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The College of Education and Human Services is not part of the national call to significantly change teacher training, university officials say.
According to the New York Times, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a speech Thursday at Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York that all universities needed a revolutionary change in the way they prepare teachers. Duncan said many, if not most, colleges and universities are doing a “mediocre job” of preparing teachers for the realities of the classroom.
Jan Waggoner, director of teacher education, said she believes SIUC’s program is not one that needs changes. Waggoner said the college was cited as one of the top 100 colleges of teacher education programs and works to ensure the students are as prepared as possible for the classrooms.
“I don’t know that we would fall into the mediocre category that (Duncan) is naming or needing for the revolutionary change because we have been growing,” Waggoner said. “Most of us … have been making those changes all along.”
Duncan said in his speech that he had met hundreds of teachers who complained about not being prepared enough for the classroom. A 2006 report by Arthur Levine, a former president of the Teachers College, found three out of five education school alumni felt their training failed to prepare them for the classroom, but Waggoner said that is not the case on the Carbondale campus.
Waggoner said the college uses a Teacher Data Warehouse database in part to track university graduates’ satisfaction with their teacher education program through an externally conducted survey. The data shows 90 percent of university graduates were satisfied or very satisfied with their program training, Waggoner said.
“We feel like these students are giving us the feedback that, ‘yes, they feel prepared by our program,’” Waggoner said. “Can we make improvements? Of course we can.”
Waggoner said the college also uses exit surveys each semester to assess students’ satisfaction with the program and to make improvements.
Melissa King, a graduate student in behavior analysis and therapy from St. Louis, said she feels very prepared by the college for her post-graduate plans. As a student worker at the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders, King said she gets to see her professor’s lessons in action.
“Everything you learn in your classes, you use here,” King said.
Stephanie Horn, a graduate student in communication disorders and sciences from Carterville, said she attended the university for her undergraduate degree as well and said she believes the faculty and staff provides direction and support for students.
“I love it,” Horn said. “(The faculty) are awesome.”
Horn said faculty directs students to all necessary resources and are very hands-on. As the semester continues, she said they gradually step back to allow the students to learn without constant supervision.
Madeleine Leroux can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 254.
