Personalised Teacher Education

In one of the more recent postings in the ASCD daily briefing on education, there was a report on a new wave of teacher education programs seeking to personalize training.  It suggests that some groups are hoping to remake teacher training using online courses. videos and hybrid models.  When you stop to think about it, the suggestion is nothing more than applying to teacher education what we are trying to do in school classrooms in every jurisdiction.   We teach pre-service teachers that individualized instruction is the key to learning, that every learner is different, and that only multiple approaches to learning will yield over-all positive results for students.  So why should it be any different with teachers. Every one of our teacher candidates comes from a completely different place when they begin their first day.  They vary in age, experience, gender, ethnic background, birth order, interests, native ability, and so forth.  Yet, we put them into a classroom and try to teach them all the same way.  No wonder they find it so difficult to differentiate instruction when they get into their field placements and beyond.  But the drawback to this idea is how to guarantee that all new  teachers possess the same kit bag of abilities and skills? I would say that this is an idea that has come but at the same time that we are working towards raising the standards of graduating teachers.  How do we certify teachers of they are all learning different things and how do we facilitate placements in classrooms to practice their developing craft when we cannot identify for each what they can or cannot do.  I think there is huge merit to the concept of apprentice assuming that the mentors understand and can help coach and coax growth without knowing the fundamentals that the students bring to their classrooms. I can see the merit in this idea but so much would have to change a long with this that one wonders the practicality of even talking about it.   

Harnessing Technology to Help in Teacher Education

Yesterday, I wrote about the idea of individualized teacher education and  the problems with its coming up against standards of assessment that lead to certification.  This morning, by coincidence, I read through a book on how administrators and school leaders can harness technology for the engagement and achievement of their learners.  The thought occurred to me that in our programs of Teacher Education and in standards being applied to programs of teacher education, we are increasingly singing the song of differentiation. We know all too well that the secret to learning is targeting learning to the needs and abilities of the students.  So, logically, as I thought about what I was reading, I realized that no two adults come to us from the same place to becoe teachers. The literature reinforces that teacher professional growth is very different for each educator and that the journey from novice to expert varies from one learner to the next.  That being said, the book I am referring to talked about using technology to individualize classroom learning and we need now, I am arguing, to think of that same classroom learning as applying to teacher education classrooms as well.  Implied in all of this is maximizing the use of technology to enable different students to take different tracks as they take their journey to being certified. This might include online learning, social networking messaging, video teleconferencing, YouTube postings, discussion threads and so forth. Once we abandon the idea of a fixed classroom of large groups of students analyzing the same information, anything is possible.  So classroom individualized learning then extends to professional classrooms as well.  Now that I think of it, how is this different from visiting some student teachers in classrooms multiple times and others only once in a session.  The key to all of this is that all stakeholders have to be on the same page and agree in advance to the goals and the descriptors of the journey.  Now there is the rub.

Student Teacher Perfectionism

Today's ASCD SmartBrief had an item suggested that a recent study found that perfectionism, which they define as creating high goals and standards, might help students while in school, but work to their detriment when in the work place. I had a very strong reaction to this work because it defines students as being in elementary or secondary school. My experience, working with student teachers, so called pre-service candidates, is quite the opposite. I far too often came up against students who were almost paralyzed when out  practice teaching in the field precisely because they were far too often too cautious or too shy or too afraid that they would make a mistake. I found myself time and time again reminding them that no one ought to be judging them as if they should have had all the skills mastered before they went out.  They are going into classrooms precisely because they are novices and need to hone their craft.  But far too often, I have to spend so much time boosting confidence, reminding them of this, reassuring them that they are being allowed to fail but with a safety net to catch them. Most of the time they eventually are okay but we lose far too many good student teachers precisely because of mental  health issues. A part of  me feels that we ought to be weeding out those who cannot cut the pressure in the classroom from planning and delivering lessons and dealing with  young students and their issues.  Spending money to prepare them properly and having them spend money on drugs and therapy because they are trying to cope is not necessarily the right answer.  The research however does highlight one important variable - the need to be perfect and reminds us that we are not just teachers but counsellors as well.  We cannot pretend that that role can be eliminated.  Good mental health is key to successful teaching and learning for sure. 

