What is the best way to prepare teachers for the classroom? Classroom teachers face a challenge that many other professions do not face in that they must identify how students think, and then build upon that to create the "next steps in the learner's development" (Ball, Forzani,2009). The job of a general education teacher is very involved and the preparation required to ensure the teachers success needs to incorporate a lot of practice.
There are many factors that influence teacher preparation, i.e. policies, clinical experience, program design and modeling of best practices, to name a few. It is no wonder that teacher education is always at the center of discussion, this complex practice is "key to student learning" and teacher success. (Ball, Forzani, 2009; Darling-Hammond, 2009) Darling-Hammond (2009) states that teacher preparation can increase the likelihood of a teacher staying in the profession long enough to become more experienced and effective in their field. This is why there needs to be an alignment of teacher preparation programs. Whether a educator chooses the traditional or alternative route to certification, it must be a program that ensures that they are prepared to do the work required of them. So where does that leave us with special education teacher preparation? Sindelar, McCray, Brownell & Lignugaris/Kraft (2014) identifies the complexity of the role of special education teacher. These include the variations of student needs and the standards they are required to meet; the collaborative nature and isolation of the work; wide variation in student disability needs and how to meet those needs; and finally the role of student advocate. Knowing all of these roles are in addition to the role of general educator, how do we set our preservice special education teachers up for success? What role do we as educators need to fulfill to ensure the success of our future colleagues?
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AuthorMy name is Tracy and I am pursuing my doctorate at the University of South Florida. I also supervise teacher residents in the Urban Teacher Residency Program at USF. Archives
April 2015
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