Educational Leadership Commons^™

Preparing A Better Educated Society Of Youth, Robert L. Wills

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

When one considers that in the United States all children are entitled to free public education, that the support system from many of today's youth is not like that of 20 years ago, and that the persons responsible for providing that education were educated by those prepared to be educators in a society that has been non-existent for at least 20 years, our students are achieving well. Could it be better? YES! This is not to imply that today's educators are not seeking to improve, but dramatic change is necessary if we are to prepare a better educated society of …

Modeling Teaching For Learning Processes, Catherine B. Blando

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

Faculty members in teacher education need to become exemplars in the instructional process. As suggested in national accreditation standards, instruction by faculty members should be congruent in content and process with the best practices established by research. Furthermore, the university as a whole should come to regard its teacher education unit as one in which instructional practice is consistently superior (Standards, Procedures and Policies for the Accreditation of Professional Education Units, cited in Roth, 1989).

Vision, Reality And Challenge: Thoughts On The Reform Of Teacher Education, Thomas J. Budink

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

We are in a five-year window of time, when the majority of teachers and teacher educators will be retiring. One projection suggests that by the fall of 1993 an additional 1.65 million public and private elementary and secondary teachers will be needed as teachers leave the profession or retire. That's more than two-thirds of the 2.4 million teachers in classrooms today. Other projections predict a 50% turnover. Therefore, a window of opportunity exists during this five-year period to significantly improve teacher education, thus affecting the staff member who will shape future generations of students (Haseutab & Wilson, 1990).

Literacy And Critical Thinking Skills Of Beginning Teachers: Preparation Program Responsibilities, Roger P. Johnson

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

There can be little argument that we wish to have teachers in our schools who are literate, who are proficient in reading and communications skills, who can think insightfully and present and defend their points of view persuasively. Potentially divisive issues inherent in Postulate Seven relate more to its form than to its substance. Specifically, we must deal with acceptable definitions of the literacy and critical thinking skills of an educated person, the potentially hidden problems of discrimination and prejudice and the role of professional education programs in enforcing such skill guidelines.

Exploring The Concept Of An Educated Person, Luther L. Kiser

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

Using Good lad's Postulate Seven as the basic rationale for this position paper presents a major difficulty. The "concept of an educated person" (Goodlad, 1990, p. 286) is subject to such varied interpretations that it becomes problematic as a goal of teacher education. Certainly there is a belief that the goal of a college education is to acquire literacy abilities and critical thinking abilities associated with the concept of an educated person. This is in the tradition of a liberal arts education as opposed to a technical/ vocational education.

Culture Blocks Restructuring, William E. Blake

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

The American educational system has found itself in a cultural dilemma. No, not the standard issues of ethnic and racial diversity, but a plight created by a cultural ethic and value system that has penetrated our thinking and formed our educational paradigm. The United States' educational community is presently embroiled in a discussion centering on restructuring, a conversation that attempts to solve a problem by considering a new structure, a change of organization.

Field Experiences As A Timely Component Of Teacher Education, Randy Gordon

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

John Goodlad writes in Teachers for Our Nation's Schools (1990) "the education of educators must be characterized by a socialization process through which candidates transcend their self-oriented student preoccupations to become other-oriented in identifying with a culture of teaching" (p. 59). Becoming "other-oriented" is a process of education in itself. That process can provide needed resources to the community as it meets the students' growth needs.

The school district in which I am employed has an extreme need for additional resources to meet the needs of the thousands of young people at risk of school failure and, ultimately, failure to …

Program Procedures And Methodology, Larry Streyffeler

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

Teacher education programs need significant modification. We are preparing teachers who are cognitively able to work in the classroom but who fall short when confronted with the affective demands of many of today's students. The new teachers I know have increasing difficulties building and nurturing the teacher/student bond, the cement in the foundation of the teaching and learning process. My conclusions are not drawn from a research model, rather, solely on my observations and non-empirical conclusions.

Programming The Education Of Educators, Sidney Barrick

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

Many professions stipulate stiff entrance requirements and limit the number of students who can be enrolled per year. It would appear that most colleges and universities have an open enrollment policy toward education majors. Are there stipulations on classroom availabilities, faculty-student ratio, grade point average or whether each candidate is suited mentally and/or physically to become a teacher? The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education Standards has had little effect on improving the quality of teacher preparation programs. In place of the present mass of standards, four standards were proposed. These alternative standards focus on adequate financial support, selective …

The Common Denominators Of World Class Schools, Roger Ohde

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

National attention is being focused on education as our nation strives to have what is being termed "world class schools." All facets of our educational process will be subjected to examination as we strive to elevate our level of achievement. One small but vital link in the process involves the preparation of our nation's teachers.

Change in American society has been dramatic and will continue at an even faster pace in the decades ahead. Changes, however, have not occurred as dramatically in the process and preparation of our nation's future teachers. As we begin the process of certification through the …

Practitioners And Theoreticians: Can We Work Together?, Theresa Maloney Schoen

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

According to Education Week (July, 1991), one-quarter of state institutions of higher education and one-third of private colleges and universities are engaged in partnerships with elementary and secondary schools. Educators seem to feel a need to collaborate if we are to improve teacher preparation. Although partnerships between colleges and schools go back as far as the 1890s, educators interested in such arrangements have scant knowledge of what kind of partnerships have existed, what kind have survived, what kind have failed and what the impact has been on school reform.

