A Study On American Children-Learning-Outcomes-Oriented Teach Er Education Programs

The value orientation of teacher education programs (TEPs) is crucial to the design, implementation and evaluation of TEPs, different value orientations shed distinct light on the reform of TEPs. During the late of1990s, the value orientation of American TEPs, originally emphasizing the knowledge, technical or reflective nature, came to place priority on children's learning outcomes. As a result, the attention initially revolving exclusively around prospective teachers is now focusing on children and children's learning and development becomes the core pursuit of TEPs. Since the policy of reform and opening up, TEPs in China have been subjected to a series of adjustments and significant achievements have been made. In2011,(Chinese) Ministry of Education issued Standards for Teacher Education Programs (Trial Implementation) which provides policy foundations for deepening the reform of TEPs. Under such a background, exploring American children-learning-outcomes-oriented curriculum outlook and its implications for reforming TEPs is of great significance to the innovation of TEPs of our country.By means of documentary research method and in compliance of research purposes, this dissertation, through a variety of means, collected articles, monographs, theses, dissertations, reports, bills and remarks which are directly or indirectly relevant to American TEPs study. The time range of those literature is from the early19th century which marks the dawn of American Teacher Education to the beginning of the21st century. After the collection, the work of sorting and analyzing literature was carried out, based on which the main framework and viewpoints of the dissertation surfaced.This dissertation first traces the historical revolution of American TEPs'value orientations, reveals the factors that influence those orientations, analyzes the connotation, characteristics and mutual relationship of different value orientations, and especially investigates the emergence background of children-learning-outcomes orientation (CLOO). Then, it discuses theoretical foundations of CLOO from the perspectives of multiple intelligences theory, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) theory and higher education quality theory respectively. After this, connotations of CLOO are presented which is followed by the elaboration of three requirements demanded by CLOO on TEPs, viz., the construction of TEPs based on children's learning and development, the reinforcement of children's roles in the implementation of TEPs and the judgment of the quality of TEPs through children's learning outcomes.Taking TEPs from a couple of well-known American teacher training institutions as examples, this dissertation proceeds to dissect the impact of CLOO on the goals, structures, implementations and evaluations of American TEPs in an all-round and well-argued way. With respect to curriculum goals, TEPs of CLOO aim to make prospective teachers understand and love every child, possess the knowledge and abilities of promoting children's learning outcomes, and master the children-learning-outcomes-directed reflection. In terms of curriculum structures, TEPs are composed of theoretical coursework and field experiences. Theoretical coursework includes curriculum on children and that on subject teaching; field experiences are tightly interwoven with university-based coursework. In order to stress the role played by children and the interaction between prospective teachers and children, curriculum implementation in TEPs favors following methods:observing and recording children's words and behavior, conducting child case studies, making teaching portfolios which contain children work samples, and designing curriculum or teaching units. With regard to curriculum evaluation, children's learning outcomes are chief indices. In the practice, the quality of TEPs is evaluated by dint of children's scores in standardized tests or children-learning-outcomes-directed teaching performance of prospective teachers.Next, the dissertation reviews American CLOO and its influences on TEPs. It then moves to expose problems of TEPs of our country from the perspective of value orientation. Based on the analysis of those problems, the dissertation finally puts forward three suggestions for the innovation of our TEPs, they are:identifying the promotion of children's development as TEPs' value orientation. Aligning curriculum goals and structures with the children-development orientation, and guaranteeing the realization of children-development orientation through curriculum implementation and evaluation.