At 6:00 AM -0400 9/29/00, Batmom44@aol.com wrote:
>....Where and how did colleges and universities get this erroneous
>idea that the art teacher doesn't really need to know what he/she
>teaches....
Reatha--while I snipped your comment here, my intent is to discuss
the issue of art teacher preparation in a larger context:
Teacher preparation is a "hot button " issue in this election year
and everyone seems to have an opinion on what needs to be done to
improve the quality of teachers entering the classroom. With
numerous national and state reform initatives now being directed at
teacher education, we will see some significant changes in the
preparation of (art) teachers...not all of which I feel are positive.
The NAEA recently released new Standards for Art Teacher Preparation.
Two of these standards call for art teacher preparation to "focus on
the content of art" and for art teacher candidates to have a
"thorough understanding of the content of art." These standards
reflect research on teacher knowledge which shows strong links
between a teacher's subject matter understanding and the
instructional decisions they make in the classroom. But, as we all
know, good teaching also depends on knowledge that is specific to the
profession of teaching. Thus, (art) teacher preparation programs
must be designed to develop both the subject matter understanding as
well as the pedagogical knowledge of future teachers.
But, accomplishing this task is becoming increasingly difficult
given the additional demands and restrictions being placed on teacher
education programs. In Florida, for example, teacher education
programs in all areas are currently faced with restructuring their
curricula to meet a number of new requirements mandated by the state.
These include increasing general education requirements to 45 hours
(from 36 hours) and adding a number of new courses in ESOL training,
reading, assessment, school safety, and more. (All of this has to be
accomplished within--or close to--120 semester hours of coursework.)
While I won't deny the value of some of this coursework, I would much
prefer to see our art education students take additional courses in
art and art history rather than more courses in math and science. My
point here is to correct the misconception that colleges and
universities (teacher educators) decide what is taught or covered in
a teacher preparation program. On the contrary, such decisions are
often based on state and accreditation requirements.
The issue of teacher preparation is becoming more critical in that
our nation's schools will need over 2 million new teachers in the
coming decade. Last year, Florida schools needed 10,000 new teachers;
however, state colleges and universities only turned out 6000 teacher
candidates. In response to this unmet demand, we're seeing a rapid
growth in alternative certification routes and programs. Thus,
traditional teacher preparation programs are now having to compete
with alternative certification "providers" (including web-based
ones)for students.
These are challenging times for (art) teacher preparation.
Craig
_______________________________________________________________________
CRAIG ROLAND. Associate Professor-Art Education.
School of Art and Art History, FAC 302,
University of Florida, Gainesville Florida.
32611-5801. (352) 392-9165 - Art Ed Office (352) 392-8453 - Fax
http://grove.ufl.edu/~rolandc/homepage.html
new email address: rolandc@ufl.edu
