21st Century Teacher Education Should Be….

Finish this sentence: 21st century teacher-education should  ______. These thoughts below have been running through my head lately. My own field is literacy studies, a rapidly evolving field. Which of these practices in teacher education are you using? What is missing from the list? 

Trends indicate a broader push towards flexible and online teacher education programs, including graduate-based programs.

I think that 21st-century teacher education should:

CURRICULAR FOCUS

-provide curriculum that is fully integrated with technology to model and demonstrate effective tech integration

-showcase effective PK-12th grade curriculum that is effectively integrated with technology and blended learning formats, including effective personalized learning formats. One-size-fits-all and an emphasis on whole class learning is not where we should be heading.

-build/remix/reuse open-access content, especially “real world content such as materials used by school districts. This provides alignment with what is actually going on in school districts and helps with the age-old problem of “reinventing the wheel”. Higher education can also provide resources for PK-12.

CONNECTIVIST/COLLABORATIVE

-programs should be further connected and less siloed and isolated. How many teacher education programs have faculty that fully understand the entire sequence of courses being offered and foster cross-course collaboration? Do we align as we should?

–much more clinical experience teaching in field settings, including intensive tutoring especially in reading/literacy and special education courses. More focus should be on application of content and critical discussion of this experience. Hours spent teaching matter. Vocational students receive more hours of training in the application of their knowledge than students in some teacher education programs.

-more connections across institutions, globally using technology, to share resources, ideas, and repositories of information. This is being done, gradually.

BETTER PREPARATION FOR ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING

-all doctoral students in areas related to teacher education should be well trained to teach in online and blended formats. This can be done within doctoral programs or can be done through online courses such as MOOCs and min-MOOCS.

-more research and scholarship on digital teaching and learning within higher education

-certifications offered to PK-12 teachers on how to  teach online and in blended settings.

GLOBAL LEARNING

-curriculum should prepare students to effectively engage in a global world, with ways to share knowledge beyond local settings. Students should be able to learn across settings and be able to share information and ideas as well as teach in multiple ways (synchronous, digital discussion boards, etc.) and across global settings.

What else is missing? This is just a starter list intended to foster conversation! -Peggy

My research profile: https://www.uta.edu/profiles/peggy-semingson