Newswise — In a Washington press conference this morning, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education announced that more than 700 programs nationwide will soon have to develop transformation initiatives in order to receive accreditation.
Working with the Tennessee Board of Regents, Tennessee Tech piloted the Teaching Quality Initiative Teacher Education Redesign, which emphasizes case or problem-based learning, a modeling component, teacher enhancement and accountability.
Sandy H. Smith, TTU's director of teacher education, says the new initiatives will provide more useful data and research on what works in teacher education, and quality assurance will become a larger part of the accreditation process.
"One strong component is the teaching hospital model we are using," said Smith. "Case or problem-based scenarios are used, and that's fundamentally pushing teacher education in a new direction."
TTU physics professor Stephen Robinson spearheads the efforts in the modeling component.
"Students who will become teachers should experience best practices in teaching while learning any subject, including math and science," he said. "Our job is to provide professional development for all university faculty members and encourage them to model best practices in their own university classrooms."
NCATE emphasizes that transformation in teacher education must include accountability based on data that directly reflects improvement in student learning.
Smith says Tennessee Tech has been gathering data in an effort to follow graduates for three years after placement and evaluate their effectiveness in the classroom.
"What will ultimately make a difference is to follow all our teacher candidates and see how their preparation in our teacher education program has made a difference to their students," she said. "We want to quantify the positive impact our teachers have and have a collaborative discussion on how to improve our preparation."
Ultimately, NCATE anticipates funding to go to effective programs that produce results in improving P-12 student learning.
TTU's Dean of Education Larry Peach says Tennessee Tech strives to stay abreast of the contemporary needs in teacher education and to help build the evidentiary base of the field by studying which practices are most effective.
"It's evident that by participating in the pilot model we have a commitment to examine how teacher education needs to adapt and respond to improve student learning," said Peach.
Paula Myrick Short, TBR vice chancellor of academic affairs, said, "It is a great honor and recognition to the TBR's six universities that NCATE has chosen our redesign model as one of its national Transformation Initiatives."
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