A Program or a Collection of Courses?

I was reminded today about something that one of my colleagues - someone I consider a mentor in my early years as a professor - used to say repeatedly as we worked on creating and fine tuning the teacher education program at the University of Regina.

He would regularly remind us that the program we were developing was a 'program' not a collection of classes.

What he meant by that is reflected in the teacher education literature today as programs that are cohesive, developmental and integrated. In other words there should be a logic, a progression, scaffolding, and dependencies between each of the bits and pieces of the teacher education program. Advanced courses should depend on what was learned in junior courses. Junior courses should be focused on preparing students for the more advanced courses. And the whole program should be aimed at preparing the best, most thoughtful, most skillful and most motivated beginning teachers.

The implications of this is that professors need to know what is happening in other professors courses. Students should be able to relatively easily see the connections between the content of one course and all the other courses they are taking. The field experiences should be integrated with coursework and together coursework and field experiences should advance the student in their quest to finding their own personal teaching identity.

This is very labour intensive in terms of understanding the way the curriculum of a teacher education program is integrated. Which takes away from some of the other duties professors see as vital to maintaining their positions.

So many issues if we consider the preparation of teachers as the central, overriding mission of a faculty of education.

Excitement about teaching

Today in my pre-internship class we hosted two students who had just completed their semester-long internship. They were invited to the class to talk about their own experiences as pre-interns and as interns and to allow today's pre-interns ask questions.

It was a pleasure to see these two women who were so clearly excited about what they had experienced and what they were looking forward to as new teachers.

In these days of deconstruction where we seem to extend ourselves in looking at what is wrong with our institutions and our society it was refreshing to watch and listen to Kam and Andrea.

They both said that this had confirmed their ambitions - they felt they were teachers and although there was always a lot to learn they were looking forward to the challenges.

There are many things wrong with school. We systemically disadvantage certain groups of people both within school and society. Sometimes we do it knowingly and other times we don't realize what we are doing. School needs to be fixed. It needs to become a more equitable place. It needs to be safe for all students and teachers. It needs to be an agent for good in our society.

These are all hard things to accomplish. We are bound up in traditions and beliefs that constrain most of us from seeing what is wrong and how to fix it.

But I have hope when I witness the enthusiasm and excitement of my students.

They will change the system by being great teachers, loving their jobs and their students and working hard throughout their careers.

Now its our jobs as teacher educators to work with them towards that excitement, enthusiasm, competence and change

Teacher Education

Some time ago I wrote a bit about what is crucial in a good teacher education program. We have been involved in a 'program renewal' process over the last year or so. The title is interesting as some of my colleagues insist that all we are doing is 'tuning up' a few course, while others insist that we are, in fact, changing our programs.

It is called program renewal!

We have delayed approval of the work that has been accomplished thus far to allow for a few kinks to be worked out.

One of the courses that needs to be addressed is one that focuses on the basic skills and strategies of teaching. I believe that this type of course is a very important contributor to a quality teacher education program.

Our students have all experienced school as students and some have even experienced the role of teacher. Despite this experience it is difficult for me to believe that they understand the role of teacher in all of its complexities.

And the role is complex. Teachers try to change the world, educate students, protect students and the world, support learning, students, parents, their colleagues and on and on.

The fundamental skills, when they are internalized, allow teachers to address all of the other issues they face. Without these skills classroom management becomes an issue, lesson and unit and course organization can be inappropriate, teaching can be haphazard and ineffective.

So over the next while I will be thinking about how to create an effective, interesting, useful course

Intuition vs Training

I had two conversations today, albeit on two different topics, that boiled down to the same question - nature vs nurture. So to take it out of the context of both conversations I ask the question of whether teachers are 'made' or born.

My answer to that question has always been that teachers are born but that the kind of teacher education we have traditionally offered at the University of Regina makes them better - more professional, more aware, more willing to develop themselves.

If a person is intuitively a good teacher why should they become more 'professional', more aware and more willing to develop themselves? Isn't it the case that if we make someone aware of their gifts we risk the chance that they will become too self-conscious? to self-aware? and then lose their abilities? or at least the naturalness of their abilities?

My position is simple - teaching - as with many other kinds of activities - art, management, engineering, medicine, dentistry - requires a certain level of consciousness on the part of the practitioner. This consciousness allows for control.

There is without question, within each of the areas I listed above, there is are elements of artistry and creativity. But each of these areas are also laden with 'technique' and technique can always be improved and improvement comes from focused, conscious practice.

Instinctive behaviours that result in extraordinary results is wonderful and a blessing - but without the person's ability to explain and control those behaviours they are 'tricks'