Education and Work for the Year 2000: The Choices We Face. Implications for Vocational Industrial Teacher Education.

Overview & Synopsis

Changes already underway in the U.S. economy have made it increasingly important for students to acquire symbolic-analytic skills and technical skills. Of all the available options for improving the education of vocational industrial teachers to help them prepare students for work in the 21st century, the most reasonable alternative appears to be that of identifying trends and issues shaping the future and developing strategies for tomorrow's needs by combining the best practices of present and past with new and creative solutions that address the concerns of the future. A systematic strategy must be developed to revitalize the preparation of well-qualified vocational industrial education teachers to prepare youths to enter the work force of the future. One way of preparing tomorrow's teachers to achieve a level of excellence is by having them move through a high-quality formal teacher education program that is consistent with state certification requirements and that provides rewards and incentives for teachers to become master teachers after moving up along the career ladder of provisional teacher, associate teacher, and standard teacher. (This paper includes a proposed framework for approved vocational industrial teacher education programs and a proposed set of guidelines for the professional studies component of the proposed framework.) (MN)