Teaching School recognized in opinion article on new approaches to educator training
In an opinion piece for The Chattanoogan, J.C. Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, wrote about the future outlook for student teacher training. He cited the positive aspects of the U-M School of Education’s Teaching School approach to preparing future educators for the classroom.
“Policymakers should invest much more time and resources into learning about the science of teaching and how individual teachers actually develop their skillset—and how long it takes to develop some of those skills—and what changes are needed," he wrote. Research has indeed revealed far more about a teacher after they enter the classroom than ever before, he added, but "change may be on the horizon for the profession.”
One example Bowman offered is the SOE’s Teaching School in The School at Marygrove. The SOE is moving to end the longtime practice of sending educators into their classrooms after just a few months of student teaching. Bowman wrote, “Elizabeth Moje, Dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan, is offering an innovative method, based on the way doctors are trained—that will extend teacher training through their first three years on the job, supporting them as they take on the daunting responsibility of educating children. The teacher intern program at Michigan would be the first dramatic upheaval in the way teachers are trained in this country in at least a generation—an upheaval that has been a long time coming.”
In a nutshell, explained Bowman, the new approach is like a teaching hospital, where future teachers—called interns—will train together under a single roof. They will complete their student teaching there. Then, instead of heading out in search of a job in another school, they can stay on for three more years as full-time, fully certified teaching residents making a real salary as first-, second-, or third-year teachers. They will continue to be mentored by veteran teachers, called attendings, who teach in the same school.
“There is no way to ensure that all teachers are great before they begin teaching,” he added, “however, we can make the effort to equip our educators with skills for a modern age. Change is on the horizon in how we prepare those who educate our children. Policymakers and stakeholders need to work together to make the necessary changes that benefit our students and ensure that quality educators enter and remain in the profession. Together we can make schools a better place for teachers to work and our students to learn.”
Featured in this Article
