"(13) There are important questions that remain to be answered

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the recommendations and future work and conclusions of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 1982 and 1986, spanning 2 journals. Those papers have been cited 99 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 3 representative gaps

• Field Experiences in Teacher Education: Considerations and Recommendations (1986) · Journal of Teacher Education · cited 50× · doi

  Eight recommendations are offered that, among other things, call for: consen- sus on the purposes of teaching experi- ences ; careful selection and matching of a variety of teaching experiences to meet the purposes; formative and sum- mative evaluation of teaching experi- ences ; use of both campus and field- based teaching experiences; quality rather than quantity in the field experi- ences themselves; personalizing and in- dividualizing teaching experiences; selection of field-based teacher educa- tors who are masterful and/or have the aptitude to develop students of teach- ing ; recognizing field-based teacher educators as such by making them ad- junct faculty; rewarding and enhancing the status of campus-based teacher edu- cators responsible for teaching experi- ences ; and large scale, sustained re- search on teaching experiences. No truly radical agenda was consid- ered nor intended here. An assumption is that over the decades we have learned something about teaching experiences and consequently have modified our practices. In most instances our judg- ment probably has been correct. In fewer instances, we likely have made judgmental errors. For example, the &dquo;more teaching practice is better&dquo; men- tality is probably an area of increasing vulnerability that nudges us backward toward an apprenticeship notion of learning to teach and denies the ac- cumulation of knowledge about the child, the curriculum, teaching, and learning. Overall our failures have not been derived from ignorance about what needs to be done. Rather our failure is our inability to obtain and/or organize the resources necessary to do the job, that is to produce teachers who are &dquo;stu- dents of teaching.&dquo;

  generalrecommendationsevidence 5/5
  Keywords: teaching experiences experi ences field based dquo teacher purposes selection campus rather teach instances probably
• Research on Preservice Teacher Education (1985) · Journal of Teacher Education · cited 41× · doi

  Educational research reflects ways of thinking about educational processes and goals. In this paper, the proposed future research reflects the concept that preservice teacher education should pre- pare teachers for their beginning years of teaching and in the thought processes that allow experienced effective teachers to inquire, experiment, and improve. This list of research topics is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to reflect priorities in each of the categories. Teachers: Two areas seem of priority. The first would be an examination of the beliefs and thought processes of effective teachers who inquire, experi- ment, and improve. The hypothesized reason that skills acquired during col- lege pedagogical education do not con- sistently appear to transfer to field experience is that the ecology of the classroom and school situation affect the behavior of the participants. Further, we know that different teaching behaviors are effective depending upon the context of the classroom (Koehler, 1979). A teacher who inquires, experi- ments, and improves may also be one who is able to adjust his/her classroom approach depending upon the context. To know how, when, and why teachers do this may be extremely useful infor- mation for preservice teacher education. Therefore, the sample of an effective teacher study could consist of a subset of effective teachers, ones who have remained effective in very different contexts. The second area involves investiga- tions of the processes of teacher devel- opment. As described above, some excellent work has begun in this impor- tant area, but much more needs to be done. Further, we should investigate variations in beginning teachers’ perfor- mances as these relate to school and classroom context, to preservice educa- tion, and to other important variables such as the presence or absence of intern programs. Students: The most important issue facing us in teacher education is how we can teach skills, attitudes, and thought processes for which the students do not yet have a perceived need. They do not have structures or schema in which to place much of the pedagogical work they encounter, particularly that related to skills and procedures. Teacher educa- tors are often amazed that students come back and complain that they were never taught how to do certain tasks. The teacher educators can point to their lesson plans and to the amount of time they actually spent with their students on those tasks. At the point the content was covered in class, it was not impor- tant to the students, but after they taught for a while, it became important. We must either develop ways of provid- ing students with schema in which to place the various techniques and strate- gies of teaching such that they will be recalled and used in later teaching, or develop a very different conception of the knowledge and skills to be acquired in preservice preparation. How can this problem be addressed? Many have sug- gested early field experiences. But as Feiman-Nemser and Buchman (1983) have argued, experience alone is not necessarily a good teacher. More work is needed which describes the cognitive schema acquired and used by preservice students as they pass through teacher education programs. Teacher Educators: In large part, teacher educators, particularly clinical supervisors, see themselves as profes- sional teachers, not as scholars or researchers. This means that they are similar to the teachers that Doyle and Ponder (1976) investigated in terms of their practicality ethic, individualism, and immediacy. They undoubtedly are actors in the &dquo;crisis of confidence&dquo; in professional knowledge which Schon (1983) describes for all professions since the mid-1960s. He states that the &dquo;complexity, uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and value conflicts&dquo; that are increasingly perceived by professionals as central to their practice make the solution to individual problems through the application of professional knowl- edge or &dquo;theory&dquo; impossible. In Koehler’s (1984) study, the university supervisors relied completely on practi- cal experience, gained primarily from past experience as teachers and super- visors rather than from research.

  generalfuture workevidence 5/5
  Keywords: teacher teachers students effective dquo processes preservice education teaching skills experience classroom thought acquired different
• Field‐based teacher education—a reconsideration? (1982) · The Teacher Educator · cited 8× · doi

  "(13) There are important questions that remain to be answered; other- wise, teacher educators will continue to rely on pragmatic evidence alone and blindly follow the path of least resistance in the development of teacher education programs. (12) It is hoped that the studies referred to briefly in this summary will prompt further research into what student teaching and field exper- iences really do offer and what they do not do.

  generalconclusionsevidence 5/5
  Keywords: teacher there important questions remain answered wise educators continue rely pragmatic evidence alone blindly follow

Questions about this gap