Voices in Education: Traditional or Alternative Teacher Education

Y

5

Advisory Committees; College Programs; Beginning Teachers; Teaching Methods; Alternative Teacher Certification; Conventional Instruction; Training Methods; Training Objectives; Teacher Education Programs; Program Attitudes; Best Practices; Intermode Differences

10.1080/08878730.2011.583191

0887-8730

The goal is to provide highly qualified teachers to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse pool of students. The question is how to do that. Although there have been a number of variations in the path to a career in teaching, only a few paths typically exist at any point in time. The traditional route finds high school graduates attending four years of college to acquire a bachelor's degree that requires varying numbers of teaching methods and content courses with a student teaching capstone experience. Alternative approaches usually take students with a bachelor's degree in some other area and provide them with teacher education training lasting from only a few weeks to a couple of years. Sometimes a master's degree is included as part of both traditional and alternative approaches. There are strengths and weaknesses to any approach. Some think that traditional college students lack maturity and content knowledge; others believe that alternative programs shortcut needed training in pedagogy, child development, and learning. This article presents the perspectives of the Editorial Advisory Board on the following question: "What do you perceive to be the best context for educating and preparing beginning teachers (traditional college programs, alternative programs, or something else) and why?"

ERIC

2011

EJ932602