Changing Traditions: Supervision, Co-Teaching, and Lessons Learned in a Professional Development School Partnership

Abstract

Considering how long societies have been educating their youth, the history of teacher education is relatively brief. The first efforts to provide systematic education for teachers with some kind of practical experience occurred in Rheims, France, in the late 17th century when Jean Baptiste De La Salle opened the first normal school (Guyton & McIntyre, 1990). In the middle of the 19th century when normal schools were first established in the United States, student teaching as well as early field experiences became available for those preparing to be elementary teachers. Secondary teachers generally were not provided the opportunity for practical experience but were given only academic preparation for teaching. For nearly 100 years as normal schools expanded throughout the country, the use of practical experience to prepare teachers expanded.