Are Teacher Colleges Turning Out Mediocrity?

I have just read an article from Time Magazine today called Are Teacher Colleges Turning Out Mediocrity? The article questions the quality of teachers graduating from teacher colleges in the United States and blames the teacher colleges for not adequately preparing the teachers for the challenges they will face in the 21st century. I found this article interesting as we have talked about teacher quality in our class and the differences of teachers from U of L, U of A, U of C, and now Concordia. Prior to coming to the U of L, I had heard that it had the reputation of being the best school in Alberta for teaching. Within my first week here, I met some individuals that asked what I was taking in school. I said teaching and they replied “Guess we should have known that. Everyone comes here for teaching.” So before I had even begun my classes I was aware that there was a common thought that most students come to U of L for the Ed program and that teachers graduating from U of L Ed program are expected to be the best in Alberta. At that time I wondered whether it was in fact true and now believe it to be. Maybe we are a little arrogant to believe that we are the best teachers but maybe this arrogance isn’t all bad. If we believe we are the best, will we continue to strive to be the best in our classrooms and schools? And wont that be beneficial to our students?

I believe that part of that belief that U of L grad are the best stems from the additional practicum that we get. Most of the other Ed programs only have two teaching practica and we get another whole semester to practice and improve our teaching. I think this extra practice is extremely helpful to increase confidence and learn from another teacher mentor. Why wouldn’t other universities see how the extra teaching time is beneficial to the student teachers and adopt that into their programs too?

When I was deciding on where to apply for Ed programs, I only really looked into the U of C program and the U of L program. Since I am from Calgary, my family, friends and at that time boyfriend (now husband) were all in Calgary and I was trying to decide if I wanted to head to another city to pursue my degree, or stay in Calgary. I started to look into each program and found that there was no question, Lethbridge was the better choice. To top it off, I talked to my sister-in-law who completed her teaching degree at the U of C and she said that their program was mostly theory based and they would sit around and talk about the theory of teaching methods where as it appeared that the U of L program was more practical based. Sure, theory has its place but I think teaching is more practical than theory based and I wanted a program where I could try out various teaching methods and see what worked best for me. I wonder sometime if I had gone to U of C, would I become a different teacher or would everything have turned out the same in the end?

The article suggests that the quality of the teachers may be able to be traced back to the school that they graduated from. Apparently in Louisiana, student test scores in grades 4-9 are traced back to their teachers and then traced back to where the teachers were educated to compare the quality of teaching colleges. Wow, that puts a lot of onus on the teaching colleges! I guess the point is that teaching colleges can look at where their graduates aren’t performing adequately and look to improve this part of their teaching programs. Sounds like a good idea in theory but I think there could be other factors associated with student test scores than simply where the teacher graduated from. How much influence does the university or college have on the quality of their graduates?