Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning


Book Description

Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning answers an urgent call for teachers who educate children from diverse backgrounds to meet the demands of a changing world. In today’s knowledge economy, teachers must prioritize problem-solving ability, adaptability, critical thinking, and the development of interpersonal and collaborative skills over rote memorization and the passive transmission of knowledge. Authors Linda Darling-Hammond and Jeannie Oakes and their colleagues examine what this means for teacher preparation and showcase the work of programs that are educating for deeper learning, equity, and social justice. Guided by the growing knowledge base in the science of learning and development, the book examines teacher preparation programs at Alverno College, Bank Street College of Education, High Tech High’s Intern Program, Montclair State University, San Francisco Teacher Residency, Trinity University, and University of Colorado Denver. These seven programs share a common understanding of how people learn that shape similar innovative practices. With vivid examples of teaching for deeper learning in coursework and classrooms; interviews with faculty, school partners, and novice teachers; surveys of teacher candidates and graduates; and analyses of curriculum and practices, Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning depicts transformative forms of teaching and teacher preparation that honor and expand all students’ abilities, knowledges, and experiences, and reaffirm the promise of educating for a better world.




Preparing Teachers


Book Description

Teachers make a difference. The success of any plan for improving educational outcomes depends on the teachers who carry it out and thus on the abilities of those attracted to the field and their preparation. Yet there are many questions about how teachers are being prepared and how they ought to be prepared. Yet, teacher preparation is often treated as an afterthought in discussions of improving the public education system. Preparing Teachers addresses the issue of teacher preparation with specific attention to reading, mathematics, and science. The book evaluates the characteristics of the candidates who enter teacher preparation programs, the sorts of instruction and experiences teacher candidates receive in preparation programs, and the extent that the required instruction and experiences are consistent with converging scientific evidence. Preparing Teachers also identifies a need for a data collection model to provide valid and reliable information about the content knowledge, pedagogical competence, and effectiveness of graduates from the various kinds of teacher preparation programs. Federal and state policy makers need reliable, outcomes-based information to make sound decisions, and teacher educators need to know how best to contribute to the development of effective teachers. Clearer understanding of the content and character of effective teacher preparation is critical to improving it and to ensuring that the same critiques and questions are not being repeated 10 years from now.




Effective Teaching


Book Description

Schools today have transcended from the chalkboard to the whiteboard and are populated by students who are not frightened to use the technology of this new age of learning. During this period of dynamic change, teachers must be ready to meet the challenges of preparing students for a global society characterized by diversity and ever-increasing expectations.




The Power of Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation


Book Description

Discover how and why community-engaged teacher preparation is a powerful and vital approach to address an educational system that is historically deficient, discriminatory, and decidedly inequitable. In this edited volume, the authors argue that past practice is inadequate and issue a mandate for a new approach to educator preparation. Articulating a clear definition of community-engaged teacher preparation, they focus on national and international initiatives that have been sustained over time and are having a direct impact on student learning. Chapters are written by school, university, and community partners who speak to the innovation, creativity, commitment, and persistence required to reinvent teacher preparation. They also underscore the complexity of this work, the humility necessary to reflect and reconsider, and the true spirit of authentic solidarity among university, school, and community partners required to seek and secure equity for children in schools. Book Features: Provides a critical examination of structural inequity in education and ways to address it through community-engaged teacher preparation. Describes a teacher preparation model that is enacted in solidarity with members of historically marginalized populations.Offers clear guidance on what is meant by culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogies with examples of how these frameworks are being operationalized.Explores the obstacles and opportunities involved in the implementation process. “A collection of powerful authors who offer theoretical considerations, evidence-based approaches, and practical considerations for not just teacher education as usual but community-engaged teacher education.” —From the Foreword by Tyrone C. Howard, University of California, Los Angeles




Rethinking Teacher Preparation Program Design


Book Description

This book provides a framework, concrete examples, and tools for designing a high quality, academically-robust preservice teacher preparation program that empowers teachers with the depth of professional knowledge and the skills required to become adaptable, responsive K-12 teachers ready to engage with diverse groups of students, and to achieve consistent learning outcomes. Renowned teacher educators Etta R. Hollins and Connor K. Warner present a systematic approach for developing a teacher preparation program characterized by coherence, continuity, consistency, integrity, and trustworthiness, as well as one that is firmly grounded in collaboration between faculty, community members, and other school practitioners. This book offers an evidence-based roadmap relevant for teacher educators, administrators, scholars, agencies at the state and national levels, and any organization that serves teacher educators.




