Reconstructing Teacher Education For 21st-Century

Abstract Much of what teachers need to know to be successful is invisible to lay observers, leading to the view that teaching requires little formal study and to frequent disdain for teacher education programs. The weaknesses of traditional program models that are collections of largely unrelated courses reinforce this low regard. This article argues that we have learned a great deal about how to create stronger, more effective teacher education programs. Three critical components of such programs include tight coherence and integration among courses and between course work and clinical work in schools, extensive and intensely supervised clinical work integrated with course work using pedagogies that link theory and practice, and closer, proactive relationships with schools that serve diverse learners effectively and develop and model good teaching. The 21st Century We have no idea of what the world will look in next five years. Yet we are preparing our students for the world. Our students are facing many emerging issues such as global warming, famine, poverty, health issues, a global population explosion and other environmental and social issues. These issues lead to a need for students to be able to communicate, function and create change personally, socially, economically and politically on local, national and global levels. Emerging technologies and resulting globalization also provide unlimited possibilities for exciting new discoveries and developments such as new forms of energy, medical advances, and restoration of environmentally ravaged areas, communications, and exploration into space and into the depths of the oceans. The possibilities are unlimited.

The Purpose of Education We must realize, and our students must understand, that we cannot move toward a vision of the future until we understand the socio-historical context of where we are now. Where are we? What is 21st Century Education? Technically it is the 21st century, but our schools are not there, and our challenge now is to reinvent schools for the 21st century - for the sake of our children, our students and the welfare of our world. Making such a paradigm shift is not easy. After all, when any of us thinks of education, we usually think of what we knew as school - the way it has always been. That is how parents, policy makers, politicians and many students think of school. But we have to make the paradigm shift to 21st century education. So what is 21st century education? It is bold. It breaks the mold. It is flexible, creative, challenging, and complex. It addresses a rapidly changing world filled with fantastic new problems as well as exciting new possibilities Knowledge for Teaching: The What of Teacher Education The National Academy of Education Committee on Teacher Education adopted a framework that is organized on three intersecting areas of knowledge found standards for teaching (see Figure): 1 .knowledge of learners includes how they learn and develop development of social contexts knowledge of language

2 .understanding of curriculum includes demand of students subject matter and skills to be taught social purpose of education

3. understanding of skills for teaching, including

content pedagogical knowledge understanding of assessment Construct and manage a productive classroom.

Implications of this framework for teacher education are several: First, like the work of other professions, teaching is in the service of students, which creates the expectation that teachers will be able to come to understand how students learn and what are the needs of students so that they learn more effectively and that they will incorporate this into their teaching and curriculum construction. Twenty-first century curriculum has certain critical attributes. It is interdisciplinary, project-based, and research-driven. It is connected to the community local, state, national and global. Sometimes students are collaborating with people around the world in various projects. The curriculum incorporates higher order thinking skills, multiple intelligences, technology and multimedia of the 21st century, and authentic assessments. Service learning is an important component. The curriculum and instruction are designed to challenge all students, and provides for differentiation. The curriculum is not textbook-driven or fragmented, but is thematic, project-based and integrated. Skills and content are not taught as an end in themselves, but students learn them through their research and application in their projects. Textbooks, if they have them, are just one of many resources. Knowledge is not memorization of facts and figures, but is constructed through research and application, and connected to previous knowledge, personal experience, interests, talents and passions. The skills and content become relevant and needed as students require this information to complete their projects. The content and basic skills are applied within the context of the curriculum, and are not ends in themselves.

Students use the technological and multimedia tools now available to them to design and produce web sites, television shows, radio shows, public service announcements, mini-documentaries, how-to DVDs, oral histories, and even films.. Students find their voices as they create projects using multimedia and deliver these products to real-world audiences, realizing that they can make a difference and change the world. They learn what it is to be a contributing citizen, and carry these citizenship skills forward throughout their lives.

FIGURE 1: A Framework for Understanding Teaching and Learning SOURCE: Darling-Hammond & Bransford (2005, p. 11). These expectations for teacher knowledge mean that programs need not only to provide teachers to access more knowledge, considered more deeply, but also to

help teachers learn how to continually access knowledge and inquire into their work. The skills of classroom inquiry include careful observation and reasoned analysis, as well as dispositions toward an open and searching mind and a sense of responsibility and commitment to childrens learning (Zeichner&Liston, 1996). Preparing teachers as classroom researchers and expert collaborators who can learn from one another is essential when the range of knowledge for teaching has grown so expansive that it cannot be mastered by any individual and when students infinitely diverse ways of learning are recognized as requiring continual adaptations in teaching. Program Designs and Pedagogies: The How of Teacher Education For The 21st Century From primary role as a dispenser of information to orchestrator of learning and helping students turn information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom. The 21st century will require knowledge generation, not just information delivery, and schools will need to create a culture of inquiry. A study examining seven exemplary teacher education programspublic and private, undergraduate and graduate, large and smallthat produce graduates who are extraordinarily well prepared from their first days in the classroom finds that despite outward differences, the programs had common features, including:

a common, clear vision of good teaching that permeates all course work and clinical experiences, creating a coherent set of learning experiences. .well-defined standards of professional practice and performance that are used to guide and evaluate course work and clinical work. .a strong core curriculum taught in the context of practice and grounded in knowledge of child and adolescent development and learning, an understanding of social and cultural contexts, curriculum, assessment, and subject matter pedagogy.

.extended clinical experiencesat least 30 weeks of supervised practicum and student teaching opportunities in each programthat are carefully chosen to support the ideas presented in simultaneous, closely interwoven course work.

.extensive use of case methods, teacher research, performance assessments, and portfolio evaluation that apply learning to real problems of practice.

explicit strategies to help students to confront their own deep-seated beliefs and assumptions about learning and students and to learn about the experiences of people different from themselves.

.strong relationships, common knowledge, and shared beliefs among school- and university-based faculty jointly engaged in transforming teaching, schooling, and teacher education (Darling- Hammond, in press).

Although teacher education is only one component of what is needed to enable high-quality teaching, it is essential to the success of all the other reforms urged on schools. To advance knowledge about teaching, to spread good practice, and to enhance equity for children, thus, it is essential that teacher educators and policy makers seek strong preparation for teachers that is universally available, rather than a rare occurrence that is available only to a lucky few. References

1. Kellner, Douglas; New Media and New Literacies: Reconstructing

Education for the New Millennium

2. Grant, Jodi, Director of the After School Alliance; Fourteen Million Kids,
Unsupervised

3. McLeod, Scott, Dangerously Irrelevant 4. Belasco, James A., Teaching the Elephant to Dance, 1991 5. Wesch, Michael, Ph. D. See his works at Digital Ethnography. (separate
footnotes to be added for each web page and video cited)

6. Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford, J. (with LePage, P; Hammerness,

K.,&Duffy, H.). (2005).., Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

7. Zeichner,K. M.,&Liston, D.P. (1996). Reflective teaching: An introduction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.