Educational “excellence” versus teacher “professionalism”: Towards some conceptual clarity

The educational literature of the last several years is replete with both continuing calls for educational excellence reforms and for enhancing and upgrading the teaching profession. Importantly, both types of calls rely on the contribution of science. The educational research-and-development community continues to push for and believe in the notion that educational innovation is based on scientific advances in understanding child development and school functioning. Similarly, many teachers and teacher educators continually call for increased classroom autonomy and social status among teachers, based upon the supposedly scientific nature of their professional training. This paper takes issue with both of these points, arguing that the origin and success of most educationally innovative policies have as their origin the changing political, economic, and social forces visible in the country during the history of American education. Relatedly, since the science of teaching and learning takes a back seat in issues of school policy, teachers cannot and will not be able to convince the public and those in authority in the school that their insights and practices derive from any privileged understanding of the real needs of children. Arguing that teachers should, in fact, have more input into policy decisions in education, the paper concludes with a review and discussion of various strategies currently visible for improving the autonomy and control of classroom educators.     

Are effective or meritorious schools meretricious?

Data on student achievement gain in a large urban school district during the 1984–85 school year were analyzed to identify schools with achievement consistently higher or lower than schools with similar student and school characteristics. Before calculating gain scores, students were grouped with others of the same sex, ethnicity, initial grade level, and initial achievement level. After residuals for students who were above or below similar students were summed and averaged for reading and math at each grade, school-level regression analysis was used to further control for student and school characteristics. Results indicated that schools with reading gains one standard deviation above the mean had average raw scores less than two items higher than the district average on the sixty-item reading test, while schools with math gains this large had raw scores little more than one item higher than the average on the 44-item math test. In addition, examination of data on schools with residual (combined) reading and math gain scores 1.5 or more standard deviations above the average showed that after taking account of student background information and salient school characteristics, only one elementary school among 173 and no secondary school among 71 had unusually high achievement scores. Implications are discussed regarding efforts to identify and reward meritorious schools which allegedly have improved achievement more than other similar schools.     

Examining Elementary Education Teacher Candidates’ Experiences Completing edTPA

Abstract

This study examined 388 elementary education teacher candidates (n?=?388) across four semesters in one educator preparation program about their experiences completing the performance-based assessment edTPA. Candidates were in one of three programs at a large, public research university in the Southeast region of the United States. These programs included: a general undergraduate elementary education program, an undergraduate elementary/special education dual licensure program, and a post baccalaureate graduate certificate in elementary school teaching program. Findings indicate that candidates across all three programs reached consensus on the five biggest challenges of edTPA. The challenges included: (1) deeper thinking for students; (2) identifying the language function of the lesson sequence; (3) including discourse in the lesson plans; (4) including the syntax supports in their lesson plans; and (5) making connections to research and theory. While all three groups of candidates identified these five challenges, the order and the extent to which they were a challenge varied by group. Further, candidates expressed disproportionate periods of time dedicated to edTPA during student teaching. Candidates in the graduate certificate in teaching program reported that they felt less prepared than undergraduate students in the other programs. Implications include examining how to best support candidates in all three programs to increase their likelihood of success on edTPA.     

It's easier to pick a good teacher than to train one: Familiar and new results on the correlates of teacher effectiveness

Neither holding a college major in education nor acquiring a master's degree is correlated with elementary and middle school teaching effectiveness, regardless of the university at which the degree was earned. Teachers generally do become more effective with a few years of teaching experience, but we also find evidence that teachers may become less effective with experience, particularly later in their careers. These and other findings with respect to the correlates of teacher effectiveness are obtained from estimations using value-added models that control for student characteristics as well as school and (where appropriate teacher) fixed effects in order to measure teacher effectiveness in reading and math for Florida students in fourth through eighth grades for eight school years, 2001-2002 through 2008-2009.     

中等师范教育资源与现代小学教师教育--连云港地区小学教师教育90年历史回顾

连云港地区的小学教师教育已经有了90年的历史.目前基本形成了"两个板块、一个主体"的发展格局.当前连云港地区小学教师教育格局的形成,是我国教育体制,特别是师范教育体制改革宏观推动的结果,也是连云港地区基础教育改革和发展促进的结果,更是连云港地区小学教师培养事业自身成长的结果.90年的历史积累,对当前小学教师教育事业的发展具有历史性的启发和推动意义.     

Characteristics of male elementary teachers in the U.S.A., at teacher education program entry and exit

This article reports on two studies that describe the status of male elementary preservice and inservice teachers. One study looked at entering teacher candidates, describing differences between males entering elementary education and other teacher candidates, at three universities in the U.S.A. (n = 936), with three sets of variables: (1) high school background, (2) self-confidence in teaching, and (3) expectations for teacher education. The second study looked at practicing male elementary school teachers who were recent graduates of teacher education programs at 12 different universities (n = 1098), with three sets of variables: (1) career status, (2) ratings of teacher education program quality, and (3) self-evaluation of teaching knowledge and skills. Male elementary candidates were less academically oriented, more self-confident about teaching, and less optimistic about usefulness of courses than other subgroups of entering teacher candidates. Male elementary teachers had lower job satisfaction and less favorable opinions of their teacher education programs than other subgroups of teachers, but were just as sanguine about their level of teaching skill as were the other groups.     

