Journal of Teacher Education recent issues

An Education President for the 21St Century: Introducing Eight Letters To the 44Th President of the United States

Borko, H., Whitcomb, J., Liston, D. — 2008-04-24

An Invitation To Support Diverse Students Through Teacher Education

Sleeter, C. — 2008-04-24

This article invites candidates for president to strengthen teaching and teacher education for diverse students. The article first describes two remarkable teachers in California to illustrate what strong teaching of diverse students looks like. It then discusses what the diverse students of this nation need of teachers, including teachers with high expectations for student learning regardless of students' current performance, teachers who can engage students academically by building on what they know and what interests them, teachers who can relate to their families and communities and read students in culturally accurate ways, and teachers who can envision diverse students as constructive participants in a multicultural democracy. The article concludes by outlining three ways in which the president can support excellent teaching by recognizing the value of teacher professional development and by strengthening funding for teacher education in various areas.

A Letter to the 44Th President of the United States

Clift, R. T. — 2008-04-24

Madam/Mr. President, I urge you to think broadly and systemically about improving education in the United States. Use your authority to create a plan that provides all children and adolescents with access to well-funded, desirable schools that orient their learning toward the future. Enable them to flourish because they are healthy, they have a balanced and engaging curriculum, and they are working with good teachers—who themselves are encouraged to continue their education. Make it possible for all education professionals to have access to the latest research on teaching and learning and the time to think through how the research can and should inform practice. Encourage schools, colleges, and universities to establish cross-institutional cultures wherein professors, teachers, and administrators work in partnership to review the latest research and to contribute to the knowledge base through collaborative research and through practitioner research and other forms of research in their own classrooms, schools, and districts.

Teacher Learning: the Key to Educational Reform

Lieberman, A., Pointer Mace, D. H. — 2008-04-24

This letter to the next president of the United States recommends the transformation of teacher in-service learning as a powerful means of education reform. Too often, professional development is perceived by teachers as being idiosyncratic and irrelevant. The authors recommend a reconceptualization of professional learning for practicing teachers, in which educators are involved in learning communities, these communities evolve over time, and they revolve around norms of openness, scholarly rigor, and collaborative construction of professional knowledge. The authors describe three such environments of professional learning—the National Writing Project, the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and the Quest Project for Signature Pedagogies in Teacher Education—and recommend that the incoming chief executive should capitalize on the strengths of such programs and extend them to many more teachers nationwide.

A Letter to Our Next President

Ladson-Billings, G. — 2008-04-24

The next president of the United States faces monumental challenges in the areas of national defense, the economy, and health care. However, one daunting domestic issue the nation must face is the continued educational inequity that exists between children of color and their white counterparts in our schools. This article looks at four facets of the educational equity challenge and reframes the discourse from one of achievement gaps to education debt. The four facets of that debt are historical, economic, sociopolitical, and moral. Without this more robust look at how these disparities occur, the nation's schools will continue to tinker with peripheral issues such as more testing, continued grade retention, and punishing students and teachers, and fail to solve our real education problems.

Letter to the President

Levine, A. — 2008-04-24

Levine notes that education has declined as a national priority. He appeals to the next U.S. president to champion quality education in America, addressing the achievement gap by focusing on teachers. He urges that the nation dignify the teaching profession, restoring its prestige through the equivalent of a Rhodes Scholarship program for teachers that would offer a significant award, enhanced clinical preparation, strong early-career mentoring, and competitive salaries.

Letter to the Next President

Rotherham, A. J., Mikuta, J., Freeland, J. — 2008-04-24

This article takes the form of a letter to the 44th president of the United States, urging the president to pursue an aggressive agenda to improve teacher quality. The authors assert that because teacher quality is the single most important factor shown to impact student outcomes, the next administration must dedicate resources to human capital reform and entrepreneurial efforts to better recruit, train, and support teachers. The recommendation includes five areas where the federal government can leverage its power to encourage innovations that bolster teacher effectiveness and improve outcomes for all students. These include (a) filling the teacher pipeline with better qualified teacher candidates, (b) creating more and better pathways to the teaching profession, (c) improving the supply of and demand for better induction and professional development, (d) developing data systems to measure teacher effectiveness by student outcomes, and (e) promoting and funding research and development in the field of teacher quality.

