Evaluating Teacher Preparation Programs: An Interdisciplinary Approach

• In Event: Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Innovative Initiatives in Teacher Education

Abstract

An interdisciplinary approach, both empirical and normative, is required to fully justify decisions about how best to prepare teachers and how to evaluate teacher education programs. Empirical research can provide evidence for the effectiveness of particular means but cannot determine the value of the educational ends those means bring about. Philosophy of education aims to clarify questions of value, but does not make claims about practice. To demonstrate the strength of an interdisciplinary approach, this paper connects the philosophical concept of flourishing to empirical evidence for the psychological construct of transformative experience. Taken together, the two accounts not only show what a full justification for a teacher preparation program might look like but also suggest new conceptions of teacher education.

Author

• Megan Sanders, The Ohio State University - Columbus