Inclusion,Exclusion, and Ideology: Special Education Students' Changing Sense of Self

The inclusion of students with disabilities in the mainstream of general education remains one of the most contested topics in public education today. This qualitative study considered this issue from the perspective of included as well as excluded special education students over an extended period of time. More specifically, it sought to understand how 11 developmentally handicapped students made sense of their experience in a variety of inclusive and segregated classrooms in four urban school settings. It followed these students in two elementary schools and two junior high schools over a period of 6 years. The information from participant observation as well as teacher and student interviews supports inclusive schooling. It suggests that, as the students moved into and out of traditionalist and inclusive classrooms, they presented a changing sense of themselves in relation to ideological beliefs and practices within particular schools and classrooms. Students in inclusive classrooms constructed a sense of themselves that was significantly different (and more positive) from those in either segregated or traditionalist classrooms.     

An urban school renewal program: A case analysis

Conclusion One of the most gratifying returns was a chance comment offered by a teacher as we walked across the lawn toward a local fast food restaurant. We were chatting about what he had experienced during the preceding two years. You know, he said, when we began this, I didn't see many hopeful signs, but I think that most of us (teachers) feel now that we work in the best high school in the city. The source may have been biased, and rigorous controls were obviously lacking, but that is the way one teacher perceived the changes. Many gained planning, leadership, problem solving, and other important behavioral and coping skills that contributed in interactively subtle, but nevertheless real ways.Can good things be made to happen in urban schools? The quantified data are equivocal, but we believe that the associations among interventions and perceived changes support cautious optimism.     

Print and reading: What do preschoolers know?

John Downing, an eminent reading researcher at Canada's University of Victoria, says that many children come to school in a state of cognitive confusion about the functions of reading and the terms we use when we start to teach them to read formally. Adults take for granted that young children know what they mean when they talk about a word, a letter, a sound, and other print-related terms. In his studies done in England and in Canada, Downing (1970; 1973–74) has found that many children, especially those who have not been read to regularly, simply don't understand the conventions of print and really don't understand what reading is all about.Joan T. Feeley is Professor of Reading and Language Arts at William Paterson College in Wayne, New Jersey.     

Gender segregation by field in higher education

In this paper I analyze the level of gender segregation by field in higher education, using indexes of segregation from the literature of economics and sociology. While in recent years women have begun to penetrate many of the fields that had been almost exclusively male, the reduction in the overall level of segregation by field in colleges and universities has been small. Analysis of data from nationwide surveys of college and university faculties suggests that segregation decreased modestly during the early 1970s, but that there has been little if any decline in more recent years. Furthermore, analysis of doctorate degrees granted in the mid-1970s and mid-1980s indicated that the overall level of segregation has actually increased, in spite of a noticeable integration of traditionally male fields.     

Elementary Science Methods Courses and the National Science Education Standards: Are We Adequately Preparing Teachers?

Despite the apparent lack of universally accepted goals or objectives for elementary science methods courses, teacher educators nationally are autonomously designing these classes to prepare prospective teachers to teach science. It is unclear, however, whether science methods courses are preparing teachers to teach science effectively or to implement the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996). Using the Science Teaching Standards as a framework for analysis, this research proceeded in two phases. During the first phase, the elementary science methods courses, perspectives, and practices of six science teacher educators were examined to determine similarities and differences in the course goals and objectives, overall emphases, and their efforts to prepare their students to implement the Science Teaching Standards. The second phase of the study investigated the elementary science methods courses of a national sample of science teacher educators as reflected in their course syllabi. It was found that universal inclusion of content related to the Science Teaching Standards does not exist, nor are there clear linkages between course goals, activities, and assignments.     

How Do Beginning Primary School Teachers Cope with Science? Toward an Understanding of Science Teaching Practice

This study emerged from a consideration of how some beginning primary school teachers cope when faced with teaching science. Primary teachers typically lack science content knowledge and therefore the science pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) that enables them to teach science. Aspects of a group of beginning primary school teachers' science teaching practices were consequently examined in order to understand better the basis of their practice. In particular, science PCK and its relationship to activities that work were considered, illuminated by findings about activities that work from a separate study with practicing teachers. The main assertion arising from this study is that activities that work have a close relationship with science PCK. A number of implications for primary science curriculum emerge from this assertion, such as considerations for preservice teacher education science courses and the nature of the primary science curriculum.     

