Studies of Excellence in Teacher Education


Book Description

This book presents case studies of three highly successful teacher education programs. It is part of a three-volume series that includes seven case studies. It documents the goals, strategies, content, and processes of teacher education programs that are exemplars for preparing prospective teachers to engage in skillful, learner-centered practice. Using observations, interviews, and surveys, researchers examined all aspects of each program. The book documents the capabilities of prospective teachers, focusing on the teachers' own work during teacher education and in the field, interviews with faculty and administrators in the schools where graduates teach, and surveys of principals. It also examines what policies, organizational features, resources, and relationships have enabled these programs to succeed. Some of the programs' common features include a clear, shared vision of good teaching; well-defined standards of practice and performance; and extended clinical experiences. The three case studies are: "Where There is Learning There is Hope: The Preparation of Teachers at the Bank Street College of Education" (Linda Darling-Hammond and Maritza Macdonald); "Knowing Children--Understanding Teaching: The Developmental Teacher Education Program at the University of California, Berkeley" (Jon Synder); and "Knitting It All Together: Collaborative Teacher Education in Southern Maine" (Betty Lou Whitford, Gordon Ruscoe, and Letitia Fickel). (Papers contain references.) (SM).




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.




An Ethic of Excellence


Book Description

The author gives us a vision of educational reform that transcends standards, curriculum, and instructional strategies. He argues for a paradigm shift-a schoolwide embrace of an "ethic of excellence" and with a passion for quality describes what's possible when teachers, students, and parents commit to nothing less than the best. The author tells exactly how this can be done, from the blackboard to the blacktop to the school boardroom.




A Call for Change in Teacher Education


Book Description

This report is organized around the following themes: (1) supply and demand for quality teachers (scholastic attainments of prospective teachers at the high school and college levels, demographic and social forces having an impact upon the recruitment of qualified students); (2) programs for teacher education (liberal education, subject specialization, professional education); (3) accountability for teacher education (state standards for teacher education programs, accreditation of teacher education programs); (4) resources for teacher education (school of education funding, allocation of resources for research and development, advanced degree programs); and (5) conditions necessary to support the highest quality of teaching (teacher salaries, advancement opportunities, work environments, status, autonomy). A broad analysis of each of the issues is provided and supported by empirical findings. A series of 16 recommendations is proposed to address the need for change and improvement. Included among the appendices is a listing of testimony presented at the commission hearings. (JD)




Envisioning Teaching and Learning of Teachers for Excellence and Equity in Education


Book Description

This edited book is a collection of keynote speeches in the 3rd Global Teacher Education Summit in Beijing Normal University from October 14 to 16, 2017. The speeches intend to raise international response in the field of teacher education to the enduringly changing education policy environment. Multiple perspectives are needed in order to gain insights into teaching and teacher education for excellence and equity, as well as disentangle from rigid, inapplicable old paradigms. This book on one hand provides typify global voices, and on the other hand contributes Chinese stories to this field. China’s education manifests a tendency with stronger indigenous features related to the changing domestic climate and international geopolitical position. Chapters included about teaching and teacher education in China can provide local evidence, intelligence and relevance to global audience, and even voice indigenous epistemes within the non-Western platform. This book aims to build such dialogs between global perspectives and Chinese insights for heteroglossia in content and methodology in the field of teaching and teacher education.







International Handbook of Teacher Education


Book Description

The International Handbooks of Teacher Education cover major issues in the field through chapters that offer detailed literature reviews, designed to help readers to understand the history, issues and research developments across those topics most relevant to the field of teacher education from an international perspective. This volume is divided into two sections: Teacher educators; and, students of teaching. The first examines teacher educators, their role, and the way that role influences the nature of teaching about teaching. In turn, the second explores who students of teaching are, and how that influences the relationship between teaching and learning about teaching.




Excellence in Scholarship


Book Description

Teachers empower both the next generation of learners and educators. Communities value the intricate roles and responsibilities of teachers: many of whom who go beyond the tangibles to cater to the learning needs of their students. The multidimensional and multifaceted relationship between teacher-education providers and teachers is a complex one. At one end of the spectrum sits the scholarship of teaching while at the enacted zone sits standards-based praxis. Teacher education and scholarship of teaching provides the avenue to demonstrate this interaction of knowledge, pedagogy, research and broadly, scholarship. Unfortunately, there is no strong consensus about the value of pedagogical preparation for teachers. This monograph highlights the broad focus on how education draws its knowledge base from various disciplines; advancing that education itself can become a plethora for shared discourse and reflection. The chapters provide fresh demonstrated understanding into practice-enabled research directions and emphasise the position of research-based praxis in both schools and in institutions entrusted with teacher education. Importantly, the monograph demonstrates the two-way communication between the community and teacher educators about knowledge, experiences, values and diversity and to add value with the sole aim to enhance learning. It highlights education is a collective endeavour in that education and teacher education are subsets of the community, and deliberations in communities add important synergy to education’s evolution and revolution. Thus, the process of inquiry is fundamental in education, and implies transcending traditional discipline-bound knowledge and processes. This monograph provides the challenge to educators that no single or specific discipline directs educational development and enrichment, nor does the latter exclude any.




Teaching Excellence in Higher Education


Book Description

This book offers inter-disciplinary, evidence-informed discussion around notions of excellence in higher education teaching. It will act as a key stimulus for institutional and sector-wide debates and a reference point for initiatives around the TEF agenda.




Policy, Practice, and Politics in Teacher Education


Book Description

"Marilyn Cochran-Smith′s keen insights about the politics and substance of teacher education reform focus like a laser on the central issues of educational equity and quality in our time. Anyone who wants to understand what′s happening to teaching in this country, and what′s at stake, should read this book." —Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Stanford University "Marilyn Cochran-Smith is one of the strongest voices in teacher education today. By weighing the evidence, challenging orthodoxy, and analyzing the policies, she has given teacher education a firm footing in the scholarly canon. Her leadership is vital to the field′s viability." —Gloria Ladson-Billings, Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education University of Wisconsin, Madison Access the insight and wisdom of one of today′s leading educational scholars in one concise volume! When it comes to determining the best approach to teacher preparation, today′s teachers, teacher educators, and school leaders face an overwhelmingly contentious environment. Through her influential essays in the Journal of Teacher Education, however, Marilyn Cochran-Smith has consistently provided educators with a distinguished voice of reason, advocacy, inspiration, and social justice. This powerful text organizes all of her editorials for the first time into one concise volume, making this an essential guide to teacher preparation at its best.