A Nation at Risk or a Nation in Progress? Naming the Way Forward Through Research in Teacher Education

Abstract

Recent results of national and international assessments of student achievement often trigger media and policy comments to the effect that efforts to improve education in the United States are "disappointing" (e.g., Goldstein, 2019). The disappointment comes in part from high, probably unrealistic, claims about how fast change happens. As a case in point, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) called for all students to be proficient within a dozen years, an aspiration that researchers have called unrealistic (Linn et al., 2002). From another perspective, the modest gains on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) should be seen in the context of decades in which financial incentives to enter and stay in teaching have declined (Allegretto & Mishel, 2018), with accompanying declines in students entering teacher preparation programs (Partelow, 2019). Moreover, given the challenges of health care, nutrition, and poverty, it is unrealistic to expect the educational system in general, or teacher education in particular, to lift student achievement dramatically. One pessimistic takeaway might nonetheless be that the achievement results are evidence that teacher educators are not improving their programs, perhaps because they do not know how to make productive changes. This dour assessment ignores the wealth of knowledge, published in journals such as this one. Some of that knowledge has found its way into teacher preparation programs and efforts to support practicing teachers.

‘Come to a screeching halt’: Can change in teacher education during the COVID-19 pandemic be seen as innovation?

“…Hess and McShane 2013;Saxton 2015). Indeed, in an early 2020 editorial for the Journal of Teacher Education, Floden, Richmond, and Salazar (2020) noted that a 'pessimistic' interpretation of the situation at the time of their writing (presumably late 2019) was that teacher educators 'do not know how to make productive changes' (169).…”

Development of Physics E-book Based on Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) on Thermodynamic Laws Topic

“…Four areas that drive change in teacher education are knowing your students, data and assessment literacy, content and pedagogy, and field-based experience. In content and pedagogy area, TPACK is related to technology and equity-based pedagogies (Floden, Richmond, & Salazar, 2020). Average value is 3.73 and included in valid range.…”

Seeing the Role of PCK and TPACK from the Perspective of Science Education Researchers in 2018-2020: What's Next?

“…Advancement of education in the United States should immediately towards the expected, reducing the gap achievement, and move quickly to the needs of increasingly diverse students (Floden et al, 2020). According to him, the four fields that are short and selective to encourage a change in the education of teachers are: 1) identify students; 2) data literacy and assessment literacy; 3) experience; and 4) PCK.…”

“…The fourth field is the need to continue to be urgent and is constantly research conducted to describe the extent to which knowledge of them, and their impact on teaching and learning. (Floden et al, 2020) also, mentions, technology and the basis of equity pedagogy TPACK are two valuable fields.…”