Restructuring Teacher Education: Preparing for Diverse Populations.

Overview & Synopsis

A teacher education conceptual model, Teachers Reflecting, Engaging, and Collaborating (TREC), is presented that guides an innovative teacher education program's goals, processes, outcomes, and evaluation. The model, which presents the teacher as a reflective practitioner, is not an instructional sequence model, but rather a conceptual model that identifies the priorities which permeate the program and serve as a unifying structure for the three TREC components (reflecting, engaging, and collaborating). The program maximizes the integration of courses, field experiences, and supplemental knowledge and skills acquired through coursework and interaction with school district professionals for elementary, early childhood, and secondary undergraduate student teachers; it is based on five learning levels that include classroom and field learning. Level 1 is the foundations level; level 2 provides students with their first field experience. Levels 3 and 4 involve specialization in elementary and secondary learning, while level 5 is a 10-week, full-time student teaching experience. Each level also deals with multicultural, bilingual, and developmentally appropriate practices; special effort is made to recruit minority students into the program. (NAV)