Does Practice Make Perfect? The Curricular Give and Take of One Teacher Education Program’s Re-design

ABSTRACT As teacher preparation programs across the country evolve in response to criticism, declining enrollment, and increasing competition, research is needed to guide and inform their evolution. In response, faculty at one teacher preparation program embarked upon a two-year journey to transform a program to make it more conceptually coherent as well as convenient and affordable. Upon completion, the researchers employed a mixed methods design involving valid and reliable performance assessments, surveys, and interviews to investigate the impact of the re-design on teacher candidate performance and perceptions of their preparation. Results suggested that the changes led to some improvements in candidate performance, but that these improvements may have come at the expense of other knowledge and skills. Despite prioritizing a practice-based teacher education, results indicated that the re-designed program did not provide completers with adequate opportunity to practice skills across the entire program, and as a result, left completers of the re-designed program less confident in their degree of preparation than their peers who completed the original program. The study shares a number of lessons learned that other teacher preparation programs should consider before embarking upon programmatic re-design.