Strong back,legs, feet,and a good pair of shoes: Connecting stories of inspiring teachers to coursework in teacher education

Abstract

Because of their belief in the social interactionist model of teacher education, the authors read aloud to various undergraduate and graduate classes excerpts from published teacher stories, either vignettes or opinion pieces. Their immediate goals were to help build class community, advertise books that the students might then return to on their own, personalize discussion topics, and inspire continuing reflection and pride in the chosen profession. A more long‐term goal was to get students to internalize stories that would help guide their actions in the classroom. This article describes their use of teacher stories and includes some of the readings as well as a comprehensive list of teacher stories consulted. Student reactions were varied depending on the stories and the contexts of the readings. Reactions included apathy, evaluation of the teacher, self‐reflective journal entries, and a refusal to pass a book on to peers without the promise of being able to take it home. The authors are reading/language arts educators, who recommend the use of teacher stories for teacher education in all fields.     

Impacts of a Comprehensive School Readiness Curriculum for Preschool Children at Risk for Educational Difficulties

This article reports findings from a cluster‐randomized study of an integrated literacy‐ and math‐focused preschool curriculum, comparing versions with and without an explicit socioemotional lesson component to a business‐as‐usual condition. Participants included 110 classroom teachers from randomized classrooms and approximately eight students from each classroom (N = 760) who averaged 4.48 (SD = 0.44) years of age at the start of the school year. There were positive impacts of the two versions of the curriculum on language, phonological awareness, math, and socioemotional outcomes, but there were no added benefits to academic or socioemotional outcomes for the children receiving explicit socioemotional instruction. Results are discussed with relevance to early childhood theory, policy, and goals of closing the school readiness gap.     

Making the Intentional Decision to Use an Effective Curriculum to Promote Children’s Learning

This study investigated the extent to which early education classrooms across Indiana implemented evidence-based practices and how well the classrooms of different types of early education programs in our state compared with one another. Evidence-based effective curricula increase children’s learning compared to those that are not effective. This article addresses the question: “Are the curricula used by the teachers effective?” The 81 participating classrooms included 28 in licensed child care centers, 27 in Head Start, and 26 in public school prekindergarten. Of the 81 classrooms, 80 teachers responded to the question: “What curriculum or curricula do you use in your classroom?” We used a three-step process to determine whether each response named a curriculum based on the Head Start definition; whether studies of the curriculum met the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) guidelines for being evidence-based; and if the WWC reviews identified the curriculum as effective in increasing children’s learning. Findings revealed that only 2 of 80 responding teachers used a curriculum determined by WWC to be effective. Other teachers used curricula that did not meet the Head Start definition, used curricula that did not meet the WWC standards for evidence, or used curricula with evidence but that were ineffective. These findings suggest that administrators and teachers should opt for a curriculum determined to be effective and to choose whether the curriculum will be math- or literacy-based since no comprehensive curriculum has been determined to be effective. A challenge for implementation is that the WWC has shown only five curricula to be effective.     

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