New Tack in Teacher Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

New put up in Teacher Education - Essay ExampleOnce a would-be instructor passed this get dressed of criteria in the old days, a normal school, or a university offering the regular 4-year teacher information courses, proceeded to use these basic attributes as building blocks toward making the student teacher attain proficiency in the subjects considered as fountainheads of knowledge on teacher preparations psychology, sociology and general education. In the traditional approach, that was all there was to teacher education. The assumption was that tutelage in psychology and sociology would sufficiently prepare student teachers for the tasks of reaching out to small people from diverse social classes with different beliefs, behaviors and mental constructs. General education, for its part, is the euphemism for the nitty-gritty, and more taxing part, of teaching - preparing less(prenominal)on plans, checking judge papers, evaluating pupils performance, what to do with a difficult a nd rowdy class, handling slow learners.Under this assumption, teacher education scarce counted as a field of specialized study and as object of faculty memberian research. Teacher educators were non even asked to participate in research into their work (Korthagen, F., Loughran, J. & Russell, T., 2006). Only lately did policy makers, lawmakers and academic researchers take down to question the old notions of an effective teacher education program when confronted by repeated year-to-year reports of poor academic performance across the school systems. Something must be wrong in teacher preparations indeed when goodly publications like the US News and World Report play up stories like as of 2000, 75 million American adults or 2 out of 3 Americans cant read adequately. It looks worse in less developed countries, such as one in Asia where it was reported that only one of five uncomplicated graduates showed a passable competency in the five basic subjects of science, mathematics, Eng lish and writing. Bullough & Gitlin (2001), as cited in Korthagen, et al. (2006), affirm that the traditional approach to teacher education was among the features of the educational system that needed an overhaul when the two academic researchers were asked to develop a reinvigorated teacher education program from the old one. The research duo notable that the old TEP model they worked on was disjointed, fragmented and confusing. The theory-to-practice view, the research team added, suffers from many limitations and inadequacies and is thus counterproductive. Another demonstrative indictment the standard TEP model is irrelevant to the reality of everyday practice in schools. From these observations, the search for new ways of preparing teachers emerged. One of the persistent concepts that developed operates on the principle that knowledge (theory) should relate to experience and emotion (practice). This means that immersion in theory, on which traditional TEPs are focused, is n ot altogether bad so long as an equal emphasis is placed on practice. In other words, the more perfection approach is for theory and practice to go hand in hand so that when student teachers go out to practice their profession they know how to handle the problems of everyday teaching through theory-guided actions.This new tack in teacher education is reflected in TEPs that set aside rote recall in elevate of understanding and application, giving due