Re-Casting Teacher Effectiveness Approaches to Teacher Education

Abstract

Future economic prosperity across most OECD nations depends upon education and the work of teachers to bridge under-achievement, particularly amongst the disadvantaged. Successive policy interventions have often (1) failed to stem the alleged decline and (2) exacerbate entrenched disparities between the highest and lowest performing students. Contemporary policy efforts focus on teacher effectiveness representations of achievement presuming cause-effect dependence between teaching practice(s) and learning. This chapter will (1) provide an outline of the policy rationale coursing through contemporary thinking on teacher education offering a critical review of teacher effectiveness approaches to student learning and (2) attempt to recast teacher effectiveness approaches to student achievement proposing that the field of teacher education address instead the notion of teacher capabilities in order to develop and strengthen student capabilities.