| Currently,the issues in teacher education can be summed up in the epistemology of teacher types and their implications.Different types of teachers,such as “moral demonstration”,“technical rationality” and “practical reflection”,all reflect the educational concept and value pursuit during a particular historical stage.The change of teacher types,to a great extent,also affects the design of teacher education objectives and determines its practice form.Therefore,this paper takes the transitional development of teacher education in the United States since the 20 th century as the research object,starting from the core issue of “what kind of teachers are needed”,and offers analysis by combining with the transitional development of teacher education caused by the change of teacher training objectives since the 20 th century.Finally,the paper traces and evaluates the practice of teacher education in terms of teacher types in a certain historical period.To cultivate the teachers of “Moral Demonstration” type is the basic form and nature of teacher cultivation of the teacher education in the United States before the 1920 s.Before the 19 th century,under the influence of the western philosophy of virtue,receiving education gradually became a specific mission in the course of human development.All education for young people was subordinate to moral purposes.Teachers were endowed with moral authority for this purpose,that is,as a teacher,his moral responsibility or commitment came out top of the list,and his technology or knowledge was of secondary importance.Moreover,Influenced by the “apprenticeship” teaching method in Britain,teaching process was conducted mainly by demonstration,and teachers admonished and taught his students in the image of a moral model.This teacher education mode held that learning to teach was basically a process of continuous experience and repeated practice,and that the knowledge needed by future teachers mainly depended on observing and learning from other teachers’ teaching and our own teaching practice.This teaching method lasted for a long time in the United States.Until 1839,the first public normal school was founded in Massachusetts,and then,through the efforts of public school leaders such as Horace Mann,a large number of public normal schools were established in the United States.Most of these normal schools were attached with demonstration schools,which put moral education at the core,and mainly trained “moral demonstration” teachers.Promoted by the movement of public schools and the popularization of basic education,the “moral model” teacher education was developed on a large scale,providing a considerable number of teachers for public primary and secondary schools.Since the 20 th century,the requirement of improving teachers’ quality and transforming teachers’ profession to a specialized profession became a hot issue.The training goal which was characteristic of the traditional moral authority and “moral demonstration” teachers through “apprenticeship” model teaching,gradually failed to meet the requirements of the times and the development of education for teacher education.The “moral demonstration” teacher education was facing the transition.However,it should be pointed out that for a long time,“moral demonstration” type teachers were still a potential hypothetical goal of teachers’ vocational training.After the 1930 s,the tentacle of technological rationalism extended to various professionals’ education,including teacher education.Consequently,the teaching process also became a technological process.Teachers became the executors of this technical profession-teaching technicians.Normal colleges also began to gradually guide teachers to become technicians with skilled knowledge and teaching methods,and also shaped standardized citizens conforming to social rationality according to the teaching law of technical rationalism,which is Technological rationality assumes that educational technology and theory exist universally,that educational practice is the link of applying theory and testing theory,and that practitioners are merely instrumental problem solvers.Since then,public and private universities have gradually become models for normal universities because of their high academic level and good social reputation.Most normal schools,by extending their years of study and improving their admission standards,have begun to push forward towards the higher education level,transforming themselves into normal colleges and then becoming part of state universities or state universities.Public and private universities have gradually become the central position of teacher education,and teacher education itself has gradually realized “University-orientation”.The process of the “ University-orientation” of teacher education has been also accompanied by the gradual elimination of the moral dimension of teacher education and the “technological rationality” teacher education was gradually rising.Since then,teacher education in the United States has chosen to follow the path of other prestigious professions such as clergy,doctors and lawyers.At the same time,teachers’ training institutions,often comprehensive universities,have been striving to increase the content of liberal education and develop pedagogy into an applied discipline.However,after the mid-20 th century,the “technological rationality” teacher education has been questioned by teachers including Conant because of its excessive advocacy of the teaching effect brought about by science and technology,and its neglect of teachers’ autonomous development and subjective inquiry,and the separation of teaching theory from teaching practice.The linear knowledge imparting method adopted by “technological rationality” teachers has been criticized for not taking into account the changing actual teaching situation.Under this background,Schoen’s “reflective practitioner” provided a new way to understand the professional image of teachers,that is,to grasp the connotation of teachers’ profession from the understanding of the characteristics of “clinical” and “on-site” of teachers’ profession.Teachers are not “skilled technicians” assembled by external technology and principles,but reflective practitioners who constantly construct and enhance their own experience through practice,and the “reflective practice” type of teacher training goal has been formed.After the 1980 s,the “reflective practice” teacher education in the United States has been driven by many factors,such as basic education reform,teacher professionalization movement,cognitive psychology development and action research,and has begun its prosperous development.In a word,the history of Teacher Education in the United States since the 20 th century is a history of the transformation and development of teacher types and their training system,ideology,theory and practice,which has its historical inevitability.Social development and change in the United States fundamentally require and call for the transformation and development of teacher types and their training systems in the United States;the traditional moral model of teachers,modern technological determinism and the modern and contemporary subjective active practice,as well as the expansion of basic education and the need to improve quality and the upgrading of teacher-training institutions,which have directly contributed to this historic transformation.This historic transformation and development has not only brought about new connotations and upgrades of American teachers’ types and their training systems,but also enriched and promoted the types of American teachers and their training systems.Its enlightment value and reference significance should be understood and memorized by contemporary teachers and practioners of teacher education theory and practice. |
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