A Doctor That Inspired A New Way To Train Teachers And How That's Catching Up

Professors at the University of Michigan are trying to bring a radical change after years of training teachers in the same way. They are going to move away from the years long practice of sending teachers to teach in the classrooms after just a small time of student teaching. They are basically creating a new method - one that is based upon how the doctors are trained i.e. extending teacher training through the first 3 years after entering into the field.

An English teacher from Detroit's Munger Elementary Middle School said that she spent 14 weeks teaching fourth grade students when all of a sudden she found herself educating a seventh grade classroom. She has a supportive mentor at the school but it's kind of trial and error and you have to figure it all out on your own. This is kind of ludicrous for the teachers.

The new approach will lead to better outcomes for the students and also keep teachers in the class for a longer period. Right now, one in 10 are leaving the profession after their first year. The hope is to keep teachers in urban schools working more. Students in these areas are lacking academically and there are limited resources for teachers. This has led to 35% new teachers leaving the profession in their first year. Once it is up and running, it is expected that between half to two-thirds of the faculty will be veteran teachers and the others will be residents.

By: Neha Maheshwari

Content: https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/detroit/2018/07/18/how-a-doctor-inspired-a-new-way-to-train-teachers-and-how-that-is-leading-to-a-new-kind-of-school/