Re: courses (etc.) on pedagogical technique

[John Clement <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>]

> -----Original Message-----
> > From: John Clement [mailto:clement@HAL-PC.ORG]
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 9:14 PM
> >
> > This is a wonderful idea, but often reality is very different
> > from theory.
> > Most teacher preparation courses tend to be book oriented and
> > do not really
> > prepare teachers for the problems in class.
>
> When and where did you take your teacher ed courses?
>
> The reason I ask is because I also was disappointed with my teacher prep
> courses, which I took 15 years ago at Temple.  However, both the
> coursework
> and the faculty have changed a great deal since then.  I teach a teacher
> prep course and, of course, I try not to repeat the failures of
> the teacher
> prep courses I took.
>
> P.S. I assume you have also taught teacher ed courses, no?  How successful
> were you at teaching it "the right way"?
> ____________________________________________
> Robert Cohen; rcohen@po-box.esu.edu; http://www.esu.edu/~bbq
> Physics, East Stroudsburg Univ., E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301

I have never taught any teacher prep courses.  The courses I took were about
6 years ago at Sam Houston State U.  I did it under what is called a
deficiency plan.  The choice of courses had little to do with my
preparation.  Many of the rules for doing this were really not designed
realistically.  Why should a PhD have to take the same state entrance exam
that an incoming prospective freshman takes?  A course I wished to take was
classified as graduate and I was not allowed to take more than 6 hours at
the graduate level.  Never mind that I am qualified to teach at the graduate
level.  Also they had a lot of trouble evaluating my transcript.  It seems
that the current average GPA for certification is set high primarily because
of grade inflation.  This poses severe difficulties for those of us who
never experienced the bliss of the grade inflation.  Some of the really
silly courses have been replaced or revamped.  However I did become good
friends with one very good professor.  She became disillusioned with the
school and most teacher prep especially in science in the US.  She is now
doing teacher prep in the Middle East.  I could have gone to other schools,
but I wished to do all of the coursework in the summer and the tuition was
much cheaper than the area private schools.  They made me pay for the cheap
tuition by requiring more courses and imposing bureacracy.

I would love to be able to try my hand at teacher prep in the sciences.
Family considerations preclude a move at the present and I have not seen any
good positions locally based.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX