No abstract

In the fall of 2008, the Faculty of Education at the University of New Brunswick implemented its ‘new’ Bachelor of Education program. This was precipitated by a number of factors including pressure from the education community in New Brunswick, streamlining due to declining faculty numbers, and a drive to incorporate recommendations drawn from recent teacher education literature. Two of the changes made were: (a) the program is now completed in 1 year (formerly 2 years); (b) education students complete a one year practical component at the same time they complete their on campus components. The article concludes with some implications for faculty at other institutions who may be asking themselves – are they ready to make changes in their programs?

In this paper, we argue that teacher education admissions processes would benefit from attending more to prospective teacher candidates’ cognitive frames. We begin with the introduction of a three-stage heuristic for describing teacher education. We then review the literature about constructivist notions of prior learning and teacher education program admissions processes. These processes, we argue, fail to adequately account for candidates’ preconceptions about teaching and learning, which affect their beliefs and understanding. Virtually none of the admissions processes we examined explicitly attempts to map the cognitive frames of applicants to uncover the structure of their ideas about teaching and learning. Teacher education institutions might best concentrate upon candidates’ cognitive frames within two core areas: subject area content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. These two areas have the greatest potential to influence candidates’ future cognitive frameworks, understandings, and points of reference.            Keywords: teacher education admissions processes; identifying cognitive frames; subject area content knowledge; pedagogical knowledge

No abstract

No abstract