Teacher Preparation gaining popularity at Yale

JOHN YI/YH Edith MacMullen, director of Yale's Teacher Preparation, has welcomed an increasing number of Yalies into the program.

Anna Erickson, PC '01, a student in Yale's Teacher Preparation program (TP), is frustrated by the comments made by some her peers. They wonder why she would spend nine of her credit hours learning how to teach students at the primary and secondary school levels.

"I've had acquaintances who've said, `Why do you want to be a teacher when you go to Yale?'" she explained. "That's really frustrating. To me, there is nothing more valuable than inspiring people to learn."

Erickson's penchant for teaching is shared by an increasing number of undergraduates across the nation. About 10 percent of freshmen now say that they want to teach in elementary or secondary schools. These numbers, published in the 1998 survey are the highest in over 25 years, according to the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at U.C.L.A.

According to TP Director Edith MacMullen, enrollment in Yale's program reflects this national trend. "I think it's wonderful that students from liberal arts colleges want to be teachers. Both the numbers of students actually in Teacher Prep and the numbers just enrolled in the courses are going up," she said. Yale's TP prepares students for certification as teachers.

Other selective liberal arts schools with undergraduate teacher preparation programs, such as Princeton and Harvard, also have seen their numbers increase over the years. Next month, a group of 16 such colleges and universities in New England will convene at Yale. The Consortium for Excellence in Teacher Education, which includes universities such as Mt. Holyoke, Brown, and Smith, will be on campus Wed., Oct. 6 and Thurs., Oct. 7.

Yale's TP began in 1972, after the master's degree in education was phased out during the late 1960s. As it stands today, TP is similar to a secondary major such as International Studies in the number of credits required and in that students must apply for the program as sophomores.

Beginning in the junior year, the TP student must take two semesters of analytical or theoretical education, the mandatory junior seminar (TP 190), which includes classroom observation, and two courses in developmental psychology. A final course in pedagogy, "Methods of Teaching," is completed during the fall semester of the senior year.

The program culminates in a 10-week period during the student's last semester, and the student earns three credits while teaching full-time at a local public school. "The practice teaching can be seen as the senior essay of the Teacher Preparation Program," MacMullen said. "It's a very, very heavy commitment."

Nevertheless, TP is not designed to be strictly vocational in nature. "Teacher Preparation focuses on the philosophy of education and what role it plays in society," Erickson said. "Even the pedagogy class, `Methods of Teaching,' looks at teaching in a broader context. That's what makes [the TP program] different at Yale."

While TP is designed for students in Yale College, growing numbers of graduate and post-graduate students have become involved. This year, the program includes graduate students in biology and in forestry and environmental studies, as well as a former investment banker. Presently, about one-quarter of the program's participants are not undergraduates.

Vivek Maru, LAW '00, is just beginning his teacher preparation training. Before coming to Yale, he spent time in India developing literacy curricula for impoverished rural communities. He sees the combination of teacher prep and his law studies as the perfect integration of his interests in education reform. "I have a long-standing interest in education," Maru said. "I'm thinking about going forward in education and education reform at the institutional level, which is what law is useful for. For someone going into education, nothing beats teaching at the grass-roots level in public schools."

The participation of graduate students and post-professionals challenges the widely held notion that teaching is a plebian task. "A common perception among Yale students is that somehow they are better than teachers," MacMullen explained. "This reflects the values of our society. Teaching in America is a low-status position. It doesn't pay well, and the public press is constantly dumping on teachers." According to MacMullen, this type of thinking endangers the quality of public education. "If we don't get the best and the brightest, what will happen to our schools?" she asked.

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