Preparing Teachers to Learn From Teaching

Abstract： A teacher preparation program is needed to help prospective teacher learn how to teach from studying teaching. The program is composed of four skills. The program is more realistic and brings more promising set of beginning teacher competencies.

Key words： analyzing teaching； learning to teach； teacher preparation

How should teacher preparation programs be designed to ensure the graduates become expert teachers？ One alternative approach to teacher preparation is to design programs that prepare prospective teachers to learn from teaching when they enter the profession. Then what would such a program look like？

Skill 1： Set Learning Goals for Students （What Are Students Supposed to Learn？）

Specifying learning goals is the first skill because until learning goals are expressed clearly， further analyses are impossible. Describing learning goals precisely requires unpacking them into component goals or sub-goals.

There are two criteria to measure prospective teachers’ skill in specifying learning goals： First， goal descriptions are more useful when they are more specific. Second， goal descriptions are more useful when they use the language of the subject.

Skill 2： Assess Whether the Goals Are Being Achieved During the Lesson （What Are Students Supposed to Learn？）

Assessing whether the goals are being achieved needs conducting appropriate empirical observations to collect the evidence. It involves a） appreciating that evidence about students’ learning is essential for assessing the effects of teaching； b） recognizing what counts as evidence that students are achieving the learning goals； and c） knowing how to collect evidence.

Skill 3： Specify Hypotheses for Why the Lesson Did or Did Not Work Well （How Did Teaching Help （or Not） Students Learn？）

Developing hypotheses that link teaching with learning requires forming conjectures about how a particular instance of teaching facilitated or inhibited a particular kind of learning.

How are hypotheses produced？ It requires an appropriate level of skepticism. Teaching is exceedingly complex. Causal hypotheses should be treated as questions to be examined further rather than as conclusions assumed to be true.

Skill 4： Use the Hypotheses to Revise the Lesson （How Could Teaching More Effectively Help Students Learn？）

Cause-effect hypotheses formed by applying skill 3 usually point the way to the revisions developed by applying skill 4. The quality of a revision depends on whether the revised episode helps all students achieve the learning goals more effectively.

Another criterion also can be applied： Does the revision increase the teacher’s opportunities to observe whether students are achieving the learning goals？

In the spirit of improving teaching through the deliberate and systematic study of teaching， this program provides a path toward improvement for teacher educators and classroom teachers.

REFERENCES：

[1]Cruickshank， D.， Applegate， J. （1980）. Reflective teaching as a strategy for teacher growth. Educational Leadership， 38，553-554.

[2]Dewey， J. （1929）. The sources of a science of education. New York： Horace Liveright.