构建新型小学教育专业本科实践教学体系——以培养全科型本科小学教师为例

高师设立小学教育本科专业,顺应了国际小学教师教育的发展趋势和我国基础教育课程改革对高素质专业化小学教师的迫切需求。针对本科师范生存在的专业情意和技能的不足,其实践教学体系的改革势在必行。以培养全科型本科小学教师为例,必须构建新型的小学教育专业本科实践教学体系,它包括目标体系、内容体系和保障体系三个完整的部分;并进一步阐述了这种新型实践教学体系全程设计、全面开放和综合培养的特点。     

关于当前我国小学教育本科专业人才培养策略的思考

小学教师是基础教育的“基础”,该专业涉及面广量人,其人才培养质量直接和间接影响到国家根本利益和千家万户的孩子成长。文章根据小学教师教育专业的特殊性,从“教师标准”、“学籍管理”、“课程设置”、“培养时序”4个方面,阐述了该专业的人才培养模式问题,尤其是提出了颠覆教育类课程设置的时序“路线图”的观点。     

Professional portfolios: The “talk” of the student teaching experience

Professional dispositions are an important component in teacher education programs. Therefore, it is important that teacher education candidates and teacher educators agree on what dispositions mean, understand how dispositions will be assessed, and agree on how they are portrayed. This study compared dispositional self-assessments from 248 undergraduate elementary education and special education candidates with their instructors over five semesters. Overall, results indicated that candidates and instructors shared similar perceptions. Specifically, candidates and instructors agreed that candidates were frequently tardy to class and submitted written work that did not meet program standards. However, candidates acknowledged displaying off-task behaviors during class that were not noted by faculty. Implications for teacher educators based on the data are included.     

Mathematical preparation of elementary teachers in China: changes and issues

It is generally perceived that Chinese elementary teachers have a profound understanding of the school mathematics they teach. This perception has led to further interest in understanding teacher education practices in China. As some dramatic changes in elementary teacher preparation have taken place in China over the past decade, this article aims to outline these changes with a focus on curriculum provided in the new 4-year bachelor preparation programs. Sample mathematics teacher educators in China were also surveyed to gather insiders’ views about teacher preparation practices and to identify relevant issues. We believe that elementary teacher preparation and its changes in China can provide an important case for mathematics teacher educators around the world to reflect on teacher education practices in their own systems.

GLOBE—The Science Behind Launching an International Environmental Education Program

Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) is an international science and environmental education program that enables school children to learn about the environment by taking scientific measurements of their natural surroundings and sharing their data with scientists via the Internet. By carefully following protocols and using approved measurement devices, students around the world are developing an archive of standardized data that can also be used in professional research. GLOBE is divided into several separate investigations, each focused on a different aspect of the environment. They include land cover, soil, hydrology, phenology, haze, and the atmosphere. Each investigation has a team of scientists who have worked with students and teachers to develop detailed protocols for the students to collect data. In addition, the scientists are exploring ways of using that data in their own research. This article is mostly about the work of GLOBE scientists—but also some students and teachers—in the first 5 years of the program. It is intended to provide an overview of the scientists' efforts to develop a meaningful learning experience around gathering environmental data for research.     

A “model” proposal for reform in teacher training

The present paper uses as a point of departure two of Benton and Hoyt's (1990) survey items concerning undergraduate teaching and their finding that Holmes Group and Division 15 members favored more sweeping changes in teacher education whereas TESCSU members favored more incremental changes. It: (a) suggests that reform is unlikely to succeed without change in the behavior of those who teach prospective teachers; (b) suggests ways in which educational psychologists can improve the effectiveness of teachers and teacher training; and (c) questions whether moving teacher training to the graduate level will in fact improve such education.     

A quantitative analysis of the demand for higher education

This article analyses the plans of a sample of 7425 secondary school children in Greece regarding their demand for further education. A set of family, personal, geographical and school characteristics are related by means of multivariate analysis to the pupil's decision to continue or not his/her studies and to the particular institution of higher education he/she aspired entry. The maximum likelihood estimates of the yes-no pupil decision indicate the dominance of school grade as a key variable affecting plans for further study. An educational production function revealed in turn that it is mainly parents' education that relates to scholastic achievement. The article also contains empirical estimates of the relative strength of several family and school factors affecting self-selection which may make the results useful to policy makers who attempt to influence the social demand for post-secondary education.     

Intertwining opportunities:: participants’ perceptions of professional growth within a multiple-site teacher education network at the secondary level

Teachers’ professional growth is far better documented within elementary professional development schools than it is within multi-site school partnerships at the secondary school level. This article fills an empirical gap by focusing on the professional development of 35 secondary school teachers and two professors within a school/university teacher education partnership focused on one content area. The University of Georgia Network for English Teachers and Students (UGA-NETS) is attached to a Research I institution and committed to on-going, discipline-based, collaborative inquiry and the education of 25 teacher candidates each year. Analysis of surveys, focus group and individual interviews, field notes, and documents across 5 years reveals that participants perceive 4 sites for their own professional development: individual school and university classrooms, school and university departments, the teacher network, and teacher education locally and beyond. The author also presents challenges to professional development within multi-site and secondary school partnerships including disturbing the status quo and the question of agendas, levels of buy-in, and diversity and equity.