EduTrendsOnline

by Charles W. Bindig, Ed.D.

In the most recent installment of GWMagazine there is a print interview with Michael J. Feuer, Dean of the School of Education and Human Development. As with all print interviews, the questions and responses are exquisitely formulated, and should not be construed as transcripts of a conversation. The Dean speaks glowingly of the federal and state grants that the school has garnered, but also highlights the partnership with the D.C Public Schools in a new initiative, DC Edcore. Of particular interest is a response to a question, which might have been the seminal point in the entire article, and should raise numerous responses from all educators. The question the author of the article posed was “What kind of educators would you like Graduate School of Education and Human Development to produce?” Feuer’s response was very interesting and focused on two basic points, “Do we need Schools of Education to produce quality teachers and can we develop effective tools to measure teacher education”.

Feuer’s response is telling, in that he admits that the current trends toward measuring the effectiveness of schools of education are at best deficient. The larger point is that the training of teachers should have a balance across a spectrum triad of research, policy and practice that will produce teachers of quality. The Dean goes so far as to say that research should be influenced by practice, which gives a huge boost to the action research model that is pervasive at American Public University. It is this author’s belief that if classroom teachers were trained as action research practitioners, they would be empowered to solve many of their own instructional issues. If you carry this model a bit further, the need for child study teams and reading specialists would diminish if the average teacher was more skilled in developing their own research based interventions.

As a practitioner, weigh in on how effective your training as a teacher prepared you for the classroom?

References

Steinhardt, R. (2012, Spring). As Seen by the Dean. GWmagazine, 22, 20-34.

Dr. Bindig is a full time manager of educational outreach for American Public University System and an instructor for the School of Education. He holds an undergraduate degree from The College of New Jersey and a masters degree in Musicology from Rutgers University. Dr. Bindig received an Ed.D. from Nova Southeastern University with a dual concentration in Educational Leadership and Instructional Technology. He has 32 years of experience as a public school teacher, principal and assistant superintendent in the New Jersey public schools. Dr. Bindig was a past Director of the Fulbright Global and Specialist Scholar Programs administered by U.S. Department of State. In addition, he has taught for several online universities as well as serving as a dissertation advisor at Nova Southeastern University. His main focus in educational research is student achievement gains facilitated via technology.

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