Initial Teacher Education is Important

Jane Gaskell, Guest Commentator for the Educational Policy Institute

There is a good deal of evidence that teacher effectiveness is a strong determinant of student achievement (Darling Hammond, 1999; National Academy of Education, 2009).  And teachers can learn to be effective; the learning takes place before they are certified to enter the classroom and as they progress through a career of teaching.  Since teachers have full responsibility for a class of students or a set of courses as soon as they are hired, continuing to learn on the job, while important, cannot substitute for ensuring all teachers are well prepared in the basic elements of teaching and learning when they first enter the classroom.  Teacher education is a continuum, and needs to be considered as a whole rather than an either/or proposition.

So strong, relevant initial teacher education is a pivotal element in a well functioning educational system.  It screens, it prepares, and it provides tools and networks that last through a career.  My colleague Ben Levin’s provocative dismissal of the importance of initial teacher education reflects some long – standing prejudices, but little awareness of current research and debate.

Levin’s argument that teacher education has a low impact because new teachers do not change older teachers ignores the fact that the purpose of teacher education is not to transform the system; it is to ensure that all teachers are well prepared to educate children. The issue is not whether teacher education can change the system; the question is whether it can build the capacity for teachers to improve their instruction. 

His argument that it is hard to change teacher education because universities are autonomous institutions suggests the only source of change is the government.  But universities are centres of critique and innovation, and their engagements with school districts in partnerships around teacher education become a crucible for thoughtful, reflective improvement in teaching.

The job of teaching is getting more difficult, as we learn more about what effective instruction should look like, as the educational expectations of parents and employers increase, and as the students in our classrooms become more diverse culturally, more likely to have identified special needs and more often speak languages other than English and French at home.

Prominent researchers, policy analysts and educators have been examining teacher education for thirty years. Arne Duncan, Obama’s new secretary of education in the U.S., has been making improvements to teacher education a high priority.  We have learned a lot about how to do it right (Cochran-Smith and Zeichner, 2005).   But it is rare that the resources required for good ITE are available.  Ontario provides the least initial teacher education of any province in Canada, and Ontario teachers feel less prepared than teachers in other parts of the country (Crocker and Dibbon, 2008).  The Royal Commission on Ontario Education recommended a two year teacher education program in 1994.  After extensive consultation around the province in 2006, The Ontario College of Teachers, in Preparing Teachers for Tomorrow, recommended a longer initial teacher education program, with a requirement for special education, more practicum experience, and more attention to the Ontario context, including cultural and linguistic diversity. As yet there has been no change, and the labour mobility agreement that comes into effect next year will ensure that Ontario’s lower standards become acceptable across the country.

An intervention that has an impact on all new teachers is an important and significant intervention.  Without it, Ontario’s bid to increase student achievement and engagement will founder. 

Cochran-Smith M. and Zeichner K.  2005 Studying Teacher Education: The Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education. Washington, D.C: The American Educational Research Association

Crocker R, and Dibbon D. 2008 Teacher Education in Canada. Kelowna: Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education

Darling-Hammond, L 1999 Teacher quality and student achievement: A review of state policy evidence. Seattle: University of Washington. Centre for the Study of Teaching and Policy: A National Research Consortium

National Academy of Education. 2009. Teacher Quality. An Education Policy White Paper. Washington, D.C.