Implications Of Goodlad's "Good Stewardship" For Field-Based Teacher Education, Michael Vavrus

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

In Teachers for Our Nation's Schools John Goodlad (1990) calls for programs which develop within education students a profound democratic consciousness for assisting them to understand the inevitable tensions between unquestioned routines, research and theory-supported practices. Furthermore, such approaches are to take place in "exemplary schools," followed with assistance to recent graduates for "easing the critical early years of transition into teaching" (pp. 61-62).

Imbedded throughout Goodlad's Postulates* is the notion that teacher education students must internalize the "good stewardship" dimension of teaching (p. 51). One key aspect of this stewardship, which is intended to empower teachers to renew schools, …

Reflection On Postulates Eighteen And Nineteen, Edgar V. Epperly

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

We teacher educators have hidden behind state requirements for a long time. As members of low status departments, representing a young and poorly established academic discipline, it has been comforting to have state requirements as a convenient ally in our on-campus curriculum wars. Consequently, before exploring Goodlad's suggestions for greater institutional anatomy, we must acknowledge that it is frightening to do so.

In a similar vein, state department personnel may also find this brave new world frightening. To be able to judge programs and graduates by courses completed is a precise, non-threatening assignment. Any move away from such bean counting …

The Relationship Between Teacher Education Reform And State, Raymond F. Gaul

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

As an educator, one cannot disagree with Goodlad's Postulates as presented. The state relationship and teacher education reform issue is not new. Educational research, reports, articles and experts all support Goodlad's Postulate Eighteen that states "Programs for the education of educators, in order to be vital and renewing, must be free from curricular specifications by licensing agencies and restrained only by enlightened, professionally driven requirements for accreditation" (p. 63). Professional educators also strongly support Postulate Nineteen: "Programs for the education of educators must be protected from the vagaries of supply and demand by state policies that allow neither backdoor 'emergency' …

The Case Of Teaching: Teacher Work, Beryl Wellborn

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

The education of educators qualifying them for initial licensure and renewal of licensure for teaching has been restrained for at least 150 years by the state continually increasing the number of mandated requirements. Their implementation usually cans for increasing the number of either or both academic and professional courses, plus increased study in the area of social concerns (Herbst, 1989; Warren, 1989).

In recent years, we have witnessed states also enacting accountability legislation in the form of performance-based education and competency-based teacher-training, and state-prepared teacher tests which must be passed by those seeking initial licensure or renewal of licensure. Finally, …

Focus Area Two: College/University Faculty, Jack Wilkinson, T. Anne Cleary

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

The college/university faculty issue group also generated a list of criteria which could be used as a "checklist" for college and university teacher educators. College and university teachers in all facets of a program should:

1. Exhibit continued interest in professional teacher preparation. 2. Exhibit a sound, contemporary understanding of the content and pedagogical body of knowledge in their field. 3. Exhibit a wide variety of strategies, concepts and skills which enable them to teach students with a broad range of differences in background, experience and cognition. 4. Exhibit the ability to link field research to classroom practices. 5. Exhibit the …

Executive Summary, Dave Else

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

A growing number of voices now call for reform of K-12 schools, and the call is becoming louder each day, month and year that we ponder the question "how do we proceed?" Not surprisingly, a majority of the voices making the call and offering direction are outside of education. Perhaps that is to be expected because, as Joel Barker notes in the Power of Vision, new paradigms do not typically come from within but rather from areas external to the field being changed. Or maybe those voices from afar are a result of "prestige deprivation" that has clung to educators …

Institutional Mission: Have We Lost Our Way?, John Finnessy

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

This paper has three purposes: (a) to learn more about the development of teachers, (b) to share insights of how some colleges and universities have viewed their institutional missions, and (c) to suggest some changes for universities and schools of education to consider if they are to successfully achieve their institutional mission.

The importance of education is widely discussed in many circles. Politicians know support for education pleases voters, and federal dollars ensure continued support for political machines. Businesses extol the importance of well-educated workers but then often locate new businesses in states which consistently score low on measures of …

Portfolios For Authentic Assessment In Higher Education, Jeannie L. Steele

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

Assessment has long been a fortress in American education. For almost as long, assessment has been the subject of considerable debate. In fact, William James in 1899 complained about technological test practices which required subjects to respond to test items which had, "no practical significance outside the 'test’” (p. 130). Recently, the chorus of complaints has grown louder and is being led by a host of educators and researchers (Darling-Hammond, 1990). Concern has been expressed regarding the construct and content validity of many standardized measures in all educational areas (Steele & Meredith, 1991). Yet, the age of assessment seems only …

Focus Area Three: Curriculum Issues, Robert N. Muffoletto

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

Debates on the curriculum of teacher education, both overt and covert, must situate questions of knowledge and practice within the broader social and historical landscape. Questions concerning power and benefit must be considered in relationship to social and bureaucratic institutional control. For example: Who in the end holds the power over the content and process of teacher education? How is this position maintained? What forms of resistance are found inside and outside of teacher education? Who benefits from the current state of affairs? To consider these and other questions concerning the nature of teaching and teacher education, the social, political, …

Questions Concerning Goodlad And Educational Reform, Robert N. Muffoletto

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

It is important from the onset of this position statement to state the obvious: "Schools (American education) are social constructions." As historical constructs, schools are institutions of the state and are involved in the reproduction and maintenance of the ideological horizons of the dominate social and economic class. Schools serve a major purpose: They are to maintain the conditions which, along with other social institutions, conserve the economy and status quo.

