Introduction to Teaching

Introduction to Teaching Orenthia D. Mason, Professor Tuesday 5:30 p.m. – 7:50 p.m. Textbooks: Learning to Teach by Richards Arends 7th Edition orenthia_mason@jarvis.edu

Introduction • Teaching offers a bright and rewarding career for those who can meet the intellectual and social challenges of the job. • The task of teaching the young is simply too important and complex to be handled entirely by parents or through the informal structures of earlier eras. • Modern society needs schools staffed with expert teachers to provide instruction and to care for children while parents work.

In our society, teachers are given professional status. • As experts and professionals, they are expected to use best practice to help students learn essential skills and attitudes. • It is no longer sufficient for teachers to be warm and loving toward children, nor is it sufficient for them to employ teaching practices based solely on intuition, personal preference, or conventional wisdom.

Contemporary teachers are held accountable for using teaching practices that have been shown to be effective. • This book is about how to learn and to use best practices—practices that have a scientific basis • This book also explores another side of teaching: the art of teaching.

This chapter begins with a historical sketch of teaching, because the basic patterns of teaching today are intertwined in the web of history and culture, which impact the processes of learning to teach. • The introduction is followed by the perspective about effective teaching that has guided the design and writing of Learning to Teach.

The final portion of the chapter tells how beginners can start the process of becoming effective teachers by learning to access the knowledge base on teaching, accumulating the wisdom of practice, and reflecting on their experiences.

Seventeenth Century • Philosophy: • 'Two Rs” (Reading and Religion) • Focus of Curriculum: • Secondary education for males only; Reading and Religion

Dates: • 1636 Harvard College Founded • 1647 Massachusetts Education Act requires establishment of schools • 1687-90 New England Primer, first ed.

Eighteenth Century • Philosophy: • Life in the present • Focus of Curriculum • Reading, religion, morality, writing, and arithmetic; vocational skills • Academy open to females

1800’s cont’ • 1881 Tuskegee Institute established by • Booker T. Washington • 1892 Committee of Ten established to review school curriculum • 1896 Plessy v Ferguson supports constitutionality of segregated schools

Common or Public Schools came into existence in the United States between 1825 and 1850. • Initially, literate individuals, often young men studying for the ministry were hired on a part time basis to tutor or teach the children of the more wealthy families in the community.

During this era and for most of the nineteenth century, the purpose of schools were few and a teacher’s role rather simple, compared to today. Basic literacy and numeracy skills were the primary goals of the nineteenth century education, with the curriculum dominated by what later came to be called the three Rs: reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Most young people were not required (or expected) to attend, and those who did so remained for relatively brief periods of time.

Teachers were recruited mainly from their local communities. • Professional training of teachers was not deemed important, nor was teaching necessarily considered a career.

Teachers by this time were likely to be young women who had obtained a measure of literacy themselves and were willing to “keep” school until something else came along.

Standards governing teaching practice were almost nonexistent, although rules and regulations governing teachers’ personal lives and moral conduct could, in some communities be quite strict.

Sample Nineteenth-Century Teacher Contract (Figure 1.1)

1900s • Kindergarten started in 1855 • emphasized play and constructive activities to prepare children for elementary schools • High schools • started 1821 • public secondary schooling, combined functions to become comprehensive in curriculum

Junior High schools • 1909 to present • designed to provide students grades 7-9 with high school preparation • Middle schools • 1950- present • designed to meet the unique needs of pre-adolescents, usually grades 6-8 as an alternative to junior high schools

1950s • Educational Philosophy • Discipline-oriented • Focus of Curriculum • Congress funded programs in science, math, languages and guidance

1950’s cont’ • Dates • 1954 Brown v Board of Education, Topeka Kansas • Supreme court holds that separate is not equal.

1957 Sputnik leads to criticism and re-evaluation of American public education • 1958 NDEA funds science, math and foreign language programs

1970s • Educational Philosophy • Social Concern and Humanistic education • Focus of Curriculum • Gender-based courses; multiethnic curricula

1960s &70s • Dates • 1964 Civil Rights Acts authorize federal lawsuits for school desegregation • 1964 Job Corps and Head Start funded • 1965 Elementary and Secondary Ed Acts passed, funds for Compensatory Ed • 1968 Bilingual Education act

1972 Title IX Education amendment outlawing sex discrimination in federally funded institutions • 1975 Public Law 94-142 now called IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) • 1979 Cabinet level Dept. of Education established

1980s • Educational Philosophy • “Back to basics” • Focus of Curriculum • Academic subjects emphasized; increased discipline; elimination of electives; competency exams • 1983 A Nation at Risk

Most state and localities began setting standards for teachers that later became requirements for certification. • Special schools were created to train teachers in the subject matters they were expected in the subject matters they were expected to teach and to ensure that they knew something about pedagogy. • Pedagogy is the study of the art and science of teaching.

