Founding a college is a serious and complex endeavor. The commitment of those who established The New Teachers College have a long-standing interest in and dedication to the education of children. The research is clear that the single, most significant variable in improving the education of children is to place highly qualified, well-prepared teachers in their classrooms. Each of the founders of the proposed college brings decades of experience in education and in teacher preparation and teacher development to this initiative. Their work is driven by their commitment to the education of teachers and their belief that this College and its master’s program represent one way educators might respond to the national call for reform in teacher education and for better prepared teachers.

The following excerpts provide the context for founding The New Teachers College.

At the national level, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education recognized that “…we need to make dramatic changes in the ways we recruit, prepare, license, and provide ongoing support for teachers” (2000, p. 30). The report goes on to state:

At the state level, similar recommendations have been made. The following statement reported in Ohio’s Governor’s Commission on Teaching Success is such an example:

Hundreds of universities and school districts across the nation have collaborated to create professional development schools. Housed in existing elementary schools, middle schools and high schools, professional development schools are to the teaching profession what teaching hospitals are to the medical profession. Like all P-12 schools, professional development schools are sites for teaching children and adolescents, but their mission also includes preparing teachers-in-training and advancing the professional practice of experienced teachers and college and university faculty. In professional development schools, veteran teachers, college and university faculty and teachers-in-training work collaboratively within the school setting to confront the challenges of teaching and learning.

Meeting these kinds of recommendations provides an exciting challenge. The New Teachers College will offer a master’s program with two tracks – one for those seeking to enter the teaching profession, and one for practicing teachers – that respond to and reflect these kinds of recommendations. As a single purpose institution of higher education, the mission of the proposed College can be directed solely to creating, implementing and maintaining a program that reflects these recommendations and that organizes its teacher education program around what we know to be best practice in education.

Conceptual Framework

We know so much more, now, about how children learn and, therefore, about how they should be taught. We have different conceptualizations of knowledge. Further, the culture of America has changed dramatically over the past 100 years. This graduate program, and its model of delivery, is designed to bring the latest, research-based knowledge about teaching and learning to both the professional teacher and the teacher-in-training. The success of the proposed program will be enhanced by using the practicing teachers’ own classroom as their learning laboratories or by placing the teacher-in-training in a setting that immerses her in the culture of a school where she will be apprenticed by a master teacher for a year. The standards of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Ohio Department of Education, along with the many recommendations made by nationally renown organizations, provide superb standards for designing and implementing the master’s program.

Foundational Elements of the Graduate Program:
Core Program Elements for All Tracks

Knowing the Adult Learner

The graduate program takes into account what is known about adult learners and is designed with that in mind. School is not a new experience to adults; therefore, each person brings to the setting his and her own beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and memories. The program is designed for the adult learners to become aware of these and then use them and move beyond them to a deeper and broader understanding of the educational process. The adult can achieve the critical distance necessary to test assumptions and continually revise an educational philosophy as experience dictates. The capacity to analyze and revise marks the professional teacher and is especially important for those who have been working in the profession.

The Development of Reflective Practitioners

Recent research and examination of learning Martin suggest that students (and teachers) learn through interaction with people and materials, constructing their own personal meanings. A commitment to the reflective process will help teachers internalize the disposition and the ability to study their practice and to become more effective over time. They become committed to taking responsibility for their continued professional development.

To this end, the experiences offered during the program, with its emphasis on utilizing the classroom as a learning laboratory, will invite reflection upon academic work and life within the classroom. This will ensure that meaningful activities and real life events will enrich the learning environments in which they work.

In this context, the master’s program will include experiences which provide graduate students the following opportunities:

• The opportunity to reflect upon their own educational and life experiences in education and in their worlds;
• The opportunity and support to develop, articulate, and practice a personal view or philosophy of education;
• The opportunity to practice, on a daily basis as they teach, their views and philosophy about education;
• The opportunity to discern and assess the integration, impact and success of their views or beliefs on the children they teach;
• The opportunity to be open to new and innovative ideas that emerge in the field of education and to assess the efficacy of each approach;
• The opportunity to learn the process of collaborative dialogue within sophisticated, dialectical exchanges within their graduate classes.

Advisement

Advisement is one of the important components of the graduate program at The New Teachers College. While informal conversations and impromptu meetings with the Dean and faculty will be part of the fabric of life for the graduate students, a formal advisement program is built into the proposed program. These advisement sessions are expected to prove invaluable in providing personal support to each graduate student during this rigorous program.

Questions? Contact TNTC