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Lit says professional ed. programs must integrate developmental science

Educator prep. programs must be strengthened so that educators are equipped to address children's development needs, according to Ira Lit  in a new paper commissioned by NCATE.

Assoc. Prof. (Teaching) Ira Lit
Assoc. Prof. (Teaching) Ira Lit

By Amy Yuen

Professional education programs must be strengthened so that educators are equipped to address children's development needs, according to Associate Professor (Teaching) Ira Lit, who co-authored a new paper commissioned by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).

"Teachers need not—indeed, cannot—know everything that specialists do in all the fields of intellectual and professional activity relevant to teaching," write Lit and co-author John Snyder, dean of the Bank Street College of Education. "Still, in the same way that effective teachers must have a solid grounding in the relevant academic disciplines in which they instruct in order to be successful, they must also thoroughly understand the field of child and adolescent development as it pertains to the teaching profession, and they must expertly apply that understanding to the ever-changing and particularistic world of students in classrooms, schools, and communities."

In the paper, the co-authors focus on how professional education programs can help educators acquire and apply knowledge about child and adolescent development. They discuss how such programs can be designed to help educators create successful classroom and school environments, offer examples from actual educator preparation programs, and provide policy recommendations for such programs and accrediting bodies.

Principles and Exemplars for Integrating Developmental Sciences Knowledge into Educator Preparation, is one of two papers produced by a national panel of experts convened by NCATE with the support of the Foundation for Child Development. The panelists, including Stanford Education Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, also released the new report, The Road Less Traveled: How the Developmental Sciences Can Prepare Educators to Improve Student Achievement.

Visit NCATE for the complete paper, as well as the panel report.

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