http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/383280167

The preparation of teachers an unstudied problem in education

"For a number of years, the authors of this book have been interested in and concerned with the nature and efficacy of teacher training. As colleagues on a research project on anxiety in elementary school children (Sarason, Davidson, Lighthall, Waite, and Ruebush, 1960), Drs. Sarason and Davidson found themselves becoming increasingly involved with the plight of the classroom teacher. On the one hand, they became acutely aware of the complexity of the teacher's task of guiding and stimulating children's learning and, on the other hand, of the inadequacy of their training for their difficult role. In addition, it became quite obvious that, as a group, teachers were acutely aware of this state of affairs, an awareness complicated by the knowledge that there was little they could do to remedy the situation. They could take more courses, but they held a very dim view of what they could gain thereby. From time to time. Dr. Blatt, who, as chairman of the Department of Special Education at Southern Connecticut State College, was vitally interested in teacher training, joined in discussions with Davidson and Sarason. These discussions resulted in a more comprehensive and realistic conception of the nature and problems of teacher training and in the exploration of a new approach to teacher training at Southern Connecticut State College. This approach is described and discussed in Chapters 4 and 5 of this book. The more we got into the problem (by talking with teachers, observing them in classrooms, and scrutinizing the contents and procedures of various teacher-training programs), the more we became convinced of two things: First, most teachers teach in a way reflecting the concept that education consists primarily of what we put into children rather than what we can get out of them. It is admittedly an exaggeration--but it may help us make our point--to say that more often than not children seem to be viewed as computers in whom we store information so that it can be recalled upon certain signals. Second, teacher-training programs reinforce this conception, that is, teachers handle children in the learning process in the same way that they were handled in the course of their professional training. These two dominant impressions are elaborated on in this book, together with recommendations about how this state of affairs can begin to be remedied"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

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