An Integrative Model of Teacher Education: Educating Teaching Knowledge and Social, Cognitive and Affective Skills
Teacher quality explains more variance in student outcomes than any other school-based factor. An effective teaching corps is vital in order to improve educational outcomes, but effective teaching is complex. Effective teachers adaptively regulate the classroom environment, promoting safe, organized learning contexts that promote student engagement and are sensitive to the academic, social and emotional needs of students. Research has illuminated teaching behaviors that optimize student engagement and learning, but little theoretical or empirical work has explicated the antecedents that allow for these behaviors to emerge. Without identifying and then educating these antecedents, teachers can learn about effective practices without being able to enact them. In this review, core antecedent skills involved in teaching are identified, operationalized and disaggregated from teaching knowledge and from the teaching behaviors that are recognized as effective forms of practice. A novel developmental model for teacher education that marries the cultivation of knowledge with skills is proposed.