Letter to the President

Berliner, D. C. — 2008-04-24

Six suggestions for improving education in the country are offered. The case is made first that unless children's health care is improved, educational achievement among the poor will not improve. The second point is that poverty limits school achievement as well. Without work on these two issues, neither the nation nor the nation's schools will be in better places at the end of the next president's term in office. The third and fourth suggestions for improvement are inside the school factors that the president can influence. It is argued that higher-quality teachers are required than the nation now has and that school accountability systems now in use undermine the professionalism of the teaching force. The fifth and sixth suggestions are about how to improve the funding of educational research, suggestions easily implemented by the next president.

Welcome to the Profession, Madame President

Shulman, L. S. — 2008-04-24

This letter to the future president of the United States urges her to conduct herself as president as if she were a role model of an educated person and the nation's principal teacher. This obligation entails the need always to be clear about the reasons why her decisions are taken, the evidence or values that support those decisions, the alternatives considered and rejected, and the kinds of sources on which her deliberations rest. She is urged to be explicit about the role of religion and other sources of values in her life and yet to lean over backward to render decisions that violate those values when she feels it is best for the nation. In general, she should address the nation as a teacher should, with respect for their intelligence; with a concern for understanding both what and why; and as a model of honesty, integrity, and openness.

The Teacher Educator's Role in Enhancing Teacher Quality

Liston, D., Borko, H., Whitcomb, J. — 2008-02-25

Creating Social Relationships: The Role of Technology in Preservice Teacher Preparation

Gomez, L. M., Sherin, M. G., Griesdorn, J., Finn, L.-E. — 2008-02-25

In this article, the authors explore how the pervasive availability of technology allows for new social arrangements in teacher education by connecting preservice teachers, school-based personnel, university faculty, and others in deep and engaging ways. The authors illustrate this perspective and then propose four implications for teacher education institutions that build on this view. Specifically, the authors recommend that technology be used in teacher education to (a) create technically literate education professionals, (b) strengthen the practice—theory connection, (c) provide more practice-centered training, and (d) reflect deeply into the scholarship and practice of teaching. The authors discuss each of the four implications in turn and provide examples of institutional practices aligned with these goals.

Effects of Teacher Induction on Beginning Teachers' Teaching: A Critical Review of the Literature

Jian Wang, , Odell, S. J., Schwille, S. A. — 2008-02-25

Drawing on literature since 1997, this review explores the effects of teacher induction on beginning teachers' conceptions and practice of teaching, and it identifies three approaches to understanding such effects, as found in the literature. The first approach addresses the assumed effects of teacher induction components on beginning teachers' teaching using theoretical assumptions as a base. The second approach analyzes the effects through teachers' self-reports. The third explores the effects of using multiple data sources. Although teacher induction affects beginning teachers' ideas about teaching, few studies capture its effects on teaching practice and student achievement. Thus, this review suggests directions for future research.

The Leadership Dimensions of Education Deans

Wepner, S. B., D'Onofrio, A., Wilhite, S. C. — 2008-02-25

Education deans in the United States describe their approach to solving leadership problems that were cast as organizational dilemmas. The deans who participated in the study had been education deans for at least 6 to 7 years, indicating that they had avoided the revolving door syndrome of 4.5 years in a single appointment. Deans described their problem solving in interviews that asked for a response to vignettes. The answers were analyzed using a conceptual model that was developed over a period of 7 years. The framework consisted of four dimensions of leadership: intellectual, emotional, social, and moral. All 14 deans used all four dimensions in responding to the vignettes yet relied on the intellectual dimension as the basis for employing the other three dimensions. Within each dimension, education deans used specific themes (e.g., defining problems) more frequently than other themes. Implications for the professional development of deans are explored.

