Posted by GC on September 10, 2002 at 13:55:31:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Why should we have to defend teachers? posted by js on September 10, 2002 at 11:58:47:
Of my five ed courses that I took for my undergraduate degree, only one was of any practical use. The others concentrated on theory, and they helped me get good scores on the NTE, but were of little other use.
In contrast, current teacher ed programs are requiring students to spend much more time in practice teaching and observation. My daughter recently declared Early Childhood Education as her major. She had 5 sophomore education classes that were taught by professors who had all taught in public schools at the levels that were being covered in the class. The content of these courses was strongly practical. This year, she will take 4 more classes and will spend 45 hours in observation and in a practicum assisting a teacher in an elementary school. Her senior year, she will do an entire year in student teaching and will take two more half day ed classes. By the time she's done, she will have spend a third of a year in control of a class, will have had three times the student teaching experience, and will have had more than twice the amount of course work, all of which will have been more practical than what I took.
Teacher training is improving tremendously, and I think that the current batch of recent new hires are far better prepared than us old folks were. I have more hope for the future than I've had in a long time.