Moving Forward: Redesigning an Early Childhood Teacher Education Program With Theory and Research in Mind

• In Event: Roundtable Session 52
  In Roundtable Session: Shifting Landscapes in Early Childhood Teacher Education: (Re)connecting, (Re)defining, (Re)designing, and Troubling

Abstract

P-12 schools continue to face the challenges of an increasingly diverse student population, high-stakes testing, and standards-based curricula. As teacher education programs respond to the needs of their school partners, colleges and universities also face multiple directives aimed at increasing the effectiveness and overall quality of future teachers. At the same time, some lament the ineffectiveness of teacher preparation to prepare novice teachers for the realities and rigors of life inside of schools. This article describes a New Jersey public university’s process for redesigning an early childhood teacher preparation program for the purposes of meeting the expressed needs of its teacher candidates, its school partners, systemic changes in the college, and larger movements in the field of teacher education.

Authors

• Brie Morettini, Rowan University

• Kelley J. Perkins, Rowan University

• Zeynep Isik-Ercan, Rowan University