transforming Special Education Teacher Education: A Reaction to the Report Transforming Teacher Education through Clinical Practice: A National Strategy to Prepare Effective Teachers

Policy makers, university teacher education faculty, school leaders, and government officials are asking the same question: How do we recruit, prepare, and retain effective teachers who will produce desired student outcomes in every classroom? This complex question garners distinct opinions depending on the queried stakeholder, but most agree that significant improvement is needed in the processes of teacher preparation and induction (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Greer & Meyen, 2009; Sykes, Bird, & Kennedy, 2010; Wang, Odell, Klecka, Spalding, & Lin, 2010). An argument can be made that the need for improvement is most urgent within the field of special education teacher preparation (Brownell, Sindelar, Kiely, & Danielson, 2010; Piper, 2007; Pugach, Blanton, & Correa, 2011; Simonsen et al., 2010; Sindelar, Brownell, & Billingsley, 2010) . To illustrate, recent achievement data for students with disabilities provides striking evidence of the critical need for improvement in areas of literacy, graduation rates, and other postsecondary outcomes (e.g. National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2009; Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Levine, & Garza, 2006). There is substantial variability in the numerous factors that contribute to the struggles of students with exceptionalities on measures of academic and social success (see Skiba, Poloni-Staudinger, Simmons, Feggins-Azziz, & Chung, 2005; Wagner et al., 2006). Many complex factors influence a teacher's impact on student achievement, which leads to the need for us to continue to examine and reform our current models of teacher preparation. Thus, teacher educators and practitioners must continue to investigate and evaluate the effects of new and existing policies, programmatic structures, and individual practices on outcomes of interest and disseminate those findings. Although calls to reform teacher education and P-12 instruction for children with exceptionalities are not new (Vaughn & Fuchs, 2003), it is clear that new thinking is needed to overcome traditional barriers to academic and social success for individuals with exceptionalities. However, despite the critical need for improvement, teacher preparation models within special and general education largely remain fixed to traditional methods that reflect the status quo as opposed to evidence-based practice (Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, & Wycoff, 2009; Brownell, Griffin, Leko, & Stephens, 2011; Sykes et al., 2010).

In Search of Innovation: Research on Effective Models of Foreign Language Teacher Preparation

AbstractToday's teachers must be more than transmitters of knowledge who orchestrate repetitive practice of decontextualized language forms with students: They need to infuse language instruction with meaning and purpose, design opportunities for interaction within and beyond the classroom, and provide responsive and useful assistance throughout the learning process. This review reveals a paucity of empirical research that provides evidence for models of foreign language teacher preparation with the potential to prepare teachers for this role. Despite this lack of research, this review illustrates how the ACTFL/NCATE Program Standards for the Preparation of Foreign Language Teachers (ACTFL, 2002) may be invoked as a viable framework for identifying the components of effective and innovative foreign language teacher preparation programs, presenting current programs that exemplify those components, and suggesting continued application of the standards and future research to further define features of model teacher preparation.

A Collaboration Between University and High School in Preparing Physics Teachers: Chicago State University's Teacher Immersion Institute

Because of the diverse character of colleges and universities throughout the United States, it is naive to believe that a one-size-fits-all model of teacher preparation aligns with specific resources and student population needs. Exploring innovative models that challenge traditional programs is now being encouraged by organizations such as the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Physical Society. Chicago State University (CSU) is now exploring exciting changes to its physics teacher preparation program by utilizing the expertise of Chicago Area teachers and early teaching experiences for students interested in, but not yet committed to, the physics teaching profession.

A Delphi Approach to the Preparation of Early– Career Agricultural Educators in the Curriculum Area of Agricultural Mechanics: Fully Qualified and Highly Motivated or Status Quo?

According to the National Research Agenda for Agricultural Education and Communication, preservice agriculture teacher education programs should “prepare and provide an abundance of fully qualified and highly motivated agricultural educators at all levels” (Osborne, 2007, 8). The lack of preparation of entry career agricultural educators is no more apparent than in the curriculum area of agricultural mechanics. Saucier and McKim (2010) stated that all school–based agriculture educators who instruct agricultural mechanics must be technically competent and be able to safely manage the school laboratory for effective student instruction. The model for teacher preparation in agricultural education (Whittington, 2005) served as the conceptual framework. The study sought to determine the essential agricultural mechanics skill areas that Missouri agriculture educators must possess prior to beginning a career in agricultural education. Results of this study identified essential agricultural mechanics skill areas that range from laboratory management to soldering. Teacher educators and state supervisory staff should review these skill areas and plan professional development education for current Missouri agricultural educators who have in–service needs in these skill areas. In conclusion, preservice programs in Missouri should be evaluated to determine if they are indeed effectively preparing teachers in the curriculum area of agricultural mechanics.

Why new mathematics teachers do or don’t use practices emphasized in their credential program

A major research concern for teacher education is the impact of university credentialing programs on K-12 teaching and the disjuncture between university-promoted practices and what teachers actually do in their classrooms. In particular, mathematics-credential programs typically promote reform-oriented methods, while mathematics teaching in the US remains largely traditional. Proposed explanations for the limited uptake of university-promoted mathematics-teaching methods have included new teachers’ struggle to bridge the “two worlds” of the university and school, the relative difficulty of reform-oriented teaching, and the failure of the standard teacher-preparation model that teaches general pedagogical concepts prior to specific teaching tools and practices. In this study, interviews of 19 first- through 4th-year secondary-level mathematics teachers—graduates of a single credential program—investigated the factors, internal and external to the credential program, that these teachers perceived to support or impede their implementation of certain university-taught practices. The findings are used to examine previously proposed explanations for limited uptake, and recommendations are made for credential programs and employing schools.

Neuroethics, Neuroeducation, and Classroom Teaching: Where the Brain Sciences Meet Pedagogy

The popularization of neuroscientific ideas about learning—sometimes legitimate, sometimes merely commercial—poses a real challenge for classroom teachers who want to understand how children learn. Until teacher preparation programs are reconceived to incorporate relevant research from the neuro- and cognitive sciences, teachers need translation and guidance to effectively use information about the brain and cognition. Absent such guidance, teachers, schools, and school districts may waste time and money pursuing so called “brain-based” interventions that lack a firm basis in research. Meanwhile, the success of our schools will continue to be narrowly defined by achievement standards that ignore knowledge of the neural and cognitive processes of learning. To achieve the goals of neuroeducation, its proponents must address unique ethical issues that neuroeducation raises for five different groups of individuals: a) practicing teachers, b) neuroscience researchers whose work could inform education, c) publishers and the popular media, d) educational policy-makers, and e) university-level teacher educators. We suggest ways in which these ethical challenges can be met and provide a model for teacher preparation that will enable teachers themselves to translate findings from the neuro-and cognitive sciences and use legitimate research to inform how they design and deliver effective instruction.