Why Education Degrees Fall Flat
Being trained and being educated are two different things
Everywhere you look, there are reports that college degrees don’t prepare future educators for teaching. But it’s no surprise if you look at how the K12 educational system works.
Often these claims overlook the fact that being educated in something is different than being trained. Being educated generally means a person has a broad and well-developed system of knowledge that allows for greater cognitive capacity. Generally, when a person refers to someone as an “educated person,” they may be referring to the number of degrees the person holds, but more importantly, they are referring to the amount of knowledge the person has and their ability to use this knowledge.
A person can be trained and not knowledgeable. Inversely, a person can be highly knowledgeable and not trained.
When we think of the word “training” and how it’s used, it typically refers to a smaller, more specific set of knowledge that leads a person to behave in a certain way. You can train someone how to use a particular computer program or fix a type of machine. A person can be trained and not knowledgeable. Inversely, a person can be highly knowledgeable and not trained. Being trained means a person has the specific skills required for a certain environment. Most people are “trainable” and yet may not be trained. For example, if an employee questions the value or ethics of a training, they will not be “trainable.” This does not mean they are not educated. In fact, it might often be the case that they are very educated and this wealth of knowledge and cognitive ability has led them to question the training.
So, given this, do schools need highly educated teachers? 58 percent of K12 teachers have a postgraduate degree. And yet, how many of these teachers say that college didn’t prepare them for teaching? In 2014, a damning report came out by the National Council on Teacher Quality. Colleges were not preparing teachers for their jobs. As evidenced by teacher evaluations and student outcomes, they concluded that many college of education graduates were not “quality” teachers. But this alone is insufficient evidence to support the claim that colleges are failing. Student outcomes are dependent upon a variety of factors. Good teachers can make a difference, but that is assuming that the teacher is allowed to use their talents and skills in the classroom. Limits such as scripted lessons, highly regimented curriculum pacing, inadequate preparation time, incorrect student placement, and teaching out of their area of certification can dramatically impact teacher effectiveness.
The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Teacher evaluations are not very reliable measures of teacher quality. Outside of potential evaluator bias, depending upon how the evaluation is structured, a teacher could come out anywhere from “needs improvement” to “highly effective.” Often, student test scores are averaged into teacher evaluations. This could mean that a “highly qualified” teacher who moves to a low-scoring school could lose their status merely because the test scores at their school are lower. Evaluations can also be greatly impacted by policy initiatives that motivate administrators to focus on specific evidence over other teaching skills. Is the teacher following a certain reading program with fidelity, for example? Principals are evaluated based on how their teachers perform on specific tasks; therefore, the principal will be motivated to improve, for example, reading scores, over all other teacher behaviors that may lead to other beneficial outcomes for students.
Now, what if the college didn’t teach their education students how to teach a specific math program? Recently, news outlets reported that university education programs are not teaching the “science of reading”. Research pointed to evidence that teachers don’t understand how children learn to read. But much of what determines how students are taught, and especially what is in textbooks, is driven by state education policies. These are highly influenced by politics and the whims of legislators. Teachers may be fully aware of how to teach phonics yet be required to teach in a way that does not use this knowledge. Critics that claim that colleges insufficiently teach their students frequently focus on just one or two classes in education programs. Teachers, and more so, those with postgraduate degrees in education (remember — 58% of teachers), take a variety of courses that work in tandem to prepare them for teaching. One course on educational psychology may fill in the gaps of a course on mathematical pedagogy, for example. Colleges often attempt to provide a wide theoretical and informational foundation upon which students are expected to develop their own professional opinions regarding how to teach. To say that colleges are primarily responsible for poor reading scores is naïve at best.
Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
- John Dewey
Which brings us back to training — if educators are not teaching phonics because they don’t know how to follow a certain program, this is a training problem, not a knowledge program. If teachers are not capable of creating curriculum or lessons (which is a skill less utilized today than ever), this is a knowledge problem. (And if teachers cannot teach 40 students with no preparation time, this is an administrative problem.)
It is unrealistic for policymakers to expect colleges to train teachers how to use all the programs and technology schools require their employees to use. Programs, textbooks, technology, and even curriculum, change all the time. Colleges cannot adequately foresee what changes will occur, just as colleges cannot correctly predict what specific job skills private employers will want in manufacturing or any other field. This is because colleges are knowledge producers, not job trainers. The value of a college degree in education is that a graduate has a broad enough knowledge of educational theory and methodology to critically determine the best way to ensure a child learns. An understanding of psychology, cognitive science, sociology, child development, and content area specializations (math, social studies, languages, physical education, science) gives the student a broad understanding of what learning and teaching is.
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
- William Butler Yeats
Given this, teachers are far overqualified for the jobs they are required to do. Several generations ago, teachers were more likely asked to develop their own lessons and even curriculum. But as educational policy and systems have changed, teachers are more and more expected to follow specific programs and rely on technology to implement teaching. Subsequently, teachers need to be trained more rather than have broad knowledge and professional expertise. Whether this is a good thing is yet to be seen. But to simultaneously demand that teachers receive more college-level education and yet complain that teachers are not adequately trained is illogical. School systems and policymakers either need to lower educational requirements for teachers and lower expectations (even further), or give teachers more freedom to teach (with the appropriate accountability to match). One thing is certain, no matter what, if policy-makers continue on the path they are on, schools are going to need to do a lot more training.
