Chapter Four of Tony Wagner’s The Global Achievement Gap

Chapter Four of Tony Wagner’s The Global Achievement Gap

Reinventing the Education Profession

If a schools main goal is to improve the student learning, then the first problem schools need to work out is to improve teaching and coaching of teachers.  Although teachers may be quick to critique others teaching, they may not be as quick to change the way they implement strategies in their own classrooms.  Tony talks about how he became a teacher.  Some of the courses he took and what he liked about them.  And how prepared he felt after graduating (which was not much).  He then goes into different experiences and teaching opportunities he had.  He talked about how many of the teachers he came to know felt as unprepared as him for their first job.  “They did not focus on the developing of the skills needed to be an effective teacher, and they rarely gave student teachers meaningful teaching experiences with knowledgeable and effective supervisors.”   He talked about how the lack of teacher preparation and support is considered the primary cause for the public school teacher attrition rate (nearly 1 in 2 teachers leaving the classroom within five years).  This is extremely high, I can see how there is always a need for new teachers.  I can also see how stressful being a new teacher will be.  The transition from student to teacher in charge of helping students grow and learn is huge!  If we are not prepared this will be a huge stressor.  How can anyone expect us to be good at our job if we are never properly trained?