Introduction to Teaching
Teaching, the act of helping someone to learn; also, the profession that deals with helping others to learn. Teaching is the largest profession in the United States. Most full-time professional teachers work in kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools, and colleges and universities—both public and private. Others teach in technical and vocational institutions, which train people for jobs in such fields as beauty culture, secretarial work, data processing, and television repair. Many men and women are part-time teachers, working either as substitutes or in recreation programs and evening schools. Some give private lessons or offer tutoring services.
Classroom teachers in elementary schools, especially in the lower grades, usually work with the same group of children during the entire school day. In junior and senior high schools, each teacher usually teaches only one or two subjects to several different groups of students.
In addition to regular classroom teachers, there are many teachers who work in special education—the education of children who are blind, deaf, emotionally disturbed, or mentally retarded, or who have other problems. They may teach them in special schools or in special classes or sessions within regular schools. Elementary teachers who work with several groups of pupils during a single day, such as music, art, or physical education teachers, are sometimes called special teachers.
College and university teachers are known as professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and instructors. Few spend more than 12 hours a week in classroom teaching. Many devote considerable time to reading, research, writing, consulting work for government and industry, or other professional activity in their special field.
The Work of Teachers
The teacher's job is to stimulate and direct his pupils in attaining major learning objectives for each course or subject taught, and minor objectives for each unit or division within each course.
To attain these objectives, the successful teacher schedules a variety of learning activities. He presents information to his students through lectures and audio-visual materials and techniques, and assigns reading from textbooks, reference works, and other sources. Some schools have classroom computers used for self-teaching and drill.
The teacher provides for an exchange of ideas and viewpoints, leading large group discussions or breaking the class up into several small discussion groups. To encourage independent study and the pursuit of individual interests, he assigns study projects to small groups of students or to individual students. He holds reviews and practice drills to help his students acquire habits and skills. To evaluate their progress and discover their learning problems, he uses various kinds of tests.
In some school systems teachers' aides are hired to take care of such routine chores as keeping records, grading tests, and supervising corridors, lunchrooms, study halls, and student activities. Freedom from such chores gives the professional teachers more time to prepare for their classes and to teach children who have learning difficulties.
In team teaching, several teachers have joint charge of a very large class, with each teacher specializing in one or a few duties. One teacher may lecture to the entire group, while another makes preparations for small discussion or practice groups to be led by individual teachers, and a third organizes audio-visual aids. In some courses, teams may divide responsibility for various aspects of the subject matter. In an English class, for example, grammar, communications, and literature might each be under the direction of a separate teacher. “Team teaching” implies that the teachers work together as a team in planning and coordinating their work so that there will be balance between the subjects covered.
Teacher Education and Certification
The institutions of higher learning that prepare men and women to teach in elementary and secondary schools are of three main types: (1) the university that includes a school, or college, of education; (2) the liberal arts college that has a department of education; and (3) the specialized institution, often called a teacher's college, that is devoted chiefly to the preparation of teachers.
A student who is preparing to become a teacher studies liberal arts subjects (such as mathematics, science, English, and history); courses in the particular subject or subjects he expects to teach; and professional education courses (usually including educational psychology, methods of teaching, and the philosophy and history of education.) Almost all schools require practice teaching, in which the student teacher, under the supervision of an experienced classroom teacher, participates in actual classroom procedures.
Every elementary and secondary public school teacher in the United States must have a teacher's certificate (a license indicating that the holder is qualified to teach) granted by the government of the state in which he wishes to teach. Most of the states require four years of college for elementary teaching certificates; all the states require at least four years of college for secondary certificates. In addition, some states require prospective teachers to pass a standardized test indicating that they have mastered the basic skills required for the job.
College and university teachers are not required to take education courses or to obtain teaching certificates. However, a doctor's degree in a field of specialization is almost a necessity for a teaching career in most leading institutions of higher learning.
History
There were professional teachers before there were schools. Students in ancient Athens paid a fee to hear a particular teacher lecture on logic, grammar, oratory, or other subjects. When Greece came under Roman rule, Greeks became the preferred teachers in noble Roman households.
In medieval Europe, the most important teaching was in practical fields, such as training young noblemen in the skills of knighthood. Academic subjects were not highly regarded and were usually taught by priests as a part of religious education. In the later Middle Ages university teaching developed into a respected profession. However, teaching younger children generally remained a part-time task for the priests. No special techniques or knowledge were considered necessary for teaching.
At the end of the 17th century, the French priest Jean Baptiste de la Salle greatly advanced the idea of teaching as a systematic procedure by founding several schools especially for teacher training. From the 17th century through the mid-19th, theories and methods designed to make teaching more effective were developed by such men as John Amos Comenius, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Friedrich Froebel, and Johann Friedrich Herbart.
Until early in the 19th century, elementary and secondary teaching in the United States involved no formal teacher training. Elementary subjects were usually taught by parents or neighbors, while secondary instruction was carried out on a part-time basis by anyone with an above-average education.
The first normal school (an institution that offered a training program for elementary teachers, taking less than four years to complete) was established in 1823 by Samuel Hall in Concord, Vermont. Throughout much of the 19th century elementary teachers generally received their training in normal schools.
Horace Mann, secretary of the Massachusetts state board of education, 1837–48, led a campaign to raise the standards of public school teaching. Through the efforts of Mann and others, teaching came to be regarded as a profession requiring a comprehensive education. By the end of the 19th century many four-year teachers colleges had been established and many normal schools were being converted to four-year colleges. In the 20th century, colleges of education were added to most universities and many liberal arts colleges added departments of education. After World War II many teachers colleges became universities or liberal arts colleges.
Beginning in the 1960's, many school districts became unionized and teachers' strikes for higher pay and better working conditions became increasingly common. The concept of having teachers pass a qualification test before certification took root in the 1970's when a number of states adopted laws incorporating this requirement. In the 1980's a number of proposals were made to give special status to outstanding teachers and to eliminate or retrain marginal ones.