BellaOnline Forums Education School Reform How much training do teachers need?

Critics of Teach for America are outraged that participants are placed in teaching positions with only five weeks of teacher training. Compared to the training that prospective doctors must undergo, four-year teacher training programs should spark the same sense of outrage.

What do you think? Do you think that 20-year-old college graduates are sufficiently experienced and mature to be put in total charge of a public school classroom?

How much training do teachers need?

My "practice teaching" for my Bachelor's degree was 10 weeks long. The first month was observing, then I took over one subject at a time until I was teaching all subjects. For the last several weeks, my cooperating teacher was out of the classroom. It still wasn't enough.

As I got my Master's degree, I had 3 different practicum experiences. I actually taught summer school for 6 weeks during each of two summer school sessions. I also had a semester-long, work-based, supervised practicum. These were done after I had been teaching for about 10 years. They were useful.

Emporia State University does their practice teaching for a full year. Student teachers open the classroom at the beginning of the year, and they close it at the end. They take on more responsibility as the year goes on. This is the way that teachers should be prepared.

Maeve, even with preparation, it takes several years to become a truly effective teacher. The first year is spent making "new teacher mistakes." We all do this. We learn from these mistakes. The next year, we take our hard-won learning, and put it to work. The third year, most of us can teach, manage a classroom, get the paperwork done, be a social worker, etc.

To be a teacher, in addition to knowing your subject material, you need to make a lot of decisions on-the-fly. You must multi-task like crazy. Knowledge of student's lives, ways of learning, preferences, best-practices of teaching, and developmental theory must be embedded in your psyche. It takes time for this to happen.

True, Connie. My master teacher had told me the same thing: It takes time to develop.

I wish I was more patient with myself in the beginning. I might have stayed in teaching! I honestly felt that I couldn't keep up with all the demands (with what was going on at home medically speaking). My sister who has been teaching for over 30 years just made it look so darned easy.

You sound like a highly effective educator, Connie.

Connie,
You had a better practice teaching experience than I had.

Connie and Lori,
I think that regardless of the quality of one's training, any job involves a period of development before the practitioner gets the hang of things.

Emporia State seems to have the right idea. Generally speaking, I feel that most departments of education do an inadequate job of preparing teachers.

I also feel that teachers are overloaded with responsibilities, many of which could/should be handled by support staff.