The classroom vignette that you just read depicts a situation experienced by many
beginning teachers. Despite being very excited about teaching for the first time, Mrs.
Hamblin is overwhelmed with the number of decisions that she needs to make during
any single classroom day, regardless of how well she plans her lessons. What can she
do to motivate Cassandra? Why are many of her students not showing progress in math?
How should she address Freddie’s behavior? What could she do to help Martha become
accepted by her peers?
You probably have much experience with formal education already because you
had the opportunity to interact with several teachers and instructors and completed
hundreds of classroom activities and assignments as a student. During all these years
of education, you may also have developed strong preferences for certain subjects,
teaching styles, and study strategies. However, if you are the typical student taking this
course, you may not have much or any experience as a teacher and may be only a few
months away from being in Mrs. Hamblin’s shoes. Like her, you probably look forward
to the day when you have developed as much expertise and confidence as Ms. Jasmine,
her mentor teacher.
Beginning teachers will enter the classroom with enthusiasm, idealism, and optimism
(Shea, 1993). Yet they share common concerns across the nation and the world
due to the complexity of the teaching profession (Brock & Grady, 1998; Johnson, 2001).
For example, a common finding among teachers who take on their first teaching position
is the shock that stems from the conflict between their pre-service educational experiences
and the reality of everyday classroom life, which is harsher and more complex
than expected. Lampert (2001) suggests at least four elements that make up the complexity
of the teaching profession.
1. Teaching is never routine: Teachers must constantly deal with changing standards
and curriculum, learning needs, questions, and dilemmas.
2. Teaching has multiple goals: Teachers need to address at the same time students’
intellectual, social, and emotional development.
3. Teaching is done in relationship with a diversity of learners: Teachers need to
orchestrate the needs of a group of students who are diverse in terms of their
strengths, backgrounds, areas for improvement, and special needs.
4. Teaching requires the integration of several knowledge types: Teachers need to
continually combine their knowledge about child development, subject matter,
individual and group pedagogies, and learner diversity to promote the learning
of all students.
In addition, there is a complex set of external factors that will interact with teachers
and students, adding to the complexity of teaching. For instance, teaching will be
affected by the resources and organization of the school, the conditions and existing
relationships with the community served by the school, the changing requirements of
the standard-based and accountability movements, and the involvement of students’
parents. Although the multifaceted nature of the teaching profession may seem overwhelming
to the beginning teacher, keep in mind that all experts started as novices
and, most likely, shared the same concerns of beginning teachers in their early career.
Most beginning teachers question their adequacy as teachers at some point; worry about
their professional survival; and are concerned about how their principal, fellow
teachers, parents, and students judge their competency (Levin, 2003). This finding,
however, comes as no surprise. Teaching seems to be one of the few professions in which
a beginner teacher needs to assume the same or more responsibilities than a veteran teacher (Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon, 1998). Because the increasing diversity
of the student population and the current accountability movement are receiving much
attention in education, let’s examine each of these in more detail next.
The Increasing Student Diversity
The increasing diversity in the classroom has become one of the most significant realities
for teachers. For instance, ethnic minority students make up the majority of the
school population in 25 of the nation’s largest school districts, which are overwhelmingly
urban (Hoffman, 2003). Public schools include, on average, the following percentages
of ethnic minority students: 20% Hispanic-Americans, 17% African-Americans,
5% Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders, and 1.7% American Indian/Alaskan Native students
(Fry, 2007; U.S. Department of Education, 2008). One of every five children in
the United States is from an immigrant family, and it is estimated that by 2040 the proportion
will increase to one-third (Suarez-Orozco, 2002). Furthermore, approximately
17% of public school students live in poverty, 13% receive special education services,
and 8% speak little or no English at home (National Center for Education Statistics,
2003; U.S. Department of Education, 2008).
