17 universities. The second group consisted of experienced teachers who were
trained mentors of beginning teachers.
The comments made by both groups
shed light on the gaps in many universities’ preparation programs.
The recent graduates of teacher preparation programs were highly critical
of professors who have not been in a
public school classroom for 20-plus
years; they stated that these professors
had “a credibility gap.” They believed
that student teaching, rather than the
lessons they experienced in university
classrooms, was the most effective component of their preservice learning.
classrooms. The workload and the
expectation that they simultaneously
manage multiple demands are serious
challenges for new teachers. Teachers
told us that their college programs
placed little emphasis on developing the
professional habits of mind essential to
building a viable teaching career. They
also indicated that their preparation did
not help them develop the skills needed
to be highly collaborative and active
contributors in professional learning
communities.
To deepen preservice teachers’ understanding of the physical and mental
demands of the job, universities and
Preservice teachers should be exposed to
the intense work of the typical classroom
teacher over a much longer time.
received insufficient instruction in
mathematics, science, and writing,
making them poorly prepared for the
detailed lesson preparation expected of
them. No college coursework addressed
what to do if students don’t learn the
material the way the teacher taught it
the first time. Teachers indicated that
they had little experience in using daily
formative assessments to diagnose
student needs, a crucial skill in today’s
highly accountable schools.
Teacher preparation programs must
align their content preparation for
elementary and secondary preservice
teachers with the major curriculum
changes being generated in many
states in response to the common core
state standards. There is no place for
outdated or poorly aligned teacher
preparation in reading, writing, and
mathematics if we expect our students
to demonstrate strong achievement on
internationally benchmarked tests.
Many of these teachers reflected,
however, that their student-teaching
programs had few or no standard
activities or goals; therefore, the quality
of their experiences depended entirely
on the knowledge and skills of their
cooperating or mentor teachers. Given
the important role of cooperating
teachers in the student-teaching experience, the new teachers indicated
that colleges need to ensure that the
skills and the commitment of assigned
cooperating teachers are exemplary and
that the cooperating teachers themselves
are models of best practice.
Here is what the focus groups in our
study wanted to tell their alma maters
about what was missing from their
preparation programs.
“We didn’t understand what’s
required of a professional.”
Universally, the new teachers reported
that their preservice education did
not prepare them for the physical and
mental stress they experienced in their
school districts should collaboratively
build on-site teacher preparation pro-
grams that emphasize specific profes-
sional habits—such as the ability to
reflect on one’s own teaching, which
includes accurately assessing the
effectiveness of the chosen instructional
strategies and creating appropriate
and targeted interventions. Preservice
teachers should be exposed to the
intense work of the typical classroom
teacher over a much longer time, sup-
ported by a continuum of preservice
and new-teacher mentoring.
“We didn’t learn how
to teach content.”
Focus-group participants reported
that they were not sufficiently pre-
pared in content pedagogy—especially
in teaching reading, whether at
the elementary or secondary level.
Coursework in reading instruction was
often too generalized and not useful
in their actual schools. Elementary
teachers indicated that they had
“We didn’t grasp the essentials
of classroom management.”
Respondents reported that coursework
having to do with student management
and establishing classroom routines
was of little value when they were
confronted with real students. Both
mentors and new teachers pointed to
the new teachers’ lack of fundamental,
research-based strategies to manage
classroom behavior in a positive way.
University teacher preparation programs should directly teach the foundational skills that many state departments
of education publish for their professional teaching workforce. For example,
Connecticut’s 2010 Common Core of
Teaching (Connecticut State Department
of Education, 2010) delineates specific ways in which teachers can create
active, engaging, student-centered
classroom environments—by using
technology strategically, designing
purposeful discourse and inquiry-based learning, providing meaningful
feedback to students, and so on. In