By the early twentieth century, teachers were expected to have two years of college preparation. • By the middle of the century, most held bachelor’s degrees.

Teaching gradually came to be viewed as a career and professional organizations for teachers, such as the National Educational Association and the American Federation of Teachers, took on growing importance, both defining the profession and influencing education policy

Teaching practices of the time however, were rarely supported by research, and teachers, although expected to teach well, were judged by vague global criteria, such as: • Knows subject matter • Acts in a professional manner • Has good rapport • Dresses appropriately

Progress was made during this period, particularly in curriculum development for all the major subject areas, such as: • Reading • Mathematics • Social studies • Science

Certain trends are likely to continue and some aspects of education and teaching will remain the same, while others may change rather dramatically. (Figure 1.2)

Teaching Challenges for Twenty-First Century Teachers (Figure 1.2)

The United States is a multicultural society. • Today, this situation is no longer a question of values or policy. • It is a fact, a condition of culture.

The challenge for teachers in the twenty-first century is to transform schools and approaches to teaching that were created at a time when most of the students were from Western European heritage and spoke English to meet the needs of a much more diverse student population.

The most important demographic shift involves the increasing numbers of students who have ethnic or racial heritages that are non-European, for whom English is a second language, and who live in poverty.

As illustrated in Figure 1.3, the proportion of these minority students in schools has increased from less than one-fifth in the early 1970s to over one-third today. It is predicted that students from minority groups will comprise over 50 percent of the student population by the year 2010.

Percentage of Public School Students Enrolled in Grades K-12 Who Were Minorities, by Geographic Region: 1972-2000 (Figure 1.3)

As shown in Figure 1.3, the percentage of minority students has reached over 50 percent in the western United States and approaches that proportion in the South. • The number of limited English speaking students has doubled nationwide over the past two decades (Conditions of Education 2000, Mercado, 2001), with 3.2 million now enrolled in public schools.

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (now called The Individual with Disabilities Act) brought to an end policies that prevented children with disabilities from getting an education and changed the enrollment patterns in schools. • For example, in the mid 1970s, when the Disabilities Act was passed, only about 8 percent of children in schools were identified and served for their disability.

Whereas by the mid 1990, this statistic rose to 13 percent. Similarly, more and more students with disabilities are being served in regular rather than special classes. • Another demographic factor that affects schools and teachers is that many children who attend public schools today live in poverty. In fact, some observers argue that poverty has replaced the most urgent issue facing the nation and that poverty is at the core of most school failure.

These demographic trends have significance for teaching and for those preparing to teach in at least three important ways. • First, for both social and economic reasons, many people in the larger society will remain committed to providing educational opportunities to all children. Society will also demand that minority and students with disabilities do well in school.

Working with you from diverse cultural backgrounds and with various special needs will necessitate that teachers have a repertoireof effective strategies and methods far beyond those required previously.

Second, it is most likely that schools will continue to be scrutinized for racial and ethnic balance in their student and teacher populations.

This means that during the next several decades, teachers can expect to experience complex social and organizational arrangements in which school enrollment boundaries will be changed, efforts will be made to diversify student populations through open enrollment and magnet school programs, and teachers themselves may be moved from school to school more often than in the past.

Finally, and perhaps more important, the voices of minority and immigrant communities and those who don’t speak English will no longer be ignored. Parents of these children will no longer tolerate schools with inadequate materials and untrained teachers.

They will demand a curriculum and approaches to teaching that will ensure the same academic and social success for their children as for children in the mainstream.

Check, Extend, ExploreHistorical Perspective on Teaching • How have teacher roles evolved over the years, and what forces have contributed to these changes? What revisions to traditional schooling do you foresee?

What demographic shifts have led to changes in the student population, and how have these trends impacted schools and teachers?

Introduction to Teaching