Building a Teacher Education “To Do List”

Abstract

This paper reviews current practices in preservice teacher education to suggest possible improvements that, if practiced, might help mediate many pressures young teachers face. Here we (1) synthesize our recent research in the area of in-service teacher professional learning to inform teacher education programs and (2) use these research findings to suggest possible changes and improvements to pre-service teacher education programs. Synthesizing the research, we generate a “To Do List” of six activities we believe would improve preservice education programs. We believe such instructional activities and pedagogies can become essential foundations that would help build more efficacious teachers, help stem the exodus from teaching, and help our teacher education programs begin to educate teachers for the wellness of long and healthy careers.