News in the area of teacher formation

In general, teacher educational colleges afford students with a solid formation concerning theoretical aspects of the knowledge of a subject; though other components of the course like classroom management matters –how student teachers deal with the daily teaching practice- are sometimes disregarded.
In my experience as a teacher, I must admit that I have not received enough training to be prepared to handle or even, foresee problematic situations in the classroom. The mismatch between what I have been told and what I encountered at school promoted a clear divide between theory and practice.
I vividly remember the good old days at college. With practices that flowed smoothly mainly because the group of fifth graders assigned to me were accustomed to student-teachers converging from colleges all over downtown. Those children extraordinarily contributed to make my stay great and nice to recall.
But after graduating, the ideals of a dream class vanished abruptly. Once I entered the true school world, difficulties arose. Poor classroom management and inadequate strategies to handle a group of standard scholars were my weak points. And learning through hard experience was what finally afforded me knowledge.
Yet, pioneer concern on high quality education in teacher formation and exploration of new methods are gaining field in the educational scene. The findings of critical incidents research work -analysis of negative events and further applications- propose solutions and prevent problems in classroom contexts.
Fernández and Fernandez (1994, cited in Fernández González, J., Elórtegui Escartín, N. and Medina Pérez, M., 2003) highlighted the benefits of the adoption of this method since it allows the analysis of problematic situations in the classroom, within a controlled and secure atmosphere, like in a laboratory.
Issues like situation-context, incident version, factors, causes and possible solutions were evaluated. The study report aimed to foster reflection upon teaching practices, classroom incidents and awareness of the potential advantages that the application of this technique could bring about in the area of education.
Professional growth is another important issue to be considered. I agree that teachers need to learn more so as to sharpen their skills and improve their performance. Learning is a never ending process, thus, I have committed myself to get a university degree. I believe that this will favor my teaching practice greatly.
Though even nowadays, there seems to be a general consensus to restrain teaching to the traditional idea that to teach is only necessary to know the subject well (Gil, 1991, Torre, 1997, cited Fernandez Gonzalez et al, 2003). More often, the assumption that once a novel teacher graduates learning is over remains.
However, some authors like Tejada (2000, cited in Fernandez Gonzalez et al, 2003) point out the relevance of creating awareness of the demand of a new profile of teachers. The new requirements will involve: observation skills, self-reflection and being able to make suitable rapid decisions when in trouble.
All this can be safely achieved through effective training; today’s classroom reality suggests that teachers should be equipped with more than formal knowledge of a subject. At this respect, teachers –from all areas, gender and age- should give more attention to professional integrative development.
In conclusion, I welcome the possibility of implementing the critical incident technique in the formation of novel teachers, even in the updating of the old ones. Its potential benefits would reach the whole scholar community –teachers, students, parents, helping to bridge gaps and to achieve better results in the teaching-learning process.

Reference
Fernández González, J., Elórtegui Escartín, N., Medina Pérez, M. (2003) Los incidentes críticos en la formación y perfeccionamiento del Profesorado de Secundaria en Ciencias de la Naturaleza. Revista Universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17(1), 101-112. Universidad de Zaragoza: Zaragoza, España. Retrieved August 22, 2009, from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/index.php?id=54