A Commitment to Teaching


Book Description

A Commitment to Teaching: Toward More Efficacious Teacher Preparation introduces the reader to a collection of thoughtful works by authors that represent current research and thinking about teacher self-efficacy and teacher preparation. It is the intent of the book to provide the reader with current and relevant knowledge concerning preparation of committed and efficacious teachers. Teacher self-efficacy, and the presence of teacher efficacy, in teacher preparation and practice, is fundamental to preparing teachers for the public school classroom. As a construct, teacher self-efficacy beliefs are an integral aspect of the teaching process. While many authors refer to teachers’ sense of self-efficacy for teaching, meaning their beliefs about their ability to perform the actions necessary to teach, many others have identified a specific form of self-efficacy pertaining to teaching. These have been called teaching or teacher efficacy. Chapter One opens the book with a focus on the teacher commitment and self-efficacy, providing the reader with an introduction. The authors of Chapters Two-Seven present field-based research that examines the complexities efficacy and commitment in the preparation of teachers. Each chapter offers the reader an examination of teacher self-efficacy and teacher preparation and based on formal research that provides the reader with insight into how the research study was conducted as well as equally important, the findings and conclusions drawn with respect teacher self-efficacy and teacher preparation. Finally, Chapter Nine presents an epilogue that focuses on the for more efficacious teacher preparation.




Teacher Preparation for Linguistically Diverse Classrooms


Book Description

Teacher educators today need knowledge and practical ideas about how to prepare all pre-service and in-service teachers (not just bilingual or ESL specialists) to teach the growing number of students in K-12 classrooms in the United States who speak native languages other than English. This book is at the forefront in focusing exclusively on the preparation of mainstream classroom teachers for this population of students. Part one provides the conceptual and contextual framework for the book, including a comprehensive discussion of relevant demographic trends and an analysis of national and state policies. Part two presents examples of initiatives in different institutional and geographic settings, highlighting three essential elements of teacher preparation: curriculum content, program design, and program coherence. Meeting a pressing need among teacher educators left to figure out, largely by trial and error, how best to prepare non-specialist classroom teachers to work with ELLs, this book both contributes to the research base and provides practical information to help readers envision possibilities they can apply in their own settings.




On Excellence in Teaching


Book Description

On Excellence in Teaching is the fourth book in the Leading Edge? series. The Leading Edge series unites education authorities from around the globe and asks them to confront the important issues that affect teachers and administrators?the issues that profoundly impact student success. The experts contributing to this anthology do not prescribe one method to transact change. They embrace the mission, trusting that teachers and administrators?the true change leaders?will venture to the Leading Edge to embrace the challenges and opportunities that will guarantee the success of their students. On Excellence in Teaching gathers the opinions and recommendations of the world?s best educational researchers, theorists, and professional developers regarding the topic of effective instruction. Given the diversity in expertise and orientation of its contributors, On Excellence in Teaching cuts a wide swath across the domain of instruction. On Excellence in Teaching provides a comprehensive view of instructional excellence from a theoretical, systemic, and classroom perspective. The fifteen contributors offer a broad range of theories and strategies for effective teaching and learning. Its chapters are organized into three major sections. The first section, Theories of Excellence, focuses on conceptual and theoretical issues that must be considered for effective reform in teaching. The second section, Systemic Excellence, deals with issues and innovations at the district and school levels. The third section, Classroom Excellence, addresses specific practices that teachers can employ to enhance their pedagogical expertise.The contributors examine such topics as the art and science of instruction, learning styles, conceptual designs for curriculum, teaching higher-order thinking skills, curriculum mapping, differentiating instruction, Understanding by Design, cultivating student appreciation of and commitment to learning, the role of the teacher, how to develop expert teachers, and teacher development of metacognitive control.




Advocacy in Academia and the Role of Teacher Preparation Programs


Book Description

Due to changes in funding and legislation, educating as a career has become unstable. It is imperative to establish a culture that values education in order to encourage pursuing and preserving the profession of teaching. Advocacy in Academia and the Role of Teacher Preparation Programs is an essential reference source for the latest scholarly research on the need of support for students and faculty by examining policy, student engagement, professorial activism, and integrated allied services. Featuring extensive coverage on a broad range of topics such as student success, specialty programs, and service learning, this publication is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and practitioners seeking current research on issues of advocacy in education.




Redefining Teacher Education and Teacher Preparation Programs in the Post-COVID-19 Era


Book Description

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teacher preparation programs modified their practices to fit the delivery modes of school districts while developing new ways to prepare candidates. Governmental agencies established new guidelines to fit the drastic shift in education caused by the pandemic, and P-12 school systems made accommodations to support teacher education candidates. The pandemic disrupted all established systems and norms; however, many practices and strategies emerged in educator preparation programs that will have a lasting positive impact on P-20 education and teacher education practices. Such practices include the reevaluation of schooling practices with shifts in engagement strategies, instructional approaches, technology utilization, and supporting students and their families. Redefining Teacher Education and Teacher Preparation Programs in the Post-COVID-19 Era provides relevant, innovative practices implemented across teacher education programs and P-20 settings, including delivery models; training procedures; theoretical frameworks; district policies and guidelines; state, national, and international standards; digital design and delivery of content; and the latest empirical research findings on the state of teacher education preparation. The book showcases best practices used to shape and redefine teacher education through the COVID-19 pandemic. Covering topics such as online teaching practices, simulated teaching experiences, and emotional learning, this text is essential for preservice professionals, paraprofessionals, administrators, P-12 faculty, education preparation program designers, principals, superintendents, researchers, students, and academicians.