Yale Teacher Preparation Program: Our Approach
Part of the legacy of people like Ella Baker and Septima Clark is a faith that ordinary people who learn to believe in themselves are capable of extraordinary acts, or better, of acts that seem extraordinary to us precisely because we have such an impoverished sense of the capacities of ordinary people. If we are surprised by what these people accomplished, our surprise may be a commentary on the angle of vision from which we view them.
Charles Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom
The goal of teacher education is not to indoctrinate or train teachers to behave in prescribed ways, but to educate teachers to reason soundly about their teaching as well as to perform skillfully. Sound reasoning requires both a process of thinking about what they are doing and an adequate base of facts, principles and experiences from which to reason. Teachers must learn to use their knowledge base to provide the grounds for choices and actions. Therefore, teacher education must work with the beliefs that guide teacher actions, with the principles and evidence that underlie the choices teachers make.
(Shulman, 1987)
The Yale Teacher Preparation Program is a plan of study that educates students with a strong liberal arts background for the complex and demanding job of teaching. Combining theory and practice, the program encourages disciplined reflection, intellectual pursuit and a dedication to making a difference. Prospective teachers are expected to develop sophisticated knowledge of students, subject matter and pedagogy grounded in a personal philosophy of education.
We seek to impart to our candidates through our words and actions a passion for excellence in teaching. We do this by modeling distinctive teaching and by providing an intellectually and experientially rigorous curriculum that creates a foundation for a life-long journey of inquiry worthy of great minds. The curriculum is organized around seven core competencies:
• A vision of teaching grounded in a personal philosophy
• Knowledge of subject matter
• Knowledge of instruction
• Knowledge of students
• Knowledge of organizational context
• Knowledge of self
• A habit of reflective practice
Our goal is to develop novice capacities of teaching practices while imparting new habits of mind that open up a vision of developing expertise. Such a habit of mind is more than the acquisition of knowledge. It involves disciplined application, openness to learning from practice and a commitment to making a difference.
A complete description of our approach is contained in our conceptual framework.
