Ignoring the Obvious: A Constructivist Critique of a Traditional Teacher Education Program

The purpose of this article is to present the conclusions of a Deweyan-oriented constructivist educator concerning what I believe to be a number of crucial dysfunctional elements embedded in the very structure of the traditional teacher education program. My experience as a teacher educator has led me to conclude that certain time-honored aspects of traditionally structured teacher education, so long entrenched that they are virtually invisible to many of the participants, are nevertheless largely inappropriate to creating the kind of activity rich, in-depth, personalized instruction that constructivist educators believe to be essential to a quality educational experience. My assumption is that if our future teachers are not going to teach as they were taught by many of their own primary and secondary teachers, teacher education courses must not only present the bodies of knowledge needed by future teachers to assume responsible positions as professionals, they must also consistently model the kinds of pedagogical practices that are conducive to active, in-depth learning. However, the overall structure-in particular the structuring of time-within which professors and students function in a traditional teacher education program, and which almost everyone (at least in my experience) seems to accept unquestioningly, makes this virtually impossible. It is my contention that unless such programs are profoundly restructured in ways that better facilitate preservice teachers' construction of knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to effective teaching, progressive school reform in the twenty-first century will be the likely casualty.