In my graduate course, Current Issues in Teacher Education, I (Clare) gave the students lots of choice for their final assignment. Said Sidani took an incredibly interesting approach – he created a series of videos. I was so impressed I asked him if I could post them on this blog. Some are specific to Ontario but the first one, perceptions of teacher education, was applicability beyond our context.

             For my culminating project, I wanted to examine a
few topics that stood out to me throughout our course. As a recent graduate from a teacher education program and a beginning teacher, I wanted to focus on themes that resonated with me and that I wanted to learn more about. Instead of writing an academic paper, I decided to use a video series to present my findings.

This video series is divided into 4 parts that focus on: 1) Perceptions of Teacher Education, 2) Occasional Teaching, 3) Hiring Regulations, & 4) Teacher Induction. Each video consists of a narrated Prezi that presents relevant literature related to the topic. I draw on course readings, research in the field, and personal experience.

My intended audience is teacher candidates, teacher educators, professors, students, and anyone interested in the teaching profession. Since there is a large number of stakeholders in education, I believe that almost any viewer will be able to take something away from watching. My goal is not to deter anyone from joining the teaching profession, but rather to inform them of some of the issues that exist and the work that needs to be done.

The position I present is that teacher education is in need of reform. Instead of deregulating teaching, we must focus our efforts on improving people’s perceptions of teacher education programs. Also, occasional teaching and hiring regulations in Ontario are part of a broken system. They discourage new people from entering the profession which in turn impacts the quality of education that students receive. Finally, teacher induction programs that promote mentorship are essential to a beginning teacher’s journey. However, when they are delivered through the use of a transmission model instead of a transformative model, they are not nearly as effective.

The videos are available on YouTube and can be accessed via these links. For the best viewing experience, the video quality should be set to 480p (this is usually automatic). Thanks for watching.

1) Perceptions of Teacher Education:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWMtBGAoeZQ

2) Occasional Teaching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45caUBGrqRw

3) Hiring Regulations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unzh1QiWnVg

4) Teacher Induction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNxXqZSHGm8

This link will play all four videos in sequential order:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8SgF7ohrls&list=PLdOXV0MCo16GcNDd9DSy4DIuw_GgMAYWi