A Content Analysis Exploring Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Topics in Foundations of Education Textbooks

Macgillivray, I. K., Jennings, T. — 2008-02-25

This research analyzed the most widely used foundations of education textbooks for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) content. Because foundations of education coursework routinely introduces other diversity topics in education, the authors hold it is a good place to introduce LGBT topics. The ways in which LGBT topics are included in textbooks, however, or placed in relation to other material, can reinforce negative stereotypes and marginalize LGBT people. The authors paid particular attention to the textbook's presentation of LGBT topics in the following categories: discrimination and harassment against LGBT people; LGBT identities and experiences; LGBT parents, guardians, and families; LGBT history; strategies, resources, and curricula to increase safety and support; legal issues and professional responsibilities; personal beliefs and opposition; and conceptual terms and frameworks.

Commonplace Intersections Within a High School Mathematics Leadership Institute

Sack, J. J. — 2008-02-25

This narrative inquiry weaves Schwab's commonplaces of curriculum and Clandinin, Pushor, and Murray Orr's narrative commonplaces through stories of conflict between a professional developer and 30 high school lead teachers. In her role as manager of a mathematics leadership institute situated between two urban public school districts and a partnering university in the mid-Southwestern United States, the inquirer describes how she and the professional developer learned how to deal with commonplace disconnections through reflective discourse around these experiences. The inquirer provides additional examples of deliberative enactment of curriculum through Schwab's commonplaces.

Why Teach?

Whitcomb, J. A., Borko, H., Liston, D. — 2008-01-08

Responding to Our Critics: From Crisis to Opportunity in Research on Teacher Education

Grossman, P. — 2008-01-08

This article uses Andrew Abbott's concept of jurisdictional challenge to analyze the current challenges facing university-based teacher educators. The author suggests that teacher educators are dangerously close to losing jurisdiction over two key professional tasks—the preparation of new professionals and the production of academic knowledge for the profession. The author then argues for the need for researchers in teacher education to respond to such jurisdictional challenges by focusing on pressing policy issues regarding the preparation of teachers and by strengthening the quality of research.

High-Stakes, Minimum-Competency Exams: How Competent Are They for Evaluating Teacher Competence?

Goodman, G., Arbona, C., Dominguez de Rameriz, R. — 2008-01-08

Increasingly, teacher educators recommend authentic, performance-related measures for evaluating teacher candidates. Nevertheless, more states are requiring teachers to pass high-stakes, minimum-competency exams. This study examined the relation between teacher candidate scores on authentic measures and their scores on certification exams required by the state of Texas. Participants included 155 teacher candidates. Predictor variables that served as authentic measures of teaching effectiveness included scores on the Professional Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ), designed to measure teaching dispositions, and scores on Teaching Performance Portfolios, designed to measure teaching knowledge and skills. Scores on the Professional Roles and Responsibilities (PPR) and the Generalist Elementary Comprehensive (GEC) exams served as the measures for the high-stakes, minimum-competency tests. Findings indicate a significant relationship between the PAQ and both the PPR and the GEC exams. No significant relationship was found between the Teaching Performance Portfolios and either one of the state-mandated tests.

"Things Get Glossed Over": Rearticulating the Silencing Power of Whiteness in Education

Haviland, V. S. — 2008-01-08

This article investigates the ways that White teachers approach issues of race, racism, and White supremacy in White-dominated educational settings. Drawing from data from a yearlong qualitative research study, the article uses discourse analysis, critical studies of Whiteness, and feminist theory to detail 15 rhetorical, behavioral, analytical, and interactional strategies that participants used to insulate themselves from implication in social inequality. The article demonstrates how participation in these strategies stymied attempts at transformative multicultural education and thus functioned to reproduce, rather than challenge, the status quo of educational and social inequality.

