Integrating Liberal Education, Preparation for Work and Human Development: Implications for Teacher Education.

Overview & Synopsis

There has been a long-standing debate about the proper relationships between teacher preparation and liberal education. The current wave of concern about the quality of teacher preparation, combined with enrollment declines in colleges of education, has led to major reorganization in some institutions which have moved significant portions of the teacher preparation curriculum into colleges of arts and sciences. Research and theory concerning success at work and human development involves a set of clearly identifiable cognitive skills, interpersonal skills, and motivational characteristics. Basic competencies for teachers, such as those outlined by an Interim Commission as part of the Tennessee Better Schools program, must be integrated with the goals of liberal education. The generic and transferable competencies and personal characteristics which result from this integration are essential requirements for effective teaching. In addition, research concerning human development, and in particular ego development, is also highly congruent with the basic perspectives supplied by these analyses. These conceptions concerning human development reveal concrete implications for choosing specific educational practices in higher education and in colleges of teacher education. (JMK)