Reading Teachers Are Asked "What is Relevant In the Classroom?"
One of the most crucial problems facing teacher education today is one of relevancy. This cry for relevance suggests that what we in higher education do as we prepare students to become teachers is not compatible with the real world of the classroom. Backman tells us that as teacher educators we are perceived as (1) delivering preparation programs which have little real influence on the way in which our graduates actually teach; and (2) being completely out of touch with the actual teaching conditions in contemporary schools (1984). READING TEACHERS ARE ASKED "WHAT IS RELEVANT IN CLASSROOM?" Donna Jamar and Leo W. Pauls Emporia State University Emporia, Kansas One of the most crucial problems facing teacher education today is one of relevancy. This cry for relevance suggests that what we in higher education do as we prepare students to become teachers is not compatible with the real world of the classroom. Backman tells us that as teacher educators we are perceived as (1) delivering preparation programs which have little real influence on the way in which our graduates actually teach; and (2) being completely out of touch with the actual teaching conditions in contemporary schools (1984).
PRESERVICE EDUCATION IN READING: WHAT DO THE TEACHERS SAY?
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to determine teachers’ perceptions of reading courses at the undergraduate level. Survey data obtained from graduates of 37 institutions were analyzed using frequencies, t‐test, analysis of variance, Duncan's Multiple Range Test, and orthogonal contrast to provide the following results: Graduates between 1970‐80 have not taken more reading courses than earlier graduates. Persons with degrees in elementaty education, early childhood education, and special education have taken reading courses while those in other areas of education have not. Graduates who have taken three or more reading courses feel prepared to teach reading. The most helpful topic in an undergraduate reading course is “how to plan a reading lesson.” The topic which needs to be added to the undergraduate reading courses is “how to organize and manage reading instruction.”
Historias de mi barrio: contemporary art in a community at high risk of social exclusion
Abstract Historias de mi barrio is a piece of pedagogic research aimed at highlighting the way art can articulate the relationship between the educational context and a neighbourhood at high risk of social exclusion. The starting point for this study was to ask whether this type of research, centred around the arts, was suitable in complex contexts and whether it might eventually lead to pedagogic improvement. The results gathered, and indeed the work carried out by the artists and university lecturers involved, together with pupils 6–12 years old and their instructors in a state school, provide evidence of a positive answer – and notably of the necessity of knowing about the socio-economic reality of the student cohort when planning learning projects and of the importance of the arts as a crucial element in education.