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.”
Does the Teacher Really Matter
TO CATCH a fish?to teach a child. Any similarity? Perhaps a great deal more than is readily ap parent. Catching fish is sometimes as easy as being in the right place at the right time, with proper tackle and bait. But sometimes it demands an almost intimate knowledge of fish behavior, an ability to visualize what the fish is doing, how he is respond ing to the lure. So it is with teaching a child to read. Some children, as if driven by an inner force as powerful as that which compels the salmon to push onward to its spawning bed, learn to read, whatever the technique or materials?perhaps even in spite of them. Others challenge our most sophisticated techniques and require a practical understanding of chil dren's cognitive development. Just as the successful fisherman must visualize what's happening be neath the water, so must the success ful teacher of reading not allow a "sea of words" to obscure what's happening in the child's mind. Teachers must look beneath the sur face and anticipate the child's thoughts and reactions. This requi site for good teaching is the primary reason why reading teachers will never be replaced by programed ma terials and teaching machines. A dozen years ago, while Special ist for Reading in the U.S. Office of Education (USOE), I made a seem ingly trite statement at the Clare mont Reading Conference. Later widely quoted, once in a front-page article in the Christian Science Monitor, the statement went like this: "A poor teacher will get poor re sults with the very best methods and materials, while a good teacher will get good results with comparatively