You Can't Teach What You Don't Know: Examining and Improving Teacher Preparation

Teachers have a major impact on the lives of children, however there is no general agreement about what constitutes a great teacher or how to prepare one. With more preparation programs being created each year, this is a crucial time for exploring how to best prepare teachers for the classroom. This thesis examines the research on teacher preparation in light of six different ways to define and measure effectiveness, concluding that research tends to emphasize teachers' attitudes and student cognition (achievement) instead of looking at teachers' behavior in the classroom or student motivation. It then uses this research to enumerate the best practices as suggested by the literature. The final section makes suggestions for further research and highlights ideas from psychology that could be useful in overcoming the challenge of providing every child a highly effective teacher.