1.4 Chapter summary and references

Teaching in the twenty-first century offers a number of satisfactions—witnessing and assisting the growth of young people, lifelong learning, the challenge and excitement of designing effective instruction. Four trends have affected the way that these satisfactions are experienced by classroom teachers: (1) increased diversity of students, (2) the spread of instructional technology in schools and classrooms, (3) increased expectations for accountability in education, and (4) the development of increased professionalism among teachers. Each trend presents new opportunities to students and teachers, but also raises new issues for teachers. Educational psychology, and this textbook, can help teachers to make constructive use of the new trends as well as deal with the dilemmas that accompany them. It offers information, advice, and useful perspectives specifically in three areas of teaching: (1) students as learners, (2) instruction and assessment, and (3) the psychological and social awareness of teachers.

On the internet

< www.ets.org/praxis >Try this website of the Educational Testing Service if you are curious to learn more about licensing examinations for teachers, including the PRAXIS II test that is prominent in the United States (see pp. xxx). As you will see, specific requirements vary somewhat by state and region.

< portal.unesco.org/education/en >This is the website for the education branch of UNESCO, which is the abbreviation for the “United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.” It has extensive information and news about all forms of diversity in education, viewed from an inter national perspective. The challenges of teaching diverse classrooms, it seems, are not restricted to the United States, though as the new items on the website show, the challenges take different forms in different countries.

< www.edchange.org >< www.cec.sped.org >These two websites have numerous resources about diversity for teachers from a North American (USA and Canada) perspective. They are both useful for planning instruction. The first one—maintained by a group of educators and calling itself EdChange—focuses on culturally related forms of diversity, and the second one—by the Council for Exceptional Children—focuses on children with special educational needs.

Key terms

• Accountability in education
• Action research
• Assessment
• Diversity
• High-stakes testing
• Instructional technology
• Lifelong learning
• Professionalism
• Teacher research

References

Bash, L. (Ed.). (2005). Best practices in adult learning . Boston: Anker Publications.

Bredekamp, S.&Copple, C. (1997). Developmentally appropriate practice, Revised edition . Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Cochran-Smith, M. (2003). Assessing assessment in teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education , 54(3), 187-191.

Cochran-Smith, M.&Fries, K. (2005). Research teacher education in changing times: Politics and paradigms. In M. Cochran-Smith&K. Zeichner (Eds.), Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education , 69-110.