Lessons Learned 1977-2010

Returning to the secondary school classroom 20 years ago dramatically altered my perspectives on teacher education and set me on course to participate in the self-study of teacher education practices. I have studied my own practices in a method course and in practicum supervision, leading to significant improvements in both.

Now beginning my 34th year as a teacher educator, I have developed a list of lessons learned that were far from obvious to me when I naively began my first year of teaching people to teach. Despite the rhetoric of change and the eternal quest for improvement, teacher education programs tend to be remarkably stable and similar across state and national boundaries. [At the bottom of the next page in this site is a link to a conference paper that elaborates briefly on each lesson. Follow the link just above.]

I am not looking for agreement, but I hope that my lessons learned will stimulate productive discussion and debate. The links at the left list the lessons either as a full list or in smaller groups, ending with links to materials related to self-study, program renewal and innovation in teacher education.

Comments welcome by email: tomatqueens@gmail.com