From Teacher to Student The Value of Teacher Education for Experienced Teachers

Very little research exists on the experiences of those who enter formal teacher preparation programs after already having taught in their own classrooms. Numerous studies have compared the experiences of novice teachers with veteran teachers (Carter, Cushing, Sabers, Stein, & Berliner, 1988; Fogarty, 1983; Korevaar & Bergen, 1992; Levin, 1995; Martin & Baldwin, 1992; Pettigrew & Buell, 1987; Strahan, 1989), and several have compared the experiences of credentialed teachers with those who either earned alternative certification or none at all (Martin & Shoho, 1999; Miller, McKenna, & McKenna, 1998; Shoho & Martin, 1999; Stoddart & Floden, 1995; Turley & Nakai, 2000). Although a comparison of alternative and traditional credentialing routes seems an important avenue of inquiry, these studies compared the experiences of different individuals; some of the teachers completed traditional teacher training programs, and others did not. By exploring the perceptions of the same individuals--reflections on their prelicensure and postlicensure teaching--this study seeks to offer a new perspective on the efficacy and value of formal teacher preparation. What vital learning provided by formal preparation do teachers perceive were unavailable to them through classroom teaching experience? Given teachers' tendency to claim that "firsthand experience" in the classroom provided most of their professional knowledge (Buchmann & Schwille, 1983), and the growing popularity of fast track or emergency credential pathways, it seems useful to consider what elements of formal teacher preparation might be missing from experience alone. METHOD OF INQUIRY AND ANALYSIS The Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) is a 12-month postbaccalaureate experience resulting in a California Professional Clear Single Subject Teaching Credential with CLAD (Crosscultural, Language, and Academic Development) certification, plus a master of arts in education. Participants complete a full year of student teaching and 45 credits of graduate coursework and enjoy regular access to university faculty, internship supervisors, and cooperating teachers. We identified 27 STEP graduates from the past 2 years of the program who had significant teaching experience prior to entering the program. We defined this as having been responsible for classroom planning, teaching, and management for the equivalent of at least one academic semester. Experience ranged from those who had taught 5 years independently to one who had served as a long-term substitute on several occasions, with the overall average teaching experience measuring just over 2 years of full-time, independent classroom teaching. Of the 128 STEP graduates from 1999 and 2000, 21% were thus identified as experienced, and we were able to contact all but 4 for the interview study. Of these 23 interviewed, nearly 90% were Caucasian and nearly 80% female, with a median age of 27. Although some of those interviewed participated in sporadic professional development opportunities during their pre-STEP teaching, only 6 received any sort of organized, sustained pedagogical training prior to teaching. The most in-depth of these was a 3-month Peace Corps orientation to teaching English abroad. A semistructured interview protocol involving fixed question and variable follow-up probes was used; audiotaped interviews lasted an average of 75 minutes. Primary areas of inquiry included teachers' perspectives on the following: (a) their teaching experience prior to STEP and any training they might have had, (b) their year of STEP study (intensive classwork and 9-month student teaching), and (c) for 1999 graduates, their first year back in their own classroom since graduating from Stanford. Among the approximately 60 fixed questions, teachers were asked to reflect on specifics of their professional practice before and after STEP, motivations for teaching and returning for formal preparation, significant learning experiences during STEP (particularly in relation to changes in practice and perspective), and shortcomings of their program experience. …