This chapter of Flat World was one of the most sensible things I've read concerning education in awhile. The chapter tries to answer how we can try to fix the issues in our education system. It supplies what seems like an obvious answer: provide teachers with better training, supports, and more time to take advantage of these supports. Our education system needs to provide more rigorous training and preparation for teachers. I think Trinity's MAT program is a prime example of the kind of teacher training and education that all future teachers should have access to. I was proud to see Trinity mentioned in this chapter alongside other great programs, especially ones that foster "teacher schools." Studies mentioned in the article suggest that teachers coming out of such programs "feel better prepared to teach and are more highly rated by employers, supervisors, and researchers than other new teachers" (Darling-Hammond 216). Even though I'm only in the undergrad program, I agree with these studies. I already feel better prepared than many beginning teachers, especially those that gained their certificate through a crash course program. But as the article asserts, further training is difficult and expensive for those going into a profession that pays little, especially for those teachers entering into low-income schools. I think in this aspect of education, and in others, we have a lot to learn from educational systems abroad. In many other countries, teachers receive more standardized and comprehensive education at very little or no cost.
I think we also should learn from these schools abroad, which demand less time performing instruction. This allows teachers to use this time to further develop their skills and collaborate with each other. In most high-performing nations teachers are allowed 40%-60% of their time to work with their peers, prepare, and further their learning. Here, we don't even get half that. During the day, in most public schools, teachers have no time to work and collaborate with fellow teachers and only receive 3-5 hours weekly to plan alone. Continued education, evaluation, and preparation are as important later in a teacher's career as early on. So although programs like Trinity's MAT is a great start, we still have work to do to better our educational infrastructure.
I agree with your assessment - esp. that this is more work ahead! Esp. in terms of building in time and structures for adult collaboration on behalf of students
ReplyDeleteYes. I love all of this! As I was reading the chapter, I found myself writing things like "YES!" and "wow" in the margins because these are all things that would help out teachers and the education system so much, but are not in use! As a (hopeful) future teacher, I know I would appreciate as much as time as possible to plan for my students and to teach them in the most effective way possible, even if that means teaching fewer of them.
ReplyDeleteMany of the good qualities this chapter talked about in a teaching program, I found myself thinking, "Wow, that sounds like the MAT here!" It may not be necessarily easy to make all of the changes proposed in this chapter, but they do need to be made, even if it's in a similar style to what they did with the medical field in the 1900s. Doctors need to be kept accountable for what they learn and how they interact with patients, so why shouldn't teachers be kept accountable for learning how to teach and interact with kids? The story about the two first year teachers telling another new teacher to just yell at her kids really hit this home for me. I didn't actually think that anyone still thought that way and seeing people who were allowed to teach children say things like that scares me a little bit.