Comments on: Teacher Quality Illustrated

By: Hobart Milton

Hobart Milton — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:40:40 +0000

It does seem like a Catch-22 all the way around. People want things to change, but are hesitant to change themselves. I have also seen some cases where there have been many changes and people feel like they were in a revolving door of experimental ideas.
One of the problems I saw with implementing positive changes was the inadequate amount of training/preparation given teachers to learn the ropes of a new program, especially one that required a major shift in paradigms and practices. Programs that took months and years to develop were condensed down into a one or two day workshop and a pile of handouts and exercises.
I’m sure you’re aware of the 100th monkey principle (that mass acceptance of an idea or action takes place after reaching a critical number of practitioners). It probably drives you to convert more followers to your viewpoints. It is why I believe that research into methodology has more lasting and far reaching effects in the classroom than research on financially-oriented solutions or school choices.
I would suggest that research into ways that help teachers better handle adopting new methods into their reportoire would be very beneficial to all teachers, no matter what type of educational system they work for. There are some very successful methods of involving parents, teaching children, bringing teachers together, and making education more relevant.
Back to the irony part. The national reports were quite brutal in their assessment of the failures of state legislatures, state educational agencies, and teaching universities in failing to address teacher quality. If I had brought home a report card like that when I was younger, I would’ve been told in no uncertain terms that there were going to be changes and improvements made post haste.

By: Greg Forster

Greg Forster — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:32:08 +0000

Gotcha – the failure of our civic institutions causes the failure of civic education, which will no doubt in turn lead to further failure of our civic institutions.

Adding irony to irony (meta-irony?), the status quo is defended in large part by the insistence that any change will undermine civic education!

By: Hobart Milton

Hobart Milton — Sat, 24 May 2008 10:42:14 +0000

Situational irony – the reality of your civics experience in the library in which the lesson is the importance of civics in childrens’ lives and that this is in contrast or incongruous with the reality that public or civic institutions are in large part to blame for the problems of teacher quality. Admittedly, it is a stretch and would take suggestions for a better choice of words that reflect the connection between the two.

Maybe Andy over at Eduwonk has a piece on this. Will check there.

By: Greg Forster

Greg Forster — Sat, 24 May 2008 00:31:56 +0000

I’m not sure I follow you. Why is that ironic?

By: Hobart Milton

Hobart Milton — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:28:15 +0000

As I googled and searched out information on teacher quality studies, the national studie I looked at stressed state policy and teacher education as the problem areas. It seems somewhat ironic that you are discussing civics when this research indicates that state governments and state education colleges are at fault for not leading and preparing teachers for the field.