  

Teacher Shortages

 ASCD briefs this morning reported on the fact that there is a growing shortage of teachers in some school districts. Little was mentioned in terms of location. They pointed out that it was a repost from the AP news service and that the cited reason was lack of appropriate salary.   I doubt that that is the true story in most cases. I was struck often by the fact that so many of my students, potential teachers hoping to get a job, indicated that they were already married and had a family and a home in Toronto or they were engaged and their partners had jobs in downtown Toronto or their family was in Toronto and they had personal care issues to deal with.  There were therefore major issues aside from salary that would mean they could not travel to where the jobs are.  That is such a huge problem.   I used to tell all the candidates as they came to the end of their program that they had to think out-of-the-box and try and create a job for themselves by applying to museums or art galleries or looking for tutoring jobs with sports organizations or trying to find work overseas.   There was a  time when kids went to school and had no expectations of where they were going to work. They had hopes, for sure, but they knew they would have to go to where the jobs were. Not any more.  Today, the kids often expect the jobs to be there for them and if they aren't there, then it is the fault of the market or society or whatever.  I believe it is part of their dispositions to teach that they have to have the initiative to go looking for a job and not with any preconceived notions of where or what. If you are hungry enough, you will go looking. At the very least, don't go into teaching with preconceived notions of where the jobs will be found, because they won't be where you need them to be.  That's for sure.

Lifelong Learning / Lifelong Professional Growth

 bad teachers in our programs.  It is a truism that some people were born to teach. I know that I have been told repeatedly that I am a born teacher. I sense it in myself sometimes, as well. But I think that is because I have the right dispositions in place that make good teaching easier to master.  Research repeatedly tries to get at what are the hallmarks of a good teacher, what are the dispositions that are effective. This week, on the Lilly Foundation website, Scott Gaier, an Associate Professor at Taylor University, suggested three dispositions which he thinks makes the difference and which can be taught and therefore learned.   These are active engagement with learning, a curiosity about the world around then and the ability to learn from failure.  He suggests that these three qualities make up what he refers to as the Mindset to Learning and, while there are many ways of cutting this or approaching this concept, there are as good as any to try and pass on to our students. They need to understand that to promote deep learning, they have to allow their students to get dirty sometimes and engage in hands' on learning. They have to understand that THEY need to be curious, want to engage in action research, want to be willing to try new things and they need to NOT be afraid to fail.  I know I have constantly told my students to be reflective....why did something work and why did something not work. We all make mistakes but the secret is to learn from our mistakes and be able to grow as a result. There are many ways to approach this idea of dispositions but the most important  thing is to remember that we CAN learn or teach ourselves to be better prepared to teach and help our students learn.

Sharing Memories

  

Last week, ASCD had an item in its briefs online alluding to the importance of remembering and carrying forward the lessons of various experiences to success as a leader.  As I am typing this, I am realizing that this is just another way of saying that reflection is important, but I think it is more than that in this case.  Obviously, you have to do as the sign says at the bottom of this posting if you  yourself are going to benefit from experience.  However, I think what always contributed to my success as a teacher educator was that I shared my experiences and the learning that came from that with my students. They always were so appreciative when I told them what had happened to me and how I had handled what had happened to me and the lessons I had learned from those experiences.  I guess another way of saying that is to pay it forward.   I strongly believe that one of my roles in my work with Leadership Niagara will be to share my own experiences in things that i have done and what has worked and what hasn't and how to make it work for others.  It is not enough for us to learn from our mistakes or remember our successes, true leadership has to include sharing that learning and that reflection so that we can inspire others to follow in our footsteps. I know how often one of my friends or colleagues will say that to me.  I inspire them and I can see why now a bit better. By helping them over the obstacles or showing them the way to success, I make it easier for them to feel the same success I have felt or reflect on their errors and misses so that they don't lose hope of making it eventually.  The secret is not to be afraid to open ourselves up to others and show them success and failure, in your self.