Investigating the Content and Sources of Teacher Candidates' Personal Practical Theories (PPTs)

Levin, B., Ye He, — 2008-01-08

Research on teachers' (personal) theories and beliefs and their (practical) knowledge derived from experience, whether held implicitly or stated explicitly as their personal practical theories (PPTs), indicates that such beliefs can influence teachers' classroom practices and, therefore, the opportunities that their students have for learning. This study uses a content analysis of 472 self-reported PPTs collected from 94 prospective teachers to develop a model of categories of beliefs, and describes the relationship between the content and sources of teacher candidates' beliefs, expressed as PPTs. The purpose of this study is to help teacher educators better understand beliefs that teacher candidates bring to their teacher education program as we try to influence their knowledge and practices.

The Effects of Hands-On Experience On Students' Preferences for Assessment Methods

Struyven, K., Dochy, F., Janssens, S. — 2008-01-08

This study investigates the effects of student teachers' hands-on experience with evaluation on their preferences for assessment methods. A course on child development within the 1st year of the elementary teacher education program provides the quasi-experimental learning/teaching setting. Five research conditions are linked to four assessment modes, namely, portfolio, case-based, peer assessment, and multiple-choice evaluations. Data collection was obtained by questionnaires, adopting a longitudinal design that involves three moments of measurement. Results show initially negative responses to unknown assessment methods. As familiarity with the assessment tool grew, student teachers' preferences changed positively. Although the extent differs, every assessment method benefited significantly from the teacher candidates' experience with the format during the course. Moreover, student teachers' perceptions of the appropriateness of the assessment method for evaluation purposes are congruent with their preferences. Consequently, to change student teachers' preferences for unknown assessment methods, hands-on experiences are fundamental and need to be positive. Results are particularly encouraging for teacher education instructors who use a variety of assessment modes.

The Mysteries of Creative Partnerships

Wolf, S. A. — 2008-01-08

Since 2002, Creative Partnerships, based at the Arts Council of England, has been investing time, energy, and resources to bring artists and schools together. Their goal is to "animate the national curriculum and to enrich school life by making the best use of the United Kingdom's creative wealth." This article concentrates on the partnership between two primary teachers and two dramatic artists as they planned and produced a workshop based on an inventive children's picture book. The success of this professional development exchange hinged on (a) the strong focus on students' learning; (b) the adults' long-term commitment to the work; (c) the very different kinds of expertise the adults came to share; and (d) the adults' excitement and engagement with continual professional learning, which led to substantive language and learning opportunities for the children involved.

Apples and Fishes: The Debate Over Dispositions in Teacher Education

Borko, H., Liston, D., Whitcomb, J. A. — 2007-10-29

Dispositions and Teacher Assessment: The Need for a More Rigorous Definition

Damon, W. — 2007-10-29

This article discusses the use of dispositions as a basis for evaluating candidates for teaching credentials. It begins with the assumption that any evaluation process must rely on clearly defined constructs that cannot be interpreted in open-ended ways to suit the subjective biases of the evaluator. It then argues that present uses of the disposition construct in teacher education risk this kind of biased application. It makes the point that fairness in assessment procedures requires rigorous and unambiguous definitions of assessment standards by criteria drawn from science and other systematic areas of scholarship. A definition of disposition drawn from the behavioral sciences is offered, and principles for using dispositions as a standard in teacher assessment are offered.

Dispositions in Teacher Education: A Look At Social Justice

Villegas, A. M. — 2007-10-29

The use of a dispositional framework in the preparation of teachers, especially one that attends to issues of social justice, has generated considerable debate of late. In this article, the author argues that assessing teacher candidates' dispositions related to social justice is both reasonable and defensible. She explains why social justice matters in teacher education, provides a definition of the term dispositions and discusses why programs of teacher education must attend to them, and gives examples of practices used at one institution to assess teacher candidates' dispositions related to social justice to illustrate that such assessment can be done in a fair and principled manner. The author concludes that underlying the dispositions debate is an all-out war to define the goals of public education, the role of teachers, the nature of knowledge, and conceptions of learning, teaching, and learning to teach.