While the percentage of language and cultural minority students is increasing
rapidly, the percentage of ethnic minority teachers is decreasing. This disparity emphasizes
the need for teachers to become knowledgeable about students’ backgrounds so
that they can design instruction that is sensitive to their needs (Bennett, 2007; Okagaki,
2006; Spring, 2007). Effective teachers in today’s classroom serve as cultural mediators;
they guide students to think critically about diversity, reduce bias, and promote acceptance
among diverse students (Banks, 2006; Cushner, 2006; Redman, 2007).
Furthermore, competent teachers reflect on their own biases, expectations, and practices
to work effectively with diverse students and take into consideration individual differences
within groups to form hypotheses about what strategies are likely to be effective
with each student (Pang, 2005). For example, based on past test scores and
the former teacher’s comments, Mr. Jensen had assumed (wrongly) that
many of his students would not be motivated to learn to read. As he gets to
know his students better, he finds that most of them are very interested in
music, especially rap. Not being familiar with rap, Mr. Jenson learns about
the genre and incorporates rap into his lessons. He finds that many of the
students who seemed to be unmotivated at the beginning of the year are
now excited during reading class and making significant progress.
As you will learn in the next chapter, student diversity includes temperament;
gender; a range of language, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds;
differences in ability, cognitive styles, and learning preferences;
and students with disabilities. Although in many cases teachers will be able
to adapt instruction to students’ unique characteristics, an additional challenge
in today’s classroom comes from the need to include students with
special needs within the context of general classroom activities. About
13.6% of students in the U.S. public schools receive special education services
today (U. S. Department of Education, 2008). The Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) gives all students with special needs the
right to a free and appropriate education and requires that, to the extent
possible, they be provided with the least restrictive learning environment.
As you will learn in more detail in the next chapter, schools are also
required by law to provide students with special needs with an individualized
education program (IEP), which is a blueprint for the academic, social,
physical, and affective needs of each student. An important role for the general
classroom teacher is to devise IEPs for special education students in
collaboration with special education teachers, resource professionals, and
parents as well as provide tailored instruction to alleviate some of the obstacles
to learning of this group of students (Torgensen, 1996).
The Accountability Movement
In January 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act, more commonly known as No Child Left
Behind (NCLB). The law requires that all children in grades 3 through 8 score at the proficient
level or above on tests of math, reading/language arts, and science by 2014, with
negative consequences for schools and districts that fail to show progress toward those
goals. When you read Chapter 13, you will learn that there is sharp disagreement about
the benefits of this legislation for students and teachers. Some see it as an effective means
to ensure the accountability of our education system. Because federal tax money is used
to fund schools, there needs to be a mechanism to inform the public about school and
teacher quality as well as children’s progress in key subjects. Others see NCLB as an
attempt to undercut the autonomy and vitality of public education. Regardless of your
position in this debate, experts point out that the accountability system is here to stay
(Scherer, 2001). Therefore, teachers will need to align instruction to national, state, and
local standards so that all students can successfully achieve in large-scale mandated tests.
Teachers are also becoming accountable for their own knowledge and teaching
skills. Based on the finding that quality teaching has a powerful effect on student
achievement and that minority and low-income students are often taught by underqualified
teachers (Darling-Hammond & Baratz-Snowdon, 2005), NCLB also required
all teachers to be fully qualified by 2005–2006. In response to this mandate, a number
of states collaborated to create the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support
Consortium (INTASC), which has set standards in each of the areas of professional
teacher knowledge that we introduce in this chapter (i.e., student learning, diverse
learners, assessment). The majority of the states require licensing exams such as the
PRAXISTM tests (Educational Testing Service, 2008), which are closely aligned with the
INTASC standards. In the back of this book, you will find an appendix listing a set of
10 principles from the INTASC with corresponding topics from PRAXISTM tests and
the location of these topics in the text. As you see, the current accountability movement
has an unprecedented focus on the role of the teacher’s quality in promoting
student achievement. Now that we have created some common ground about the realities
of classroom teaching, let’s discuss the role of educational psychology in the teaching
practice.
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