| This thesis is about admission to initial teacher education programs. It is a quantitative analysis of definitive measures of admission into teacher education programs that are predictive of successful student teaching. This study also looks at Teacher Candidate preparedness for teaching. The term preparedness is a collective term representing an amalgam of all of the experiences of Teacher Candidates leading up to teacher certification. A key to understanding the successful preparation of teachers for the classroom environment is being able to differentiate the competencies, types of knowledge, skills, and attitudes and characteristics secondary school (US) Teacher Candidates bring into the program, from those learned while in the program.; Multiple regression analyses were run to determine the predictive ability of GPA and/or Profile Grades on Practicum 1 and 2 Teacher Candidate practice teaching grades.; The New York City Teacher Survey (Silvernail, 1998) on teacher preparedness was applied to the three groups: Teacher Candidates, Mathematics Instructors and Associate Teachers. Responses were analyzed statistically for relationships among practice teaching grades, incoming GPA, student profile scores and perceived levels of preparedness to enter the teaching profession and the classroom, as assessed by the Teacher Candidates, Mathematics Instructors and Associate Teachers.; The following results were found: (1) Incoming GPA, student profiles, and a combination of the two are not strong predictors of Teacher Candidate success in practice teaching, (2) there is a weak yet significant correlation between the grades in Practicum 1 (P1) and Practicum 2 (P2), and (3) in the preparedness survey, the mean scores for each group suggest that Teacher Candidates were adequately to well prepared for teaching.; However, from the results of the preparedness survey, it would appear that appropriate US Teacher Candidates have been selected, and they are prepared to enter the profession, as judged by the Teacher Candidates themselves, their Mathematics Instructors, and their Associate Teachers. These results indicate that Teacher Candidates have had success in practice teaching and are prepared for teaching. Thus, this study has provided the basis for the next phase of research in this area, which is to investigate whether Teacher Candidates experience success in independent teaching. |
