Preparing America's Teachers.

Overview & Synopsis

This book provides an overview of the modal curriculum in teacher education, summarizing 29 teacher education reform proposals and examining six instructional approaches to teacher education. Chapter 1 describes the modal teacher preparation curriculum (general studies, content studies, professional education, integrative studies, and guidelines for improving the curriculum). Chapter 2 summarizes the 29 reform proposals, which include a Harvard President's curriculum, Teacher Corps, teacher effectiveness research, school-based teacher education, promoting cultural pluralism, teaching as artistry, the teacher as actor, performance/competency-based teacher education, reflective teaching and simulation, schools of pedagogy, the Paideia proposal, readying the beginning teacher, the Carnegie Foundation's proposal, the Holmes Group, the 21st Century report, Teach for America, the Network for Educational Renewal, and the Teacher Testing Movement. Chapter 3 describes the six promising approaches to teacher education, which are: case studies, microteaching, minicourses, protocol materials, reflective teaching, and simulations. Chapter 4 summarizes issues related to the reform of teacher education. (Chapters contain references.) (SM)