Based on its findings and conclusions, CSMTP proposes a new level of partnership between K-12 schools and the higher education community that is designed to ensure high-quality teacher education. This teacher education model would stress and foster greater integration of the initial preparation of teachers and the professional education of teachers throughout their careers. Each college or university with a program designed to prepare college students for teacher certification and the teaching profession would enter into long-term partnerships with one or more school districts. The goal of these partnerships would be sharing the responsibilities of educating future teachers and providing ongoing professional development opportunities for the teachers in the participating K-12 schools.
In these new partnerships, master/ mentor teachers in partner school districts would have adjunct appointments with the schools of education or the departments of science, mathematics, or engineering within the partner colleges or universities. These teachers would take on a significant role in the mentoring of future teachers during their practicum experiences. In turn, colleges and universities would assume a greater responsibility for providing professional development opportunities for teachers who teach in the partner school districts.
This arrangement would be a partnership in the truest sense, as college faculty and K-12 teachers would work together on a continuous basis to improve the teacher education process and to determine the on-going professional development needs of the teacher workforce in the partner school districts. At the collegiate level, the partnership would include active involvement by both education faculty and faculty from departments of science, mathematics, and engineering. Similarly, wherever it is the case that future teachers obtain a significant part of their education at community colleges, the partnership should involve both two-and four-year colleges.
ARTICULATION OF THE VISION
As a result of nearly two years of study and deliberation, the CSMTP proposes the following six Guiding Principles, which together constitute a new vision for improving teacher education in science, mathematics, and technology:
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The improvement of teacher education and teaching in science, mathematics, and technology should be viewed as a top national priority.
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Teacher education in science, mathematics, and technology must become a career-long process. High-quality professional development programs that include intellectual growth as well as the upgrading of teachers’ knowledge and skills must be expected and essential features in the careers of all teachers.
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Through changes in the rewards for, incentives for, and expectations of teachers, teaching as a profession must be upgraded in status and stature to the level of other professions.
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Both individually and collectively, two- and four-year colleges and universities must assume greater responsibility and be held more accountable for improving teacher education.
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Neither the higher education nor the K-12 communities can successfully improve teacher education as effectively in isolation as they can by working closely together. Collective, fully integrated efforts among school staff and administrators in individual schools and districts, teacher unions, faculty and administrators in institutions of higher education, policymakers from local colleges and universities, and parents are essential for addressing these issues.
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Many more scientists, mathematicians, and engineers must become well informed enough to be involved with local and national efforts to provide the appropriate content knowledge and pedagogy of their disciplines to current and future teachers.
Adhering to these Guiding Principles will not be straightforward, easily accomplished, or inexpensive. To do so will require fundamental rethinking and restructuring of the relationships between the K-12 and higher education communities in SME&T, including financial relationships. It also will require fundamental revamping of teaching as a profession.
Source: http://books.nap.edu/
