Education's Missing Ingredient by Young Victoria M.;

Author:Young, Victoria M.; [Young, Victoria M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Education
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Teachers Ready to Teach

Teacher and child are the leading characters in the educational drama. If the child is to play his part well, the teacher should be well prepared.

H. G. Good

Teaching became a profession during the middle 1800s. The criteria upon which it gained status as a profession were that the need for special preparation was recognized and developed. Thus, teachers became recognized professionals. “Professionals” are defined as “engaged in or worthy of the high standards of a profession” (Webster’s, 1976).

Having no formal training in the field of education, I don’t claim and won’t pretend to know what aspects and elements of the teaching process are included in teacher preparation. What can be claimed is that I have been through training for a profession; I too am labeled a professional. Before entering the profession of veterinary medicine, the expectations of the profession and the concept of “standards of practice” were made very clear and those same ideals reinforced repeatedly throughout the preparation process and through continuing education. A consistent message about maintaining a standard was upheld.

As any professional knows, maintaining high standards requires constant vigilance on an individual’s part to keep up with current information and practices. As a professional, it is that person’s responsibility to maintain high standards. That is what professionals do.

But it appears that what differs greatly between my profession and teaching is that in the veterinary medical profession across the country, we have a clearer, more consistent teaching curriculum that our universities follow in our instruction. The knowledge of the sciences, practices, and procedures that veterinarians receive is reliable. Our preparation and continuing education is based on what we need to know to practice the art and science of veterinary medicine successfully. Success depends on our guiding beliefs.

In the art and science of teaching, that does not appear to be the case. It has not been obvious what the prevailing educational philosophies are that we taught and are teaching to teachers, counselors, and administrators. If society hasn’t decided the prevailing direction of instruction, how can we possibly know what to teach our teachers? Experience points to the fact that, with such change and variation in methods, instruction, and emphasis of subjects (or lack thereof), it is difficult to know how colleges and universities are setting their aim on what to teach to teachers.

It must be clear that the words that follow are not meant to tell teachers how they should teach; the intention is to share some ideas. The public shouldn’t tell teachers how to teach. But, rather, through public discussions, the public’s views should be used to establish our guiding principles that drive teacher instruction.

Curriculum, in the case of the educators themselves, should not be left up to the preference of an individual or vary so wildly between states and institutions within the same state or from year to year. That is like leaving education up to luck. What to teach and how much emphasis to place on a subject should be decided based on the direction society needs its education system to go.

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