Teach Effectively!

In Ed School Asylums, Professor Plum takes another whack at the lunacy that too often passes as preparation for teaching.

Ed schools are a lot like psycho wards, and many ed perfessers are loony as well, but they DON’T know it. So, who’s the real nut?

How else would you characterize an organization that has impenetrable delusions of grandeur?

After this query, he lists a string of quotes from schools of education (with his comments on each). The quotes are notable for what they don’t say about preparing ed school students to teach and, therefore, for what they do say about ed schools.

One of the quotes (“Our graduates are reflective practitioners.”) looks suspiciously like language that my employer uses. I harbor the same concerns that Marty expresses. I know the reasoning that went into chosing that catch phrase, but I’ve never been satisfied with it. I wish we would say, “We teach our students how to identify and use those educational methods that produce the best outcomes for their students.”