Term Papers on Teacher Certification

Term Paper Title	Teacher Certification
# of Words	1068
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.27

Teacher Certification

     The whole issue of teacher certification is one of great importance and
when discussed must be done in a delicate and thoughtful manner.  The reason for
this increasing importance is because the education of our nation's teachers is
important to the creation of an ideal education system, which is one of the
goals of our national government and State governments.  Over the years the
whole educational reform movement has become an increasingly "hot" topic.
Reforms in the administration of school systems and in curriculum theory and
practice have been asked for and a4re currently being put into effect.  Recently,
reform of the education of teachers is being added to the lo9ng list of reforms
needed.  Many reform activists feel that direct changes need to be made on the
methods of training and certifying the teachers of our country.  Before looking
at the reform movement, however, one must first look at the so called problem of
inconsistency in teacher certification.
     In our country today there is a general consistency among the
requirements for state certification of teachers.  Most states require their
teacher institutions to establish a teacher education program that includes
coursework and fieldwork.  The coursework includes those courses that prepare a
student to become a professional teacher and those classes that include major
and minor fields of specialization.  Fieldwork, which is probably the most
important of the two forms of requirements, involves the individual interested
in being a teacher going out and observing, practicing, and preparing to enter
the educational world as an instructor.  There is no argument that all schools
in every state has these basic requirements of teacher certification.  However,
the inconsistency lies within how the numerous institutions go about in teaching
these requirements.  Each post-secondary school is given the jurisdiction to
choose how they are going to go about meeting these basic teacher certification
requirements.  For example, many states require a different amount of field
hours.  An inconsistency can also be seen in the various models of teacher
education that are  used throughout the nation.  Two education researchers,
Howey and Zimpher conducted a study on this variety of models in 1989.  They
came up with three different attempts of teacher training.  The first, known as
the teacher's college model, involves certification students entering a separate
school within a university that is a "teacher's college".  The second approach
is called the liberal arts model by the researchers, and is a method that
requires and individual to become specialized in a certain liberal arts subject
in order to create "capable and cultured human beings".  The third and final
model discussed by Howley and Zimpher is entitled the competency-based model.
This method trains individuals in the arts o motivation and understanding.  As
one can see by this case study, there have been a variety of approaches to
teacher certification.  An inconsistency can similarly be detected by looking at
the various new and innovative ideas in teacher education.  Among these include
the alternative route, a topic discussed earlier, and the five-year degree
program, and issue to be discussed shortly in this section.  Altogether, one
could state that there is some inconsistency in teacher certification, and this
inconsistency brings about a small problem in the educational spectrum of our
world.  In my opinion, there is no national and universal set of requirements
for teacher certification.  The variety of different methods and forms of
teacher education programs is caus...

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