Quality of education future teachers receive being questioned

Georgette Eva:

We've all had that boring class that we just need to get over with, to get the grade and go. Then, we've had those classes that surprise us, the ones that interest us despite our prior indifference. For me, the biggest factor of the class, other than if it's at 8 a.m., is the professor.

A professor's own knowledge and interest is pretty evident in the way they handle the class. They're the ones who can make learning about a new subject fascinating or dull.
Recently, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan decried the quality of today's educators in a speech to Columbia University's Teachers College, and he questions their preparedness in teaching future generations. "By almost any standard," he said, "many if not most of the nation's 1,450 schools, colleges and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom."

If our future teachers aren't getting the knowledge they need to prepare for their careers, then what does that mean for their future classrooms? Would this "mediocre job" be passed down to those unwitting students of the 21st century? Obviously, times have changed. We're living in a world of fast and easy communication, which is exemplified in the classroom. Classrooms don't run the same way as they did a decade ago.
Teachers are using PowerPoints, podcasts, and the internet to transfer information. Classrooms are more internationally aware (or should be).

Posted by Jim Zellmer at December 6, 2009 5:45 AM
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