Newsgroups: bit.listserv.edpolyan
Date:         Tue, 10 Nov 1992 09:21:00 EST
              <EDPOLYAN@ASUACAD.BITNET>
From:         "James Rosinia / (919) 966-1148" <JIMR@UNC.BITNET>
Subject:      middle grades teacher preparation

The Center for Early Adolescence of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill announces the publication of "Windows
of Opportunity: Improving Middle Grades Teacher Preparation."

Written by Peter C. Scales, Ph.D., the report summarizes a study
funded by the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.  The Center's
study was based on a survey of a random sample of 5th through 9th
grade teachers in eight states where middle-grades issues were a
relatively high priority as well as on data from deans of teacher
education programs and chief state school officers in those states.
This strategy yielded an unusually rich perspective on how middle-
grades teachers are prepared and what might be done to strengthen
preparation for teaching at this important level.

Middle-grades preparation programs need not only to enable pre-
service teachers to understand early adolescent development, but
also to help them translate that knowledge into key aspects of
curriculum and instruction.  The review of the literature for
this study and the results of the questionnaires lead us to
conclude that progress is slow -- most middle-grades teacher
preparation programs are insufficiently responsive to young
adolescents' developmental characteristics.

Some of the conclusions suggested by include the following:

* Despite some improvement in the last decade, fewer than one in
  five middle-grades teachers will have had special preparation
  for this level.

* On 11 topics which the literature suggests should be covered in
  middle-grades teacher education, 26% to 65% of the teachers
  rated their preparation as inadequate or poor.

* As in previous studies, teachers in our study rated cultural and
  language diversity to be the area in which they were least
  adequately prepared.  In addition, teachers said that how to help
  young adolescents manage their social and emotional development
  and how to reflect these characteristics in teaching and assessment
  techniques were also among the least adequately covered aspects of
  their preparation.

* While there seems to be agreement among middle-grades professionals
  about what middle-grades teachers ought to know and be able to do,
  and agreement that there are differences between middle-grades
  teachers and other teachers in the knowledge they need and the ways
  they should be prepared, there is only weak evidence to suggest
  that teacher education programs are changing to reflect this
  consensus on what is special about the middle grades and the young
  adolescent.

* The most common recommendation that teachers made for improving
  middle-grades teacher preparation was for earlier, longer, and more
  varied field experiences and student teaching with expert, mentor
  teachers.

* The emergence of NCATE-approved curriculum guidelines for the
  middle grades developed by NMSA and of new, outcome-based standards
  for middle-grades programs developed by NASDTEC can have a positive
  impact on changing teacher preparation programs and on defining
  what a good middle-grades preparation program looks like.

* Contrary to the literature's suggestion that teachers may not view
  middle-grades teaching as professionally desirable, more than 80%
  of the teachers in our study considered the middle grades a career
  and only 7% of the teachers said they did not like teaching this
  age group.

The full report is available for $15 (plus 10% shipping and handling)
for those who wish to learn more about the study's findings and the
recommendations for improving teacher preparation for the middle
grades.  Orders must be prepaid.  For more information, contact
  The Center for Early Adolescence
  The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  D-2 Carr Mill Town Center
  Carrboro, NC  27510
  Phone: 919/966-1148
  Fax: 919/966-7657
  'net: jimr@unc.bitnet
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