This article examines a variety of work currently going on across the country in newly created hybrid spaces to more closely connect campus courses and field experiences in university-based preservice teacher education. It is argued that the old paradigm of university-based teacher education where academic knowledge is viewed as the authoritative source of knowledge about teaching needs to change to one where there is a nonhierarchical interplay between academic, practitioner, and community expertise. It is argued that this new epistemology for teacher education will create expanded learning opportunities for prospective teachers that will better prepare them to be successful in enacting complex teaching practices.

/pdf/rethinking-the-connections-between-campus-courses-and-field-4zqdj5qfzz.pdf

Rethinking the Connections between Campus Courses and Field Experiences in College- and University-Based Teacher Education

In both the United States and Europe, concerns have been raised about whether preservice and in-service training succeeds in equipping teachers with the professional knowledge they need to deliver consistently high-quality instruction. This article investigates the significance of teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge for high-quality instruction and student progress in secondary-level mathematics. It reports findings from a 1-year study conducted in Germany with a representative sample of Grade 10 classes and their mathematics teachers. Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge was theoretically and empirically distinguishable from their content knowledge. Multilevel structural equation models revealed a substantial positive effect of pedagogical content knowledge on students’ learning gains that was mediated by the provision of cognitive activation and individual learning support.

/pdf/teachers-mathematical-knowledge-cognitive-activation-in-the-1v901gq8my.pdf

Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge, Cognitive Activation in the Classroom, and Student Progress:

Stichwort : Professionelle Kompetenz von Lehrkräften

There are fierce debates over the best way to prepare teachers. Some argue that easing entry into teaching is necessary to attract strong candidates, while others argue that investing in high quality teacher preparation is the most promising approach. Most agree, however, that we lack a strong research basis for understanding how to prepare teachers. This paper is one of the first to estimate the effects of features of teachers' preparation on teachers' value-added to student test score performance in math and English Language Arts. Our results indicate variation across preparation programs in the average effectiveness of the teachers they are supplying to New York City schools. In particular, preparation directly linked to practice appears to benefit teachers in their first year.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/nber_w14314.pdf?abstractid=1264576&mirid=1&type=2

Teacher Preparation and Student Achievement

There are fierce debates over the best way to prepare teachers. Some argue that easing entry into teaching is necessary to attract strong candidates, whereas others argue that investing in high quality teacher preparation is the most promising approach. Most agree, however, that we lack a strong research basis for understanding how to prepare teachers. This article is one of the first to estimate the effects of features of teachers’ preparation on teachers’ value added to student test score performance. Our results indicate variation across preparation programs in the average effectiveness of the teachers they are supplying to New York City schools. In particular, preparation directly linked to practice appears to benefit teachers in their 1st year.

/pdf/teacher-preparation-and-student-achievement-3tu22yt5j0.pdf

/pdf/preparing-teachers-for-a-changing-world-4rbrv2vupo.pdf

John Bransford

Papers

Preparing teachers for a changing world