How to train teachers

Title

Creator

V. G. S.

Language

English

Year

1968

Subject

Conant, James Bryant

Teachers.

Effective teaching.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

From Philippine Weekly Review, Sept. 27, 1963.

Dr. Conant gives us his views on how to make a good teacher.

Fulltext

■ Dr. Conant gives us his views on how to make a good teacher. HOW TO TRAIN TEACHERS James Bryant Conant, for mer president of Harvard University, has written an other book which was pub lished a few months ag® and entitled “The Education of American Teachers.” Dr. Conant tells us nothing new when the states that “vast numbers of youth are being taught by inadequately pre pared teachers.” But his fame as a great educator is sure to make his book the subject of talk, newspaper editorials, and faculty-club discussions. According to a magazine review, this book represents two years of work, hundreds of interviews, and thousand of miles of travel to college campuses and state capitals by Dr. Conant and his nine assistants. The sub jects \yhich are discussed in it include the problem of how to teach, train, and cer tify the nation’s teachers. Dr. Conant, as many others before him, is convinced, on the basis of his actual find ings that the present system of certifying teachers on the basis of course credits and licensing exams does not gua rantee that they will know either how to teach or what to teach. He condemned the so-called survey courses in education which have been boring to students in many teachers colleges. “I have found little evidence that these courses stimulate a student to read either deeply or widely,” says Conant. He recommends the elimination of courses in “The Founda tions of Education” because “not only are they usually worthless, but they give edu cation departments a bad name.” He is completely convinced of the uselessness of the “methods’ courses and Au dio-Visual Techniques.” The best place to learn how to teach, says Conant unequi 2 Panorama vocally, is in the classroom. The most dependable test of a teacher’s qualifications, he asserts, “should be how he actually performs in a class room.” To make certain that teachers really can teach, he suggests overhaul ing the present “slip-shod” and “apalling” system of practice teaching. Instead of filling out forms and help ing children put on their shoes, a student teacher should be trained gradually “to assume full responsibility for an extended period of instruction, which he plans, executes, and evaluates.” So he suggests the establish ment of an efficient practice teaching program, and urges the abolition of the system of course-counting and licens ing exams. In his key recom mendation Conant proposes that any graduate of a re cognized college be permit ted to teach provided he has successfully functioned as a practice teacher and that his college or university endorses his teaching qualifications. — V.G.S„ Philippine Weekly Review, Sept. 27, 1963. NOBEL PRIZE The fact that the Nobel Prize was not accorded to me was doubly pleasant: first, because it saved me from the painful necessity of dealing in some way with money — generality regarded as very neces sary and useful, but which I regard as the source of every kind of evil; and secondly, because it has af forded to people whom I respect the opportunity of expressing their sympathy with me, for which I thank you all from my heart. — Leo Tolstoy March 19C8

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