To seriously consider the restructuring (or reforming) of American education, we must ask the nature of the change being proposed and the "ends" envisioned. As the term restructuring suggests, …

Diverting State Regulations On Teacher Preparation, Jack L. Wielenga

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

The academic and professional preparation of teachers is necessarily influenced by governing and licensing agencies. This paper presents a position that the academic setting in which a new teacher will function can be advantageously influenced by a strong working relationship with state licensing agencies if the focus is diverted from reliance on regulations and detailed program review.

The development of a well-prepared and able teacher begins at a time far earlier than entrance to a collegiate program or official acceptance to a school of education. It is fundamentally important for a prospective teacher to develop a positive attitude toward learning …

Preparation Of Teachers For Our Nation's Schools, Judith A. Lindholm

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

The essential elements of a quality teacher preparation program are a clear mission, a faculty committed to and focused on that mission, carefully selected student candidates, a comprehensive curriculum and a well planned induction process. Without any one of these elements, the program fails to adequately prepare teachers for our nation's schools.

Focus Area Four: Program Procedures/Methodology, Peg Ishler, Hal Schoen

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

This group's task was to address Goodlad's Postulates Nine, Ten and Eleven, repeated here for convenience. The group identified four critical issues related to implementation of these Postulates and recommended actions to resolve each issue. In the following sections, each issue is stated with a brief summary of the group's discussion followed by the action recommendation.

1999 - An Interview With A New Teacher, Judy Jeffrey

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

Well, my university believes that becoming a teacher is a lot more than just learning how to teach and cramming all the knowledge in your head. They believe that you have to figure out your values and beliefs, that you have to live the models that everyone expects from a teacher. They also know that "by thinking about experiences in our past and reflecting on the connection and influences on the present, we can begin to question reality and move into our own consciousness, appropriating what is most meaningful to us" (Stark, 1991). At this university "the teacher education curriculum …

Socialization Into The Teaching Culture, Les Huth

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

Certainly the quote by Robert L. Wolf that an issue is "a statement about which reasonable people disagree" is appropriate for Postulate Nine. Most teacher educators would agree that we need to incorporate a process and strategies for teaching candidates to "transcend from self-oriented students to other-oriented individuals who identify with the culture of teaching" (Gardner, 1990). But how this should be done will definitely be an issue.

In this paper, I will attempt to describe what I believe Postulates Nine, Ten and Eleven are saying teacher education programs should be doing, establish the basis for the socialization to the …

The Proper Role Of The State In Transforming Education, Thomas J. Switzer

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

"The appropriate role of the state is to establish outcome expectations for teacher education graduates; the appropriate role of the university is to determine the curriculum, standards and internal policies for teacher education program." (The Renaissance Group, 1989, p. 3)

This principle, one of 12 such principles developed by the Renaissance Group to guide their efforts toward the improvement of teacher education, expresses to a large extent my position on the role of the state in transforming elementary, secondary and collegiate education. (The Renaissance Group is a confederation of 14 universities with a long history and current commitment to quality …

Teacher Education: Whose Discipline Is It?, Marlene I. Strathe

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

Krathwohl (1985) has defined a discipline as an organized field of inquiry which explains a domain using discipline developed theories, constructs and methods. Such an organized field is derived from the results of inquiry conducted by individuals who perceive themselves as scholars of the field. The question of who should be responsible for teacher education is fundamentally a question of who is concerned with research which advances the field of teacher education as a discipline.

Reflections On Educational Reform, Greg P. Stefanich

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

It appears, particularly in press releases over the past decade, that criticism of American education is worthy of front page news. The press gives one the impression that teachers have failed, causing deteriorating conditions in our schools. Perhaps we need to reflect on some of the misrepresentations perpetrated by biased constituents who may have ulterior motives that are not in the best interest of quality education for our youth.

Focus Area Five: Links With Schools, William Waack, Carol Sue Sherbert

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

The fifth issue addressed by a selected group of members of the Working Conference was links with the schools. The topic incorporated 4 of the 19 Postulates presented by Goodlad in Teachers for Our Nation's Schools. Postulate Fourteen encourages educators of educators to prepare future teachers to become change agents. Postulate Fifteen presents Goodlad's model of the "teaching school," cooperatively developed and run by universities and school districts. Postulate Sixteen involves the collaborative engagement of future teachers in a discussion of the conflicts between theory and practice. Postulate Seventeen is concerned with the establishment of linkages of teacher preparation institutions …