NEW PAPERBACK PUBLISHED BY UA PROFESSOR

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Professor Christopher Lucas’s 1997 book, Teacher Education in America; Reform Agendas for the Twenty-First Century has been newly issued in paperback this month by trade publisher St. Martin’s Press. The book, heralded by Choice as "a tightly written text," and judged by other reviewers as "provocative," "informative," and "disturbing," is a thought-provoking analysis of the major issues and problems surrounding teacher preparation.

Teacher Education in America chronicles the history of teacher preparation from colonial days in America through the antebellum years all the way to the present, highlighting the flux between the less restrictive and the more fastidious approach of preparing educators.

"Deep and abiding disagreements over the best way to prepare teachers for the classroom continue to divide policy-makers, teacher educators, and the public at large," writes Lucas. "What is important is that in a field long notorious for its fads and changing fashions, the imperative to rethink afresh the basics of teacher preparation remains a perennial challenge."

Lucas outlines in brief his main arguments regarding a revision of teacher preparation:

. Most teacher preparation programs "front load" too much information, presenting material before it can be fully appreciated, adequately understood, or appropriately applied.

. Attempting to combine a liberal education for future teachers and adequate preparation for teaching within the limited confines of an undergraduate degree program is a poor compromise, a trade-off that ultimately shortchanges the imperative to foster both subject matter competence and technical proficiency.

. Prospective teachers ought to have attained a certain minimal mastery of the subject or subjects they propose to teach to younger children.

. Teacher education should be removed from the undergraduate setting and repositioned as its own unique type of post-baccalaureate career preparation.

. Admission to post-baccalaureate teacher preparation should be selective.

. Entry level teacher preparation ought to combine an apprenticeship with intensive didactic instruction, within a program of limited proportions and comparatively brief duration.

. After satisfying all requirements of the post-baccalaureate practicum, teacher candidates should be required to complete a salaried probationary internship leading to longer term licensure and regular full-time employment.

. Neither an academic institution nor a state agency should mandate testing as a precondition for completing a preparatory program or for teacher licensure - unless or until examination results can be shown to predict success in teaching.

(Christopher Lucas, Teacher Education in America, 1999; pp 293-302)

"Mainstream thinking in teacher education today," writes Lucas, "still beset on all sides by continuing allegations of laxity and anemic standards, calls for even tighter control, ever more protracted training programs at the post-baccalaureate level, more stringent licensing mechanisms, national advanced certification standards, and 'career ladders’ for teachers."

Lucas has served as head of the department of Educational Leadership, Counseling and Foundations in UA’s College of Education and Health Professions since 1993. He earned his M.A.T. at Northwestern University and his Ph.D. at Ohio State, and worked at the University of Missouri and Kent State before his appointment at the U of A. The author of 14 books and more than 100 articles, Lucas is past president of the American Educational Studies Association, the Society of Professors of Education, and the founder of the Council of Learned Societies in Education.

###