Disposition: A Superfluous Construct in Teacher Education

Murray, F. B. — 2007-10-29

Unlike the literature on some dispositions, like field dependence—independence, in psychology, the dispositions cited in the teacher education literature (e.g., INTASC) have almost no explanatory value and very little meaning at the present time. This conclusion stems from an analysis of the cited teacher dispositions in terms of Underwood's levels of meaning in the behavioral sciences and shows that these dispositional constructs are little more than labels for particular behaviors. Although the construct, disposition, in teacher education may be superfluous at the present time, it is not entirely useless as it may provide a guiding hypothesis for further investigations.

Looking Back and Moving Forward: Three Tensions in the Teacher Dispositions Discourse

Diez, M. E. — 2007-10-29

This review chronicles the origins of the use of the term "dispositions" in teacher education and highlights problems in its current definitions and applications, suggesting questions that need to be addressed in dealing with those problems and outlining necessary changes in teacher education programs to address development and assessment of the whole teacher.

Reclaiming the Moral in the Dispositions Debate

Burant, T. J., Chubbuck, S. M., Whipp, J. L. — 2007-10-29

This article addresses the current debates about the definition and assessment of dispositions in teacher education. Competing perspectives on the definitions and assessment of dispositions in teacher education are examined and critiqued, and a renewed commitment to foregrounding the moral nature of teaching is suggested. Recommendations for understanding and assessing the moral in teacher education, including the development of a code of ethics for the profession, are provided.

Book Reviews: Deliberating Over Dispositions Campano, Gerald. 2007. Immigrant Students and Literacy: Reading, Writing and Remembering. New York: Teachers College Press. 135 pp. $21.95 (soft cover); Edmundson, Mark. 2002. Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference. New York: Random House. 276 pp. $13.95 (soft cover); Johnston, Michael. 2002. In the Deep Heart's Core. New York: Grove Press. 240 pp. $13.00 (soft cover)

Richert, A. E. — 2007-10-29

Economic Analysis and the Design of Alternative-Route Teacher Education Programs

Chifeng Dai, , Sindelar, P. T., Denslow, D., Dewey, J., Rosenberg, M. S. — 2007-10-29

Few studies have addressed the effects of teacher education generally, no less the specific program elements necessary to prepare competent and caring teachers. As a result, to address teacher shortages in science, mathematics, and special education, alternatives to traditional preparation have been proposed, and their development has proceeded apace. In the absence of guidance from research, alternative program designs have dramatically varied, even on such fundamental considerations as program length and the amount of preparation trainees require before becoming teachers of record. However, research on teacher education is only one potential source of guidance for program design. In this article, the authors use economic research and theory to identify principles of effective design. Considerations include program location, candidate selection, program cost, financial support, program requirements, practice teaching, and mentorship. They use these principles to compare and contrast fast-track programs and programs for midcareer changers.

A Model for Preparing Special and General Education Preservice Teachers for Inclusive Education

Van Laarhoven, T. R., Munk, D. D., Lynch, K., Bosma, J., Rouse, J. — 2007-10-29

Project ACCEPT (Achieving Creative & Collaborative Educational Preservice Teams) represents an initiative at Northern Illinois University, where special and general education preservice teachers are joined in a voluntary project featuring an enhanced curriculum and field experiences in inclusive classrooms. Participants receive intensive preparation in use of assistive technologies, functional behavioral assessment, and instructional accommodations as well as experience designing lesson plans that include features of universal design. This article describes the specific features of the Project ACCEPT curriculum and outcomes for the first year of implementation.

Minority Students' Perceptions of Their Doctoral Programs in Special Education

Wasburn-Moses, L. — 2007-10-29

Education, as in other areas, has a chronic shortage of minority faculty. Arguably, special education has one of the greatest needs for minority doctoral students within the field of education. However, past research has indicated that the graduate school socialization process may hinder the progress of many minority doctoral students. This study reports the perceptions of minority doctoral students about their programs in special education. These students (n = 164) were participants in a larger satisfaction survey involving 619 doctoral students. Results indicate that although Latino/Latina students felt most satisfied with their programs overall, Asian and African American students reported more feelings of dissatisfaction. Implications for students, faculty, and program administrators are presented.