PART III-TEACHER TRAINING Chapter I.—Introduction This report deals with undergraduate teacher training only. Research and graduate work in education are treated elsewhere. Since teacher preparation in the broader sense is directly or indirectly related to almost every major activity of the institutions, it has been necessary to limit the treatment of many aspects of institutional activity related to teacher training in order to avoid duplication with other sections of the survey report. For instance, the extent, nature, and arrangement of academic and technical subject matter, while a matter of utmost importance is of necessity treated in separate chapters of the survey report, and only the curricular problems which are the primary concern of the teacher-training units are here presented. Similarly, problems of general interest to the whole institution concerning the library, business office, registrar's office, and so on, are treated under appropriate sections of the survey report. Departments, divisions, schools, or colleges of education exist only as parts of the institutions in their entirety. Some familiarity, therefore, with the program of the land-grant institutions as reported in the survey report as a whole is desirable if the teachertraining program is to be understood in its wider aspects. The emphasis in land-grant colleges on the vocational objectives of education has led to considerable differences in most institutions between the organization and methods of work in general arts and science teacher-training units and those of the vocational teachertraining units. For this reason data were collected separately for the most commonly reported teacher-training departments and curricula, and a very substantial part of this report is written specifically on the problems of such units. This method of treatment is not to be construed, however, to mean that there is no fundamental unity of the objectives of teacher training as a whole, nor of the means undertaken to realize these objectives. The teacher of vocational agriculture or of home economics belongs to the same profession as the teacher of academic subjects. Relationship of Teacher Training in Land-grant Institutions to Public Education as a whole Teacher training in land-grant institutions can not be studied intelligently apart from consideration of the general programs of teacher training and of public education throughout the country as a whole. Workers in practically every field in professional education are trained in federally aided institutions. Twenty-five such institutions are State universities that maintain some of the largest schools and colleges of education in the United States. Even in many of the separated land-grant colleges, students receive training for teaching, supervision, or administrative work in nonvocational fields. It is necessary and desirable, therefore, to consider teacher preparation in land-grant colleges in its general setting in the much broader fields of public education and of teacher training in the Nation as a whole. In 1928 there were 7,808,978 persons in the United States of high-school age (15 to 18 years, inclusive). Of this group 4,313,939 were enrolled in public and private high schools, and 3,923,546, or about 50 per cent of the total population, 15 to 18 years of age, were enrolled in public high schools. Two hundred and three thousand, two hundred and sixty-one high-school pupils 14 years of age and over were enrolled in all-day federally aided vocational schools. In addition to this number, 655,195 students, including a large number of adults, were enrolled in evening, part-time, and day-unit courses in federally aided vocational schools. There is, of course, a substantial number of pupils engaged in vocational work in other than federally supported schools. One hundred forty thousand, five hundred and seventy-five, for instance, were enrolled in 1928 in nonfederally aided vocational schools and classes under the provisions of the State plan as approved by the Federal Board for Vocational Education. Of the total of 858,456 students of all ages enrolled in federally aided vocational schools, 144,901 were enrolled in agricultural schools or classes, 537,611 were in trade and industrial schools or classes, and 175,944 were enrolled in home economic classes.' Relation of Vocational and of General Teacher Training The number of teachers in public, high schools in 1928 was approximately 190,000, including perhaps 33,000 junior highschool teachers. The number of teachers of vocational courses in all types of federally aided vocational schools was 20,779. This does not include a large number of vocational teachers in nonfederally aided schools. The most important agencies through which these teachers, as well as other workers in professional education, receive their preparation are the public and private institutions of higher learning, approximately 1,200 in number. Most of these institutions train teachers, or afford academic, technical, or other education which constitutes part of the equipment of teachers. The State-supported 1 Twelfth Annual Report of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, 1928. institutions that train teachers include the land-grant colleges, the separated State universities, women's colleges, and teachers colleges, and normal schools. In-service training as distinguished from preservice training, constitutes a very important aspect of the whole teacher-training program. It has been estimated roughly that one teacher in four each year attends summer school. The extensive programs of State, county, and city supervisory systems, including the supervisory work of State boards of vocational education, are wellknown and important phases of teacher training in service. The total number of federally aided institutions and agencies that trained vocational teachers in 1928 was 146. Seventy-one gave training in agricultural education, 83 in trade and industrial education, and 93 in home economics education. Chief among these federally subsidized institutions that train vocational teachers are the land-grant institutions. Definition and Scope of the Professional Preparation of Teachers The professional preparation of teachers, in the broader meaning of the term, includes the provision of opportunities for properly qualified individuals to acquire, by competently directed learning, the requisite body of