With increasing emphasis on teacher accountability (and with Race to the Top funds tying test performance to teacher pay), more and more cities are trying to come up with different methods for training teachers. A few weeks ago, The New York Times explored programs that may ultimately replace education schools. Today, NPR has a story about a Boston program that trains teachers on the job.
In the program, teachers are paired with other teachers for a year, and their in-the-classroom performance is critiqued and improved upon. All of it finally acknowledges something that is almost universally accepted in other careers: What you know matters, but how you implement it on the job matters more. Teachers can be smart and care about children but still not be good in the classroom. Moreover, being good in the classroom might not be some innate talent. It requires skills that are somewhat determined by personality and character but also must be learned, trained and reinforced on the job. Just as it is with every other career.
That's what Juliana Thompson, one of the teachers involved in the Boston program, which was modeled on doctor residency programs, said.
Teaching is not just about preparation, it's about thinking on your feet . . . You suddenly realize that's not going to work and in a matter of seconds everything you had planned for the past week has to be changed and that's very hard to do.
One of her trainees had a disaster on the first day, but it was regarded as a teachable moment. If programs like this also accepted that some teachers just might not work out, we actually might make progress in how we regard teaching as a profession.
-- Monica Potts
