NPR on Teacher Expectations

Laura M steered me to this NPR story by Alix Spiegel. She profiled one of my favorite scholars, UVa's Bob Pianta. Interesting twist: Spiegel covers health, not K-12.




People often ask us: What is different about the courses at the Charles Sposato Graduate School of Education, compared to more traditional schools?

There are many. One is that our whole program aligns with Pianta's beliefs: don't tell future teachers what to believe by hammering away with theory; instead, get them to practice specific behaviors that, if done the right way, show kids you believe they can succeed. He puts it this way:




There's a fierce debate in teacher prep, among Ed Schools and alternative pathways alike.

a. Some: It (teacher prep) mostly works. Just tinker a bit.

b. Some: It doesn't work. Need different raw material -- different people to enter the profession.

c. Some: It doesn't work. Teachers get certain knowledge from their classes, but those concepts are often wrong. Fix that.

d. Some: It doesn't work. So stop doing it. Let many people try to teach, without pretending to train them. Evaluate them. Only keep the good ones.

e. Some: It doesn't work. The ratio of time and money invested in gaining "knowledge" (loosely defined as what you get from classes, readings, writing, etc), compared to time and money invested in future teachers "practicing" (actually doing specific teacher-like behaviors, in various contexts, with a tight feedback loop) is off kilter. I'd file the NPR story under this last heading.

And of course "f" -- obviously some folks have a combo platter set of beliefs.