The Language of Standards and Teacher Education Reform

Abstract

The key to successful professionalization of any practice is to convince clients and the public that a professional, as a result of education and practical experience, possesses unique knowledge and skills that can be employed to solve the particular problems of practice and thus serve client needs. Research and knowledge-based standards can convey the professional qualifications of teachers by creating a shared and public language of practice that not only describes how knowledge is used in practice but also becomes a vehicle for testing and elaborating the components of professional activity. Standards, when used in this manner by a developing profession, thus become a means to development and empowerment, not merely a means of external control.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abbott, A. D. (1988). The system of professions: An essay on the division of expert labor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy, Task Force on Teaching as a Profession . (1986). A nation prepared: Teachers for the 21st century. New York: Author.

College of Education, University of Cincinnati . (1987). A pattern language for teaching. Cincinnati, OH: Author.

College of Education, University of Cincinnati . (1993). A pattern language for teaching. Cincinnati, OH: Author.

College of Education, University of Cincinnati . (1998). A pattern language for teaching. Cincinnati, OH: Author.

Ferguson, R. F. (1991). Paying for public education: New evidence of how and why money matters. Harvard Journal on Legislation, 28, 465-498.

Greenwald, R. L. , Hedges, L.V. , & Laine, R. D. (1996). The effect of school resources on student achievement. Review of Educational Research, 66, 361-396.

The Holmes Group . (1986). Tomorrow's teachers. East Lansing, MI: Author.

Keiffer-Barone, S. (1998). Why they bail: The ecology of intern attrition in a professional development school. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati.

10.

Moss, P. A. , & Schutz, A. (1999). Risking frankness in educational assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80, 668-695.

11.

National Board of Professional Teaching Standards . (1994). What teachers should know and be able to do. Detroit, MI: Author.

12.

National Commission on Excellence in Education . (1983). A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform. Washington, DC: Author.

13.

Reynolds, M. C. (Ed.). (1989). Knowledge base for the beginning teacher. New York: Pergamon.

14.

Sanders, W. L. , & Rivers, J. C. (1996). Cumulative and residual effects of teachers on future student academic achievement. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.

15.

Yinger, R. J. (1987). Learning the language of practice. Curriculum Inquiry, 17, 293-318.

16.

Yinger, R. J. (1999). The role of standards in teaching and teacher education. In G. A. Griffin (Ed.), The education of teachers. Ninety-eighth yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Chicago: National Society for the Study of Education.