COTEP:A Cooperative Effort to Improve Teacher Education.

Overview & Synopsis

The Coalition of Teacher Education Programs (COTEP) is a voluntary group of six Indiana universities: Ball State, Indiana State, Indiana University, Purdue, and the University of Evansville. This report from COTEP summarizes the recommendations made in nine commissioned papers on improving the education of teachers. These papers focused on topics of direct interest to schools of education, such as the recruitment of minority students, the use of case studies in teacher education, the liberal arts curriculum, and the placement of teacher education in general. The first section of the report deals with the recruitment, admission and retention phases of teacher education. The second section covers major concerns in the development of an effective curriculum for teacher education students. The focus of this section is on the three basic components of teacher education: general education, majors/minors, and professional education. In the third section, the establishment of effective field experience programs is discussed. The fourth section examines the role and responsibilities of university supervisors of student teaching. Induction of new teachers and teacher certification are the topics covered in the final section. Specific recommendations for the improvement of teacher education programs in each topic area are given, the rationale for each recommendation is presented, and suggestions are provided for implementing the recommendations. Appendixes include a list of the commissioned papers and a summary of the recommendations. A 15-page bibliography is also included. (JD)