Camille Esch
"Training better Teachers"
Los Angeles Times
November 16th, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-esch-teacher-training-20101116,0,4320785.story
Summary:
This op-ed piece points the finger at teacher preparation programs for the country's education issues. The author claims that most teacher preparation programs are "long on theory and short on practical training in such essentials as classroom management and how to actually teach specific subjects." She proposes that the successes and failures of the graduates of teacher prep programs should be monitored, thereby providing data on the institutions from which they graduated. She does not, however, provide a practical method for doing so. One method she proposes is measuring whether or not they obtain jobs and for how long they maintain them--two things that are affected more by politics and budget concerns than they are by teacher preparation. The second method she proposes for measuring teacher preparation is polling of an institution's graduates. However, I too find fault in this method as it is entirely subjective. But this opens up the proverbial can of worms: how exactly can we objectively measure teacher preparation?
Intended audience: General Public
Key Points: 1) America's problem with education is that we have bad teachers; 2) We have bad teachers because we have bad teacher preparation programs; 3) The way to fix this is to subjectively measure the preparation of new teachers, use this as a means to determine a program's effectiveness, "and if, year after year, the data show dismal results for particular teacher preparation programs, then it's fair for the state to shut them down, as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has said should be done."
Relevance: Of the articles I have read there appears to be a developing theme: teachers are the bad guys, it's their fault that kids won't learn, etc. It feels as though the actual structure of our education system, the paradigm within which we force our kids, is beyond reproach. It will be interesting to deconstruct this point of view together as the course moves forward.
After reading the article, I feel I am challenged to be a teacher. Practice is very important for new teachers like me. We can learn real experience from real settings. And I prefer "short theory but long practice" training. I think the more important thing than better training teachers is supporting and encouraging new teachers. When I was in China, doing practice training before I graduated, I went to a high school teaching English. My first class was terrible! After my first class, I asked my mentor teacher why the students were so quiet when I asked them questions. She replied, "If students are silent when you ask questions, it is teacher's fault." I felt I was beaten by something on my head. However, another mentor teacher in a middle school, where I was doing another practice, supported by encouraging and confirming. It gave me different feeling.
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