In her article discussing curricular reform, Noddings
questions the assumption that mathematics needs to be an emphasis for all
students and that math skills are something everyone needs. She suggests that
math courses might contribute more effectively to general education.
Through much of
her article, Noddings comes across somewhat like an educated but whiny student
asking “why do we need to learn this?”, arguing that technology has replaced
the need for things like
arithmetic skills. Later on in her article, she comes
across a bit like a whiny teacher suggesting that it
would be nice if teaching
was a “real profession, one like law and medicine.” (p. 101) She then
suggests that teacher would
not be willing to dedicate three or four years to graduate school for a
career
in which they have little autonomy, poor pay and low status.
I think one of
her main arguments is that there is not enough specific teacher education, and
that in
addition to being knowledgeable about their subject, a teacher should
be more highly trained in
education. I think I disagree with this! Even the one year I spent in my teacher
education program
seemed mostly time-filler. I think teachers need to learn
from practicums – I mentorship with an
experienced and able teacher is the most
appropriate way to learn our profession due to the fact that
there needs to be
a strong connection between the theoretical goals of education and the
practical
application of teaching within the constraints of the system we work
in (eg. 30 kids in a class for 75
minutes every other day etc.)
Question: What do
you think are key lessons people in a teacher education program need to learn?
How long should such a program be?
I agree with Noddings’s observation that teachers would not be willing to dedicate years to graduate school for a career in which they have little autonomy, poor pay and low status. And among those three indicators, lack of autonomy is the key. But these are all affected by values and traditions of learning and teaching. To be honest, David, I do not think it is a matter of how many years a professional teacher should be in training; rather, as you mentioned, the purpose of training seems to be more significant. For Math teachers, I would put more emphasis on math history and math discourse in the training.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Noddings’s observation that teachers would not be willing to dedicate years to graduate school for a career in which they have little autonomy, poor pay and low status. And among those three indicators, lack of autonomy is the key. But these are all affected by values and traditions of learning and teaching. To be honest, David, I do not think it is a matter of how many years a professional teacher should be in training; rather, as you mentioned, the purpose of training seems to be more significant. For Math teachers, I would put more emphasis on math history and math discourse in the training.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, I like the Noddings's idea of connecting math to other subjects and spheres of life. But I also doubt that only one teacher could do it. As a student can be gifted in one sphere and be untalented in another sphere, as a math teacher can have difficulties with philosophy or music (and be just great in math at the same time).
ReplyDeleteAs concerns your question, I don't have a clear answer. The problem is if you want to become a teacher in Russia, you have to spend the same amount of years in the university as others who want to become a lawyer or an engineer. Namely, 4 years. But school teacher is still a low-status and poor-paid career in Russia.
And as far as I know, our teacher education programm contains several math cources and several cources about teaching practices. But I doubt that it has at least one course about math discourse. However I consider a comptetency to exite a general interest to mathematics is a key one, I doubt that we can teach anyone to do this.
Thanks David for sharing! I agree that the effectiveness of the teacher education stint does depend to a large extent on the practicum providing hands-on experience, as well as an effective mentor. Unfortunately, not every teacher has the opportunity to get access to these valuable opportunities.
ReplyDeleteI also think two other things have a significant influence on the effectiveness of the teacher education experience, one, the intent of the teacher - what does the teacher want to glean from the experience and to what extent is the teacher willing to take the initiative to ask questions, to maximise the opportunity and learn from experience? This, I feel, is essential.
The other factor, is, systemic. I've heard feedback about teacher education programmes that try to pack a whole lot of content into the course duration and most teacher education programmes field a standardized range of all-too-familiar-sounding traditional courses. I believe that for greater effectiveness in learning, there is a need to constantly update the courses - and this may be as drastic as revamping the structure of the course, not just small tweaks. An example is the hidden curriculum in subjects and education. This aspect is important and relevant to teacher education, but this currently features at most as a mention within a class in a course. If some of our Mathematics content courses could explicitly discuss some common aspects of hidden curriculum across various topics, and have that conversation on what teachers may need to look out for it be careful to avoid, such conversations will be useful. This also applies to discussing and sharing the experience from passionate experienced mentors - since there are enough of them to go around, is there a way to restructure the course curriculum to incorporate these perspectives and such learning as a key part of the course curriculum? This possibly could be intentionally done without having the experience teachers physically present, for example via technology. It will take time and effort, do we have the heart to follow through for the purpose of improving the quality of teacher education and our teachers, and hopefully student learning?
BTW, I dont' know why my post has this annoying spacing. sorry for the inconvenience
ReplyDelete