knowledge, the professional attitudes, the teaching skills, and the desire for future growth demanded by the specific requirements of the teaching positions to be filled. For convenience in expression, the term "teachers" is here used to include all workers in the field of professional education, such as administrators, supervisors, and research workers in education. Levels on Which Teacher Training is Conducted A general view of teacher preparation, as at present conducted, discloses a very great variety of practices and great differences in the quality and quantity of work done. Chief among the reasons for such diversity is decentralization of educational activities. The type of teacher for which the many local school systems are willing to pay greatly influences their programs of teacher training. The whole field of education is in a state of rapid change, and the diffusion of knowledge concerning educational advancement is slow and uncertain among practitioners in the field. The scientific study of education and of teacher training is a recent development; and local freedom to try new ideas, and to experiment in different directions is exercised in an endless variety of ways. For these and other reasons a description of teacher preparation at the present time is a description of current stages in the slow process of educational evolution. A general view of the fields of teacher preparation for public schools may be attained in one way by conceiving of the many diverse activities encountered as being conducted upon a number of different levels. Such levels may be defined in quantitative terms. The higher levels of teacher preparation may be designated as the professional education of teachers, supervisors, administrators, and research workers, commonly found in positions in colleges, universities, large high schools, and progressive public-school systems. The preparation of teachers on intermediate levels, which at the present time is the most common form of teacher preparation for high schools and the most progressive elementary schools, may be termed "semiprofessional teacher training." At least two years of work above secondary school graduation may well designate the minimum for this intermediate level of teacher preparation; actually four years of work constitutes a minimum for most teachers in accredited high schools. The very lowest levels of teacher preparation, which in effect are often preparatory only to actual teacher training, are found in 1, 2, or 3 year curricula of collegiate grade, in county normals, and in teachertraining high schools. In this section of the land-grant college report primary consideration will be given semiprofessional training, that is, undergraduate preparation of teachers on intermediate levels. Emphasis, however, will be upon the elements in such training that may be advanced above the intermediate, semiprofessional level to the higher level of professional education of teachers. Content of Training A second aspect of teacher preparation may be defined by consideration of the subject matter and activity content of such preparation. Roughly, six-sevenths of the training of prospective highschool teachers is in liberal and in vocational or technical work, and about one-seventh in subjects in education. The proportion of required work in professional education for elementary school teaching is somewhat greater. The primary subject-matter emphasis in vocational teacher training is on the acquisition of information in technical or vocational fields. In arts and science teacher training, the emphasis is on arts and science subjects. Both forms of teacher training are found in land-grant institutions. The definition set up of the professional education of teachers does not admit, however, of the consideration of teacher preparation as a merely incidental function of a liberal arts education, nor of a technical or vocational education directed to occupations other than teaching. The training or professional education of teachers, not of subject-matter specialists, is the primary concern. It is believed that the lines of genuine progress in teacher preparation point toward the professionalization of teaching and of teacher training. Chapter II.-Brief Historical Account of Teacher Training The first State university to make definite provision for teacher training was the University of Indiana in 1853. It was not until 1873, that the University of Iowa established the first permanent department of education, then called a "chair of didactics." The University of Michigan established a permanent chair in 1879. The first land-grant institution reporting a department primarily engaged in teacher training was Cornell University, which offered eight courses in 1886-87. These eight courses the following year were combined into three. It is interesting to compare these courses in education of more than 40 years ago with those of to-day. The courses were established after "careful study of the work done in institutions similar to our own, viz, in the universities of Michigan and Iowa, in the University of Edinburgh, and in the teachers' syndicate of Cambridge University." 2 Course 1 treated of the Science of Education, "as deduced from the intellectual, physical, and moral nature of man." Course 2 was primarily a "seminary" devoted to study in the university library, but a portion of the time was given to the observation of the actual methods and operation of different schools. The provision of additional practice facilities was a matter of concern to the single instructor in charge of the work of the department. Course 3 traced the history of education, including that of oriental nations and of Greece. The growth of teacher-training in land-grant institutions was rapid after 1904. Departments of general education, vocational education, agricultural education, home economics education, and industrial education were established and grew steadily in size after this date. Shortly after the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act in 1917, the growth in vocational teacher-training departments was especially rapid. Of much significance in the professional education of teachers was the establishment of schools, colleges, and major divisions of education in land-grant institutions indicated in the following table: * Annual report of the President of Cornell University for the academic year, 1888–89. |