MODELS AND CHALLENGES OF TEACHER TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE USA

Iryna Glazkova, (Berdiansk, Ukraine)

Teacher training is preparation for professional practice usually through formal courses at colleges or universities. Teacher development is professional learning by teachers already engaged in professional practice, usually through reflective discussion sessions based on current classroom experience.

So the basic difference is that (See Table 1): teacher training implies preservice learning, teacher development implies in-service learning.

Table 1.

Comparison Characteristic of Training and Development

Our analysis exhibits a lot of different resources and came to the conclusion, that scientists distinguish three models of teacher training: the applied science, craft, and reflective models [3].

According to the applied science model, teachers learn to be teachers by being taught research-based theories, and then applying them in practice. The main idea of this model is that the most important professional knowledge is generalizable theory.

The craft model means training teaching in the way apprentices learn crafts like shoemaking or carpentry: the novice watches and imitates a master teacher, and obeys the latter's directions for improvement. The main idea is that teaching is mainly a practical skill. According to the reflection model teachers learn by reflecting on their own experience and applying what they have learned in order to develop their professional abilities further. We would like to underline, that only reflection model corresponds with teacher development, where a teacher is active: experiencing, reflecting, conceptualising, experimenting.

While preparing our research we came across several definitions where "teacher development" was understood as a training methodology based on "involving" teachers in interactive discussion, but where the ultimate objective was to get them to accept innovations that had been determined elsewhere. In such cases, teachers appear to be given some measure of freedom to express their opinions. But the idea of such "teacher development" is to persuade the teachers to adopt certain pre-determined ideas for change, rather than to explore and develop their own.

We do not mean to imply that such projects are not effective. We would like to emphasize  that it is not real "teacher development", because they are talking about effective methods of bringing about change in education. This is because true teacher development, on its own, is not a very effective means for bringing about change. You need a combination of  two aspects  "development" and "training".

We would claim that any teacher, at any stage of their career, learns most effectively like this. The most important, central source is the teacher's reflection on their own experience, whether as learner, as trainee on teaching practice or as professional teacher.  But to learn only from oneself is limited: a teacher needs also to take advantage of the enormous amount of professional knowledge and expertise "out there" waiting to be tapped.

Teacher’s own experience can be enriched by: hearing, seeing, or reading about the experiences of others; his reflections on his own or others' performance can be enriched by other people's critical observations; he can discover some effective theories through reading the literature or listening to lecturers that help him understand what he is doing; he can supplement his own experimentation by finding out about the experiments of researchers.

But such knowledge, however, cannot be taken on board simply through reading or hearing about it. In order to function as real knowledge and not just as inert items of information, a teacher needs to process it through his own experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation and to construct his own understanding of it.

What types of models of teacher training and teacher development exist in California? The word mentor is used to define the role of an experienced teacher to guide the new teachers, to provide assistance, to help them in securing skills. The beginning teachers, called trainees, are college graduates with no previous professional preparation. The provision of mentor teachers is considered a big improvement over the more typical "sink or swim" experience of many beginning teachers in the United States. Mentoring also offers an incentive to experienced teachers who can take on a new role without giving up classroom teaching.

The analysis of the scientific article [1; 2], devoted to California U.S. programs (Los Angeles), where experienced teachers play a central role in the induction and socialization of beginning teachers enabled us to distinguish peculiarities of mentoring in California. In Los Angeles, all mentor teachers are assigned to work with beginning teachers in the teacher trainee program, an alternate training and certification program. The state pays each mentor a stipend of $4000 and gives local districts $2000 to cover such costs as substitute teachers and travel. While the state requires mentors to continue teaching 60 percent of the time, the district lacks the resources to reduce the mentor teacher's class load. As a result, mentors in Los Angeles teach full time and fit their mentoring in around the edges. Their term lasts three years. Mentor teachers work with two to four trainees located in the school where they teach or at a nearby school.

At the beginning, mentors should help new teachers figure out what content to cover and how to break that down into quarterly, unit, and daily lesson plans; where to keep attendance cards; how to avoid discipline problems. When the first grading period comes around, the mentor should show the novice how to record grades, stressing the importance of keeping gradebooks in order. At the end of the school year, the mentor should help the new teacher fill out end-of-the year records so that everything will be in order for the next teacher.

To minimize the time they spend away from their own students, mentor teachers often talk with novices before or after school or during lunch if they teach in the same building. If they want to visit the new teacher's classroom, they have to arrange for a substitute to cover their own class.

Mentors provide the school-based portion of the teacher trainee program which includes a three-week session before the school year begins and weekly seminars and workshops during the year. Although the administrative staffs of the mentor teacher and teacher trainee programs work closely together, the programs themselves are managed separately. In Los Angeles, all mentor teachers, regardless of grade level and subject matter area, participate in the same 30-hour training which is offered in one-three hour sessions and delivered by a variety of presenters. In sessions on assisting new teachers, mentors learn about typical problems that beginning teachers face and hear suggestions for how to respond.

 In conclusion, we may emphasize  that  the positive influence of mentoring is great. First of all it can challenge the traditional isolation among teachers and improve teaching. During the 80s, mentoring became a favored strategy in U.S. initiatives directed at school reform. In particular, mentoring seemed like an ideal way to address the needs of first-year teachers while rewarding outstanding experienced teachers.

References

1. Feiman-Nemser S. From preparation to practice: Designing a continuum to strengthen and sustain teaching // The Teachers College Record. – 2001. – 103(6). – P. 1013 – 1055.
2. Morey A. Designing programs for new teachers: The California experience / A. Morey, D. Murphy. – San Francisco : Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development. – 2008. – 176 p.
3. Ur P. Teacher Training and Teacher Development : A useful Dichotomy? // The Language Teacher. –1997. – № 1. – P. 17 – 22.