Innovation in Teacher Education: Cutting Edge? Or on the Cutting Room Floor?

Abstract

In the U.S., teachers and the university-based programs that prepare them, have been relentlessly criticized. “Blistering media commentaries” about teacher education have been further fueled by U.S. students’ middling performance on international tests such as PISA and TIMSS in comparison to top performing peer nations, causing policy makers to argue ever more vociferously that teacher education requires a “sea change…revolutionary change, not evolutionary tinkering.” Increasing calls for the “dramatic overhaul of how teachers are prepared” such that teacher preparation will be turned “upside-down.” have spurred energetic reform, change, and innovation in the profession. While the impact of these changes and reforms has not yet been fully measured or realized, the education field is certainly undergoing a period of revision, reflection, and even renewal, and is exploring an interesting array of practices in an effort to be relevant and responsive.