Title: Introduction: The Roles of Teacher Educators, Supervisors, and Mentors in Professionalizing Teacher Education
Abstract: Becoming a teacher, or joining the profession of teaching, involves a complex process in which there are numerous contributors and contributing contexts. University students who intend to become teachers in K-12 public schools have numerous routes available to them. Some routes to becoming a teacher are simple and short in duration, with minimal attention paid to the components that contribute high quality teacher preparation; others are rigorous and engage students in university coursework focused on educational foundations, literacy and content area methods, formative assessment, adapted instruction for bilingual youth and children with special needs, learning theories in practice, deep reflections on student learning, extensive classroom experiences under the tutelage of experienced teachers, and apprenticed student teaching. In this issue of Teacher Education Quarterly, the focus is on the later approach to becoming a professional teacher, and what it takes to enter and grow in the profession. Thematically, the message is that many people with specialized knowledge, abilities, and dispositions toward teaching and learning are involved in helping students learn about and gain experience in teaching prior to entering a classroom. Each of the articles contributes to the knowledge base in teacher education, beginning with a study by Ilana Margolin which examine the preparation of teacher educators. What is fascinating about this study is that it is one of the very few that looks at the professional development of teacher educators, asking questions about what kinds of transformations participants experience as they move from a traditional to an new teacher education program, and the contexts in which the changes occurred. As teacher education programs in many places change, Margolin's study provides some clues about what is involved in transformation so that when students enter the newly developed programs they will experience a seamless shift to a new way of preparing for teaching. One voice that is often overlooked in teacher education research is that of the pre-service students who enroll in teacher education programs. Judith Haymore Sandholtz provides a look into what pre-service teachers think about effective and ineffective teaching practices, and the results from this study are encouraging. The pre-service students in her program, a strong program with all of the elements of high quality teacher education preparation, showed that they were able to critically examine their practices and shape their teaching based on student learning. This article also discusses implications for teacher education programs and recommends ways to help pre-service teachers by enhancing a focus on student learning in ways that integrate classroom management with teaching and ethical concerns. The next three articles address two critical components of teacher education: working with cooperating teachers/mentors, and teacher supervision. Patricia J. Norman discusses her research of a teacher study group focused on ways to support pre-service teachers learning to teach while working with a classroom mentor and a university faculty member. The centerpiece of the study involves what constitutes good planning for creating and sustaining an engaging lesson as viewed from different experiences and knowledge bases. Alisa J. Bates, Dina Drits, and Laurie A. Ramirez investigate multiple case studies of university supervisors and their work with student teachers, offering insights from both supervisions and the student teachers with whom they interacted. Hillary S. Hertzog and Nancy O'Rode focus on the relationship between university supervisors and student teachers, particularly with regard to the role of reflective practices for improving mathematical knowledge for teaching. …
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-06-22
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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