Theory Intersects With Practice:A Study On Clinically-based Teacher Education In The United States

The quality of teachers is a key factor for Successful teaching.Throughout the experience of the development of education all over the world,all countries put teacher education in a crucial position,committed to optimize the teacher education projects,and constantly improve the quality of teacher training.The United States has always paid great attention to the development of teacher education,and has taken the lead in the reform of pre-service teacher education.Well-designed teacher education programs at colleges and universities across the United States have provided schools with a critical mass of excellent teachers.In order to improve the quality of Teacher Education,the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education(NCATE)has proposed the concept of clinically-based Teacher Education,which based on the clinical practice in medicineeducation.Clinically-based Teacher Education emphasize clinical practice,Theory intersects with practice and focus on training the practical teaching ability of pre-service teacher.To a certain extent,the clinical practice teacher education has improved the quality of pre-service teacher training,provided reference for the reform and development of pre-service teacher training,and responded to the call,teacher Education programs across the United States have begun extensive renewal efforts,and many colleges and local elementary and high schools have established mutually beneficial partnerships that serve as bases for improving the practical skills of future teachers.The thesis attempts to reveal the approach to the implementation of clinical-oriented teacher education programs in the United States and explore how to develop effective teachers.First of all,based on several reports on teacher training related to clinical practice orientation from relevant authoritative organizations in the United States,the author summarized the five most core and outstanding key elements in the reported clinical practice oriented teacher education program,Including the centrality of learners and learning,coherent and consistent curriculum design,effective teacher educators,partnerships between schools and universities,and enhanced use of data and evidence in clinical practice.These five key elements constitute the analytical framework of this study.Secondly,in order to further explore the operation of clinical practical teacher education at the project level,the case study method and comparative study method were used in this study.This study takes the cooperative teaching program of St.Cloud State University and the teacher education program of the University of Delaware as examples.By comparing five dimensions,such as project objective orientation,project curriculum design,selection and training of practice instructors,and evidence-based evaluation,this paper analyzes how clinical practical teacher education projects reflect the key elements of the analysis framework in practice.Finally,this study combined with the deficiencies of China’s current teacher training plan,put forward the enlightenment and suggestions to improve the training of normal university students: pay attention to the consistency of the training goal of normal university students and the basic education goal;Adjust the curriculum structure and promote the coherence and integration of theory and practice courses;Encourage active cooperation between universities and primary and secondary schools;Strengthen the selection and training of practice instructors;construct the evaluation system of evidence-based education practice and promote the scientific and professional decision-making.