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Teacher Preparation is near Impossible as Currently Conceived This Blog
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The path to teacher accountability & resultsjustifiable
tenure is obstructed by an error in logic that is not only Email
easily fixed but would greatly improve efficiency and
effectiveness in every classroom. Teacher certification Links
and staff development are seriously flawed. There is no
Free Market place in proven ideas, in some ways Recent Posts
Teacher Education is unregulated, a Mock Market
controlled by vested interests and locked in place What next SURVEY.
by industry blindness . It is more of a mishmash of Guided Reading Procedure*
competing whims and crystallized but untested Enabling Questions for SelfDirected
practices with no continuity, critical review or coherence
across the profession. The Informal ReadingThinking
Help with Reading Mathematics:
I wonder, on these grounds, whether you might help
me find professionals, ideally yourselves, that are Popular Topics
interested in collaboration on what has become a
Herculean, but potentially very low cost, and Teacher Preparation is n...
fundamentally simple (Freakonomicslike) solution. It is an effort to more scientifically identify Generative Teaching of...
what should be the core curriculum of every teacher education program, but has somehow not
Professional Teacher Educat...
ever been aggregated, namely, our Best Pedagogical Practices. Doing so would lift the entire
profession since there is no other respected profession that has not done this in some shape or Guided Reading Procedu...
manner. It could be argued that the absence of preparation in a core curriculum makes The Informal ReadingThink...
teacher education impossible, and therefore, evaluation of teacher effectiveness based
on student outcomes illogical, if not irrational. Currently there is absolutely no agreed upon
congruency of principles and practices from one professor to another, let alone from one School Tags
of Education or School District to another. There also is no such thing as a Graduate accountability Best Practices
Leadership program that even requires further study in Instructional Leadership.We desperately
need something resembling algorithms, empirical studies and ongoing case/field reports Educational Reform Generative teaching
of Best Practices, including possible glitches. Ironically, there has been pretty remarkable, learning great teaching Leadership Learned Societies Less
The development of some brainaids such as algorithms to help identify the most probable Best Preparation
Practices would be a giant step toward invisible guiderails. Checklists, for example, alone
would better guide the identification of best Instructional options for a given situation. Of course,
professional human judgment should always be able to supersede the decisions made by an Syndication
algorithm, even though such formulas represents much of the wisdom accumulated around a RSS 2.0
specific instructional choice. The fundamental value of checklists and algorithms is that they
most likely will improve studentlearning outcomes near irrespective of teacher skill and our Atom 1.0
otherwise human instincts that can be seriously wrong when placed alongside empirically, and
coolly established judgments. Formulas or equations are not teacherproof, but they would
reduce a class of decision and knowledge errors that currently have too great apart in trendy,
spinteaching. These constraints might appear to be less than professional, but they are in fact Archives
nextgeneration professionalism. For example it is now widely acknowledged that pilots make
many fewer errors when they follow the industry wide constructed checkoff lists before, during August 2010 (1)
and after takeoff. Similarly, life threatening errors have been reduced by a considerable degree July 2010 (1)
when surgeons and support staff have carefully followed checkoff lists before, during and
June 2010 (6)
following surgery; the more error prone surgeons have been made less so, and the more skilled
even more so. Ideally, and most likely, as teachers are guided to better instructional decisions, May 2010 (3)
overall decisionmaking, and strategic thinking are also likely to follow. Doing better is self March 2010 (1)
reinforcing. There are some instructional methods that actually have been designed to
accelerate such teacher awakenings, they contain an element called heuristic properties , or February 2010 (2)
enactments that tend to increase discovery of better and more effective teaching.
All stakeholders can now be more easily involved in identifying Best Practices, and in an
ongoing process to provide fieldbased guidance of where these choices falter and/or simply
need a bit of tweaking. The effort would take place on the web where all could see and
participate, and to that extent would be visible exercise in science and participatory democracy.
As science it would be instructive of analogous issues since it would not be supportive of
radical decision making driven by competition ideologies, but rather more by incremental, and
yet sharp changes from the power politics that we all tire of; it would be a model of 21st Century
democratic process that inherently calls for the union of expertise and the wisdom of crowds.
The visibility of the process could be very instructive of how tough decisions can be made in the
larger body politic.
To put a philosophical floor under this action, it leans toward being more Hamiltonian than
Jeffersonian. Hamilton believed in using government in limited but energetic ways to advance
general knowledge and practices. He also had a pretty practical view of Education, he believed
that when done right it was the best, and most sustainable path toward increased social
mobility, or raising all ships. Most importantly, he was a great advocate of individualism, a
cornerstone of American culture. On that basis, teachers, in my view should be given great
freedom in constructing what amounts to (their own) My Best Practices . This option is builtin to
the TORIC algorithm ahead that involves and invites teacher input all along the way, and actively
encourages teachers to be responsible for their Choices; Only then, with fuller knowledge of
instructional options, can they reasonably be held responsible for student outcomes. Merit pay
then becomes justified, as do master teachers who are mentors, and most importantly of all,
kids will no longer being saying " s/he doesn't teach us anything we just do such and such."
The most overlooked problem in education is not bad teaching it is too little teaching, especially
in schools with the least fortunate of students.
http://bestmethodsofinstruction.com/
Should work toward such an algorithm and finetuning system interest you please look in on my
early attempt to jumpstart such an effort. It would be a very worthy project for the Center. It
exceeds my current capacity. See at: http://bestmethodsofinstruction.com/. HELP.
Respectfully,
Anthony V. Manzo Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, University of MissouriKC, & Director of The Center for the Study of Higher
Literacy, Governor, Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program;(ret.)California State UniversityFullerton
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Published Tuesday, February 16, 2010 4:08 PM by LiteracyMan
Filed under: Best Practices, Educational Reform, Teacher Preparation, Leadership, accountability, Less fortunate
Comments
James OReilly said:
The New Quality Standard ISO/EIC 197963:2009 for ELearning:
Enabling Global Quality Development
http://adultlearning.ning.com/profiles/blogs/thenewqualitystandard
February 17, 2010 3:44 PM
James OReilly said:
People Capability Maturity Model
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Capability_Maturity_Model
February 17, 2010 3:47 PM
James OReilly said:
More PCMM
http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/tools/peoplecmm/
February 17, 2010 3:54 PM
James OReilly said:
EU Policy for Adult Learning
http://adultlearning.ning.com/group/eupolicyforadultlearning
February 18, 2010 6:17 PM
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About LiteracyMan
Cognitive Psychologist/Literacy Specialist
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