Some Surprising Findings on How Teachers Learn to Teach

"W~1T That teachers actually learn %/%/ from different kinds of T T teacher education programs has been the focus of a large scale study at the National Center for Research on Teacher Learning. Known as the Teacher Education and Learning to Teach (TELT) study, this project exam ined not only preservice and inservice programs, but also induction programs and alternative routes. In each of the programs we studied, we selected a sample of candidates who were just entering the program, and followed them through the program and into their first year of teaching on their own. Altogether, the study included more than 700 teachers and teacher candidates, each of whom was ques tioned on at least two occasions and sometimes on as many as five occasions. Of particular interest to us was what teachers learned about teaching and learning from their different teacher education programs. The reform move ment in American education is becoming more and more directed toward giving students deeper under standing of subject matter and greater facility with reasoning as well as finding ways to engage all children with A popular theme in the teacher education reform movement is a call for more on-the-job guidance.