Teacher Certification Essay Research Paper Teacher CertificationThe

Teacher Certification Essay, Research Paper

Teacher Certification

The whole issue of teacher certification is one of great importance and

when discussed must be done in a delicate and thoughtful manner. The reason for

this increasing importance is because the education of our nation’s teachers is

important to the creation of an ideal education system, which is one of the

goals of our national government and State governments. Over the years the

whole educational reform movement has become an increasingly “hot” topic.

Reforms in the administration of school systems and in curriculum theory and

practice have been asked for and a4re currently being put into effect. Recently,

reform of the education of teachers is being added to the lo9ng list of reforms

needed. Many reform activists feel that direct changes need to be made on the

methods of training and certifying the teachers of our country. Before looking

at the reform movement, however, one must first look at the so called problem of

inconsistency in teacher certification.

In our country today there is a general consistency among the

requirements for state certification of teachers. Most states require their

teacher institutions to establish a teacher education program that includes

coursework and fieldwork. The coursework includes those courses that prepare a

student to become a professional teacher and those classes that include major

and minor fields of specialization. Fieldwork, which is probably the most

important of the two forms of requirements, involves the individual interested

in being a teacher going out and observing, practicing, and preparing to enter

the educational world as an instructor. There is no argument that all schools

in every state has these basic requirements of teacher certification. However,

the inconsistency lies within how the numerous institutions go about in teaching

these requirements. Each post-secondary school is given the jurisdiction to

choose how they are going to go about meeting these basic teacher certification

requirements. For example, many states require a different amount of field

hours. An inconsistency can also be seen in the various models of teacher

education that are used throughout the nation. Two education researchers,

Howey and Zimpher conducted a study on this variety of models in 1989. They

came up with three different attempts of teacher training. The first, known as

the teacher’s college model, involves certification students entering a separate

school within a university that is a “teacher’s college”. The second approach

is called the liberal arts model by the researchers, and is a method that

requires and individual to become specialized in a certain liberal arts subject

in order to create “capable and cultured human beings”. The third and final

model discussed by Howley and Zimpher is entitled the competency-based model.

This method trains individuals in the arts o motivation and understanding. As

one can see by this case study, there have been a variety of approaches to

teacher certification. An inconsistency can similarly be detected by looking at

the various new and innovative ideas in teacher education. Among these include

the alternative route, a topic discussed earlier, and the five-year degree

program, and issue to be discussed shortly in this section. Altogether, one

could state that there is some inconsistency in teacher certification, and this

inconsistency brings about a small problem in the educational spectrum of our

world. In my opinion, there is no national and universal set of requirements

for teacher certification. The variety of different methods and forms of