Research On Competency-Based Teacher Education Movement In America

Competency-Based Teacher Education, also named as Performance-Based Teacher Education, had been the most outstanding reform idea of American teacher education in the 1960s and 1970s. This paradigm of teacher education emphasizes that the students from teachers college should acquire some specific competences after a certain period of training, such as Cognitive, Performance, Consequence, Affective and Exploratory. CBTE developed vigorously during the 1970s for it being regarded as an effective system to cultivate teachers' specific competenees. As Humanism sprung up in 1980s, Competency-Based Teacher Education Movement declined. However, some idea of CBTE is still emphasized and on advocating nowadays.By the method of historical documents, comparison, and case study, this dissertation explores the history of CBTE in the following aspects: the four development phrases of Competency-Based Teacher Education, its rationale, its background, the concept and the characteristics, and implemental system. Then the influences and controversies of CBTE are investigated. In this way, the author hopes that the misunderstandings of CBTE can be clarified. At the last part, the author compares CBTE with some other paradigms of teacher education, such as Action Research Teacher Education, Performance-Based Teacher Education, Reflective Teacher Education and School-Based Teacher Education. On the basis of analyzing and criticizing, the author wants to explore the rational elements and intrinsic value of CBTE, and hopes that this dissertation can bring some enlightenment to the teacher education reform in China.